The Evangelist: Volume 2 (New Series)

ADAM was once upright; God made him so He listened to the voice of Satan, disobeyed God, and lost his uprightness. What did he do then? He became an inventor. He was obedient before, and gave names to every living creature which God brought to him, and whatsoever Adam called them that was the name thereof. But when he sinned, and God called, saying, Adam, where art thou? he hid behind the trees of the garden; why? because he was not upright. Why do people try to get away from the truth faithfully spoken now? Why do they fear death, hell, and judgment? Because they are not upright? They may be upright before their fellow-men, but are not so before God; for it is written, “Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.” (Habakkuk 2:4.)

What did Adam do when he lost his uprightness through sin? He began to invent. “God made man upright, but he hath found out many inventions.” (Ecclesiastes 7:29.) What was the first invention? A religious invention. “They sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons to cover the nakedness that sin had discovered to them.” (Genesis 3.) The second was also a religious invention: “Cain brought also of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.” (Gen. 4:3.) After this, we find civil inventions building of cities, working in metals handling musical instruments, &c.; and so, from that day to this, man, as a fallen creature, becalm he is not upright, has been an inventor, and lifted up against God, instead of being bowed down before God, and taking the place of a self-condemned sinner, and receiving salvation through Christ as God’s free gift.

But how can man be just with God? The answer is, not by inventing, or doing, but “the just shall live by his faith.” There is life and salvation only through the death and resurrection of the Son of God, and that to everyone that believeth. It is written in God’s word, that “by Christ all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.” (Acts 13:39.) When a man knows that God has forgiven his sins, justify him by the blood of Christ, and bids him in at peace, nay, to rejoice before Him, then it that his soul is upright before God, he will be able to walk godly, soberly, and righteously, in this present world, and love Christ’s appearing.

Whosoever.

JOHN 3:16.

AN old man was walking through a churchyard, and came to a tombstone with this verse engraven on it, “For God so loved the, world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The old man read, and, read it through and through, puzzling over the word “whosoever.” He supposed it meant something or somebody, but could not comprehend it. At last a little boy comes by, so he hails the boy, and finding he can read, gets him to read the verse to him. The boy reads it, but even then, he does not understand; so he asks the boy. “Why, it means whosoever.” “Well, what does that mean―whosoever? I don’t know, can’t ye tell me?” says the old man. “Yes, to be sure I can; it means whosoever; it means, you, if you like, or anybody.” Wherewith the light broke in upon the old man’s mind, and by the grace of God he became a converted man.

My dear reader, there are two “whosoevers” in Scripture; in which are YOU?

One says, “Whosoever believeth on Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life;” the other solemnly says, “Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

Believe me, however many, classes and distinctions man may make, God sees but two whether rich or poor, that makes no difference in His eyes; His word plainly declares there are two, and only two, converted or unconverted, saints or sinners, “dead in trespasses and sins,” or those that “have passed from death unto life;” “those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Oh, dear reader, I want you to make this a personal matter with your soul. I speak plainly, heaven or hell is before you; I warn you, escape for your life, while Jesus still tarries, lest He come suddenly, and find you still unwashed in His blood, unforgiven: “When once the Master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door,” then, O then it will be too late. “Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.” Today is God’s word, tomorrow is Satan’s. Listen to that gracious invitation of our Lord’s, “Come unto me;” simply take God at His word, set to your seal that God is true and when you have found rest and peace for you poor sin burdened soul, in the finished work of Christ, as “the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world,” then, and not till then, will you be a child of God. Then, heaven and all its glories will be open to you; and, accepted it Christ, you will then know the meaning of that “peace which passeth all understanding,” a peace that the world cannot give nor take away, because Christ is your peace, the Lamb slain, the sinner’s Substitute; and, inasmuch as His wort is a finished, perfected work, His blood once shed, is shed forever,―the basis of your peace remains unalterably the same. Your thoughts and feelings may change about the blood having met your guilt, but the fact of your being His child remains ever the same. Your name once written in the Lamb’s book will never be effaced. Christ has the keys of death and, hell; He gives you everlasting life. And what does everlasting mean? why it means forever; and surely it would not be everlasting if there were a possibility of its being taken from you.

Entering into this, dear reader, you will seek when converted, to live for Christ, to bring forth fruit to Him; not to gain eternal life, but (oh, how different!) eternal life known and possessed will be your starting post, and you will seek to show your love to that precious Master who loved you, and gave Himself for you.

What Is Faith?

OFTEN is one asked by an inquiring soul, ― “How do I know I have the right sort of faith?” I will just narrate a short incident to illustrate my point. A large fire broke out in a street in a city. Speedily were the fire engines mind ladders at work, and it was supposed that all had been rescued from the flames. The father of the family discovered that one―a boy of twelve―was still missing, and in breathless suspense he hurried to and fro endeavoring vainly to find him. All at once his eye rested on an object or the uppermost story apparently enveloped it flames. To get at the child was impossible. Every moment increased his danger. The roaring and crackling of the flames, the falling bricks almost made the father despair. If he shouted would the child hear or understand? In an agony of soul, the father, with stentorian voice shouts to the boy to jump, and he will catch him in his arms; not to fear―he will save him. The little fellow recognizes his parent’s voice though the denseness of the crowd collected it the street prevented his seeing his father’s face.

Full well he knows that loving father had never broken his promise, and surely now, in this time of imminent peril, he will not—he cannot. Such are the exercises of this little fellow’s heart, as he takes one tremendous leap into his father’s arms. A leap in the dark it was, but simple trust in his father’s word saved him: had he hesitated, he would infallibly have been swallowed up alive by the raging flames.

Oh! dear unconverted reader, I implore of you, be warned in time! Your situation, though you may not think it, is every bit as perilous as the child’s of whom you have been reading. Satan has you tight in his grasp, and will drag you down to that bottomless pit, “where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” “Now is the day of salvation.” Tomorrow may never come to you. Oh, flee! escape for your life! Take one look at Jesus―one simple, child-like, confiding gaze at Him―He is both willing and able to save you―and you are saved, saved eternally; ―no longer a child of wrath, under Satan’s power: and you shall know the full force of that word, in its practical application to your own soul, “Look unto me, and be ye saved.”

“And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.” “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” And why? Did you ever think why? dear reader. “That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

On the Fruit of the Spirit.

Love.

WHEREVER there is union to Christ, there is love. This is the essential principle. Whatever else there be, if there be not love, it profits nothing, it proves nothing. Love to God and our neighbor is the essence of piety. It is the body, the basis, the staple element; and if the great commandment and the nest greatest be absent, whatever else there be, there is not Christianity.

Have you got it? To Christ’s question, “Lovest thou me?” is it your answer, “Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee.” Then, if you love Jesus, you will love Him whose express image Jesus is. To God in Christ your soul will be attached in gratitude submission, and complacency. You will not wish Him less holy, less righteous, less true. Awed by His glorious majesty, and melted by His ineffable mercy, all that is dust and ashes in you will be humbled, and all that is filial will be inflamed. If nothingness and sin bid you be silent, the sight of your Saviour gone back to the bosom of His God and your God, will awakes a cry of relenting tenderness, and adoring astonishment. Boldest when you are most debased. From the foot of the Cross, the view of a reconciled God elicits the cry, Abba, Father; and you love Him who first loved you: and feeling it sweet to be accepted of God on any ground, feel that to be accepted in His own well-beloved Son is sweet indeed.

Joy.

The essence of love is attachment. Joy is the happiness of love It is love exulting. It is love aware of its own felicity, and rioting in riches which it has no fear of exhausting. It is love taking a look at its treasure, and surrendering itself to bliss without foreboding evil. God’s promises appearing so strong, so solid, so substantial― more so than the rock and the everlasting hills. And his perfections―what shall I say of them? When I think of one. I wish to dwell upon it forever; but another and another, equally glorious, claims a share of admiration. And when I begin to praise, I wish never to cease, but to find it the commencement of that song that will never end. Let who will be rich, or admired, or prosperous; let me be satisfied with heavenly things; and let my consolations arise from the knowledge that there is such a God as Jehovah, such a Saviour as Jesus, and that they are unchangeable.

Peace.

If joy be love exulting, peace is love reposing. It is love on the green pastures. It is love beside the still waters. It is that great calm that comes over the conscience when it sees the atonement sufficient, and the Saviour willing. It is unclouded azure in a lake of glass. It is the soul which Christ has pacified, spread out in serenity and simple faith, and the Lord God merciful and gracious smiling over it.

Long-suffering.

This is love enduring. If the trial come direct from God, it is enough. It is correction. It is His heavenly Father’s hand; and with Luther the disciple cries, “Strike, Lord, strike; but oh! do not forsake me!” If the trial come from Christian brethren, if it be seven-fold seventy times repeated, love to Jesus demands forgiveness. If it come from worldly men, it is the occasion for that magnanimity which recompenses evil with good, and in every case it is an opportunity for following a Saviour who was made perfect through suffering. That Saviour never loved the Father more intensely than when His Father’s face was hid, and when the bitter cup proclaimed His justice terrible, and His truth severe. One apostle denied Him, and all the disciples forsook Him; but Jesus prayed for Peter, whilst Peter was cursing; and His love followed the rest even when they were running away. Jerusalem killed him; but, in foresight of the guilty deed, it was over Jerusalem that Jesus wept. And when the deed wan done, in publishing pardon and the peace of God, it was at Jerusalem that evangelists were directed to begin.

Gentleness, or Affectionateness.

This is love in society. It is love holding intercourse with those around it. It is that cordiality of aspect, and that soul of speech which assures us, that kind and earnest hearts may still be met with here below. It is that quiet influence which, like the scented flame of an alabaster lamp, fills many a house with light, and warmth, and fragrance.

It is the carpet soft and deep, which, whilst it diffuses a look of comfort, deadens many a creaking sound. It is the curtain which, from many a beloved form, wards off the summer’s glow and the winter’s wind. It is the pillow on which sickness lays its head, and forgets half its misery, and to which death comes in a balmier dream.

It is considerateness. It is tenderness of feeling. It is warmth of affection. It is promptitude of sympathy. It is love in all its delicacy. It is every melting thing, including in that matchless grace, The gentleness of Christ. (2 Cor. 10:1.)

Goodness, of Beneficence.

Love in action. Love with its hand to the plough. Love with the burden on its back. Love carrying medicine to the sick, and food to the famishing. Love reading the Bible to the blind, and explaining the gospel to the poor and ignorant. Love at the Sunday school. Love at the ragged school. Love at the hovel door. Love in the missionary ship. Love in writing a letter of comfort, of exhortation, instruction, or reproof. But whatever task it undertakes, it is still the same—love following His footsteps, who went about doing good.

Faith.

Whether it mean trust in God, or fidelity to principle and duty, faith is love in the battle field. It is constantly following hard after God, when the world drags downward, and the flesh cries, Halt. It is zeal holding fast sound words, when fervor is costly, and sound words are obnoxious. It is firmness marching through fire and through water, to the post where duty calls and the captain waits.

It is Elijah before Ahab. It is Stephen before the Sanhedrim. It is Luther at Worms. It is the martyr in the flames. It is Jesus in the desert. It is Jesus in Gethsemane. It is Jesus on the Cross. And it is whosoever pursuing the path, or finishing the work which God has given him to do, and, like the great Forerunner does not fear to die.

Meekness.

Meekness is love at school. Love at the Saviour’s school. It is Christian lowlihood. It is the disciple learning to fear, and distrust, and abhor himself. It is the disciple practicing the sweet but self-emptying lesson of putting on the Lord Jesus, and finding all his righteousness in the Righteous One. It is the disciple learning the defects of his own character, and taking hints from hostile as well as friendly monitors. It is the disciple praying and watching for the improvement of his talents, the mellowing of his temper, and the amelioration of his character. It is the loving Christian at the Saviour’s feet learning of Him who is meek and lowly, and finding rest for his own soul.

Temperance.

Love taking exercise. Love enduring hardness. Love striving for the mastery in all things and bringing the body under. It is superiority to sensual delights, and it is the power of applying resolutely to irksome duties for the Master’s sake. It is self-denial and self-control, fearful lest it should subside to gross carnality, or waste away into shadowy hectic sentiment, Temperance is love alert and timorously active―sometimes rising before day for prayer; sometimes spending that day on tasks which daintiness or laziness declines. It is love with girt loins, and dusty feet, and blistered hands. It is love with the empty scrip, but the glowing cheek. Love subsisting on pulse and water, but grown so healthful, that it beareth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

Familiar Letters from a Father to His Children, On "The Times of the Gentiles."

No. 4.

MY DEAR CHILDREN. — I promised you that this letter should contain an account of Babylon, about which so much is said in Scripture, and so much written in profane history. There can be no reasonable doubt that it was the site of the empire of Nimrod the mighty hunter (Genesis 10:10), and the very place where man, in his pride, built the tower of Babel, to make himself a name, and to escape that scattering which eventually became a motel necessity by the judgment of God in the confusion of tongues (Gen. 11:1-9). We hear afterward of Amraphel, king of Shinar (Babylon), attacking Sodom, and of “a goodly Babylonish garment” (Joshua 7:21), by which passages we learn that it must have been still a kingdom, otherwise it is lost sight of until after the time of Solomon, and then, when he Assyrian monarchs― whose metropolis was Nineveh― began to make inroads upon Palestine Chaldea, with its capital, was clearly a province If the Assyrian empire. But as these attacks certainly did not begin sooner than 900 years before Christ, we have a gap from Genesis of more than a thousand years to fill up. But the scanty fragments of profane history agree in giving 2234 years before Christ as the date of the original Chaldean kingdom, of which Amraphel, king of Shinar (about 1918 B.C.), was one of the monarchs. This monarchy fell before the Assyrian, which rose into supremacy within the limits of the 13th century before Christ. From this time, until the rise of Nebuchadnezzar’s father, Babylon was ruled by the Assyrians as a province of the empire, although with oft-repeated and sometimes successful attempts at independence, until, at the fall of Nineveh by the Median revolt, Babylon about 606 B.C., or rather sooner, became the seat of empire in the East. You should recollect that the Hebrew Bible gives for the flood 2348 years before Christ, but the Septuagint, or Greek translation carries it back to 3155 B.C. We have now done with dates for the present, and I must tell you about the city itself.

First, ―Scripture repeatedly hints as to its immense size, as in Jeremiah 51:31, and all history agrees. Beginning with its outside dimensions, every ancient writer considers it was a perfect square, whilst they differ as to the length of its tides. Herodotus, the most ancient historian, and who appears to have been there, makes the sides fifteen miles each way, whilst by others they are reduced down to eleven. Their height, according to Herodotus, was 373ft. 4in., or 13ft. 4in. higher than St. Paul’s cathedral, and their width somewhere about 80 feet. Supposing we consider the area to be 120 square miles, what a vast extent! Six hundred and forty acres is a square mile, and this makes two good-sized farms in England. These walls were built out of the excavations of a broad and deep moat which surrounded them, to which moat the river Euphrates, which runs in a north and south direction through the extent of the city, supplied the water, and would be, as to their size, absolutely fabulous, if we had western Europe only before our thoughts. But we have to consider, not only the genius of the East, which, from the time of the tower of Babel, has delighted in vast structures, but also, first, that the bricks were made and dried at the very spot, requiring no great art in their manufacture, and that there was a water communication for bringing the bitumen, or fluid pitch, which served for mortar, from the place where it came. Secondly, there was an unlimited amount of labor in the captives, whose lives otherwise were of no value to their conquerors, and who, most likely, had no wages, but only food. We are told, in the annals of the great Sennacherib, found at Nineveh, that when he undertook the repairs of that city, he collected his prisoners into four bodies, assigning 360,000 men for the repair of the great palace, and employing women almost to the same amount in restoring the other buildings. Thirdly, the Scripture is very explicit about these eastern cities, that they were “great, and walled up to heaven.” It is said in Jeremiah 51:53, “Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength;” and again, “The broad wall of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire.” In the apocryphal book of Judith useful for its historical details, Ecbatana, the Median capital, is described as having walls 70 cubits high, and 50 broad, with towers upon the gates 100 cubits high, and the breadth of the foundation 60 cubits, the gates themselves being 70 cubits. A cubit is about 18 inches. Of course, then, Babylon being “the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency,” “the golden city,” the size of her walls need not be rejected, though they contained nearly twice the cubic extent of the great wall of China, or more materials, as has been affirmed, than in all the buildings of the British empire. These walls had on each of the four sides twenty-five brazen gates, for which, very likely, the brazen vessels of the temple of Jerusalem were employed (Jeremiah 52:17-23), and were surmounted at intervals by high towers. When these walls met the bank of the river, which flowed through the city, and which were scarped and bricked, they were continued along them at a lower height and interrupted only by the stairs for the streets which led down to the water side. These streets opening to the river had also brazen gates, which were closed at night. It was the omission to dose these river-side gates which enabled the soldiers of Cyrus to climb up into the city, whet: they had marched into the drained river’s bed. The streets of the city were all laid out in parallel lines, terminating at each of the twenty-five wall gates, and therefore crossing one another at right angles.

Besides the boat traffic between the two banks of the Euphrates, they were connected by a bridge in the center of the city. For the foundation of the piers, and for the general security of the banks, a former queen had formed a vast reservoir, or lake, into which she had drained the river. So much for the great framework, as it were, of this vast capital. The walls, which, according to Herodotus, were wide enough to drive two four-horse chariots abreast, and in parts to turn them, were probably the great promenades, where crowds took the air every day. Looked at from a distance, the whole appearance might have been like Windsor Castle, indefinitely magnified. But we must go on to the interior. Herodotus, the Greek historian, from whom this description has principally been given, says the houses were three and four stories high, lying in squares, and beautifully garnished; but we are not to imagine this whole vast space to have been inhabited. There were orchards and parks, large squares and farms; so that, in case of a siege, provisions might not be wanting. Everything that ministered to the pomp of the king himself, and to the worship of the gods, was finished with elaborate care, and attended to at a vast expense whilst, owing to the climate, the people would live much in the open air. Thus we are not to suppose them packed together, as in London or Paris. Besides the great outer wall, there was an inner fortification, comprising an area of about five miles, and embracing within it the great public buildings on either side of the river, of which the bridge formed the connection. Those on the west side of the river consisted of the temple of Bel, and an old palace; those on the east, a huge fortress, and the new palace of Nebuchadnezzar. It was begun and completed by him in fifteen days. It had―so says the recently-discovered tablets ― “many chambers and lofty towers,” and was called “the wonder of mankind.” Compare Jeremiah 51:41: “How is the praise of the whole earth surprised!” Nebuchadnezzar says, “Silver and gold and precious stones, whose names were almost unknown, I stored up inside, and placed there the treasure-house of my kingdom.” Again, “With pillars and beams, plated with copper and strengthened with iron, I built up its gates.” Close to the palace were what have been universally called the hanging gardens. They were, apparently, terraces raised one above the other, with earth laid on them deep enough to encourage the growth of the largest trees. This was done to please his queen, who, being from Media, which is a hilly country, and Babylon being quite flat, had thus the scenery of her native land recalled to her mind. The king appears to have surrounded the buildings on the east side with water, and to have taken great pains with the reservoirs of the city, and to preserve the river Euphrates, ever liable to overflow its banks, in its proper coarse.

As I am writing to you about the four empires and the head of gold of the statue, you must bear in memory that, whilst the walls, and some of the palaces and of the temples and reservoirs, had been before existing, yet Nebuchadnezzar’s master mind and ready hand repaired, embellished, improved, or added to them all this is attested by every brick being marked by his name; whilst his own palace and the hanging gardens, with their enclosures, were the creations of his own genius: “Is not this great Babylon which I have built?” Sir Henry Rawlinson, the great authority in the interpretation of the recently-discovered cuneiform inscriptions, does not doubt that one of the tablets alludes in a delicate way to his seven, years’ madness, as if he had been separated from his subjects on account of illness for a certain time, and restored again.

I do not know? that I need write anything more of the city at present, as I shall have to return to it when we get into the history of the second empire―that, of Persia. There is always danger of being too minute in description, where, in reality, everything is told us but in outline. If history is found sufficiently to agree with Scripture, as to the grandeur and luxury of Babylon, we shall find, when we come to see what it says of her downfall, that facts, and not writings, demonstrate the exact accomplishment of her destiny.

I hope, if I am spared in life, to write to you next about the breast and arms of silver, or the Medo-Persian empire.

I remain, your affectionate father,

Words to Believers.

No. 1.

“The remnant shall return.” ―Isa. 20:21.

I AM fond of tracing, for, my own instruction, the principles that fire found in the prophetic scriptures; for though they belong, I doubt not, primarily to God’s ancient people Israel, and will be fulfilled to them, we may, I believe, derive much profit in going over them prayerfully, in the remembrance that “all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” (2 Timothy 3:16, l7.) For indeed God is the same, though dispensations change, and those He calls His own are characterized by the same features, whatever times they live in. Man, in his natural condition, too, whether in Jerusalem of old, or in what is termed Christendom now exhibits the same traits of indifference or opposition to the Lord. Take Isaiah’s testimony of the people of his day, and it will do for a description of the nominally Christian world now. “For Jerusalem is ruined and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of His glory.” (3:8.) Idolatry, oppression, formality, and pride, marked the one sex; haughtiness, vanity, and worldliness, the other. Yet what was this message to them both? “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” But how few were touched with this pleading! How few really prized the offer of mercy― the call to receive the washing away of sin. And so now. There are few who really listen to God’s reasoning with them―few who gladly embrace the tidings of His free salvation. Yet there are some. There was a remnant in the prophet’s day, and there is a remnant still, who owe their blessedness to the sovereignty of grace. (Romans 11:5.) They have gone into the presence of the holiness of God, and found themselves undone―men of unclean lips, and self-condemned. But they have touched the sacrifice for sin―have known the mystery of Emmanuel―God with us―have heard His lips announce that their iniquity is taken away, and their sin purged through His one efficacious offering, and this has won their hearts to Him, and separated them from the busy crowd. They cannot find their strength or glory in confederacies upon which a speedy-judgment is to come. But they have known and believed the sign― Immanuel, God with us. They have learned to sanctity the Lord of Hosts, himself, and found in Him a sanctuary. While the infidel, the Socinian, and the Jew are deriding, and the mere worldling is idly dreaming of security in forms and ordinances this little remnant find their rest in Jesus, trusting in His holy name. For well they know that He, whose title is the mighty God, has also proved himself to them the Prince of peace. The ancient of days has been for them a child of days, born of the Virgin’s womb for their relief. Despised rejected, crucified, and slain on Calvary for them. His blood has sealed their peace, and they repose in Him as in a sanctuary which none, can violate; for He has gone up on high, and led captivity captive. All the powers of darkness crouch to Him. They dare not touch, the soul that He protects, for He.is Lord of all, and soon will this be manifested. Soon each trusting one will be presented with Him. “Behold I and the children whom God hath given me.” (Compare Hebrews 2.) Fear not, then, the raging of your foes. Fear not the reproach of men. “Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts; and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.”

"Does You Love Me, Mamma? Does you like me?"

CHARLIE, like all other children, is not always good, and, when naughty, his mamma has to correct him. When Charlie is corrected, he generally, after crying for a time, turns to his mamma, and says, “Does you love me, mamma? Does you like me?” To these questions Charlie’s mamma replies, “Yes, I love you; but I want you to be good, and don’t like you to be naughty.”

God corrects His children, and scourges all His sons. When we are chastised, because we have done wrong, we are sometimes very foolish, and ask very ignorant questions, such as: “Will the Lord cast off forever? and will He be favorable no, more? Is His mercy clean gone forever? doth, His promises fail for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath He in anger shut up. His tender mercies?” (Psalm 77:7-9.) These questions prove us to be possessed of the spirit of “infirmity.” Did we remember the former loving-kindness of our God, we should not question His love when we are chastened: “for whom, the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.” Chastisement is a proof of love. The answer to the question, “Do you love me?” is, “Yes, my son; if I did not love you, I should not have corrected, you.” Chastisement is a mark of sonship. The apostle says, “If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons: for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not. But if we be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons.” If were to see a number of boys in the street, throwing stones at a pool blind man, I should rebuke them, and drive them away; but, if saw my own boy among them, I should single him, out from among, the rest, and chastise hire, for his fault. Now, would anyone imagine I corrected my own child, because I love him less than I love the other boys. Nay, verily, everyone would see the reason why I corrected, my own child was because I loved him―because he was my son. So it is with our heavenly Father, when His children do wrong. He will chastise them for the wrong they have done; but His love towards them, is still the same. Thus God speaks in Psalm 89:30-38 “If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.” The believer may have occasion to say, because of his sin, “The Lord hath chastened me sore;” he shall however, be able to add, “but He hath not given me over to death.” When we are corrected and scourged for our transgressions, “we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.”

Let the child of God consider in his heart, “that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord our God chasteneth thee.” (Deuteronomy 8:5.) Let us not despise the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of His correction: for whom the Lord loveth He correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.” (Proverbs 3:11,12.) T. W. M.

Why Weepest Thou?

“MARY stood without at the sepulcher weeping;” and believers still find that their pilgrimage lies through a vale of tears. Anguish of heart now and then is the portion of most, and the causes are many and diversified. If nothing else, a sense of barrenness foam lack of realized fellowship with Jesus is enough to make tenderhearted souls sigh and weep. It was so with Mary. She too continued at the sepulcher, but found no relief from that source; and often with us our tears are increased, instead of dried, because we brood over circumstances, instead of abide on our only ground of strong consolation.

John also, in the Revelation, “wept much.” He had not only the humiliating and suffering experience of banishment to desolate Patmos, but his heart-strings were ready to break, and his eyes flowed with tears, because no man was found worthy to open the book, &c.

What was God’s remedy for these weeping saints? A view of, Christ himself. The knowledge of the crucified risen and exalted Son of God. When Many heard His well-known voice, and saw Him, her tears were all exchanged for joy. She knew Jesus risen, and He told her He was going to ascend to His Father, and hen whole soul was filled with gladness. We read, also, that when Jesus showed His disciples His hands and. His side, and said Peace be unto you, THEN were the disciples glad. When they saw the Lord. When John also, in the Apocalypse, was weeping so much, he was directed to Jesus, the Lion, of the tribe of Judah―the Lamb as it had been slain in the midst of the throne, and when he saw Him, and knew that He had prevailed to open the book, and was so highly exalted, we read no more of the Apostle’s weeping. When lying faint and prostrate at the Lord’s feet, also, in the first chapter, it was an acquaintance with Christ crucified, risen, and forever exalted, that filled his soul with joy and strength.

Now what are we to learn from all this? Is it not to look away from the circumstances of sorrow to Jesus―to seek clearer views of the person and work of Christ and more heartfelt acquaintance with Him? This is a grand secret. It is like taking the tree, and casting it into the waters of Marah, and making the bitter waters sweet. It makes us more than conquerors through Him that loved us. If our sorrows lead us to Jesus, and thus make us know more of His sweetness and perfection, then are they profitable indeed. If outward circumstances are errands to the mercy-seat, then “blest is the billow, and kind the storm.” Oh, the blessedness of thus experimentally knowing Christ, not only as out eternal Redeemer, but our daily, hourly Refuge and sympathizing Friend, who invites us to cast all our care upon. Him, and who has promised with every temptation to make a way of escape, that we may be able to bear it. “Be of good cheer,” says He, “why weep?” “a little while,” and “I will come again.”

How Donald Succeeded.

A SCOTTISH nobleman, of the Roman Catholic persuasion, lived a very retired life, and left his affairs very much in the hands of others. Donald, one of his tenantry, rented a farm, upon which his forefathers had lived for above two hundred years. The lease which he held was on the point of expiring, and the steward refused to allow Donald a renewal, wishing to put the farm into the hands of a friend of his own. Poor Donald tried every argument in his power with the steward, but in vain; at length he bent his steps to the castle, determined to make his case known to his lordship. Here again he was repulsed; the porter had received orders from the steward, and refused him admittance.

Donald turned away almost in despair, and resolved upon a bold measure, as his only chance of success. He climbed the garden wall in an unfrequented part, and entered the house by a private door. At length he approached the private apartments of the nobleman. He heard a voice, and, drawing near, found it was his lordship’s, and that he was engaged in prayer. Retiring to a short distance, he waited till the prayer was concluded, and could not but hear his lordship pleading earnestly with the Virgin Mary and St. Francis, for their intercession in his behalf. At length his lordship ceased. Donald, who had stood trembling with anxiety for the result, now gently knocked at the door. “Come in,” was his lordship’s reply; and Donald entered. “Who are you, man? what do you want?” was the inquiry. Donald slated his case. The peer listened, was touched with the tale, and, having heard something of Donald, assured him of his protection, and that his lease should be renewed. Many artless, but earnest thanks followed, and he was departing, when a thought of anxiety for his noble master occurring to his mind, Donald returned, and spoke thus: “My lord, I was a bold man, and you forgave me, and have saved me and my poor family from ruin. Many blessings attend you! I would again be a bold man, if I might, and say something further to your lordship.” “Well, man, speak out.” “Why, my lord, I was well-nigh a ruined man; so I was bold, and came to your lordship’s door, and, as I stood there, I could not but hear your lordship praying to the Virgin Mary and St. Francis, and you seemed unhappy. Now my lord, forgive me, but I cannot help thinking the Virgin Mary and Saint Francis will do you no good, any more than your lordship’s steward and porter did for me. I had been a ruined man, if I had trusted to them; but I came direct to your lordship, and you heard me. Now, if your lordship would but leave the Virgin Mary and St. Francis, who will do no more for your lordship than your lordship’s steward and porter would do for me, and just go direct to the Lord Jesus himself, and pray to Him for what you need, He will hear you; for He has said, ‘Come unto ME, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest;’ and again, ‘Him that cometh to ME I will in no wise cast out.’ Will your lordship forgive me, and just try for yourself?”

It is said, that his lordship was struck with this simple argument, and that he afterward found―what a poor penitent sinner, trusting in Jesus, will always find pardon, peace, and salvation.

The Happy Hindoo.

MR. Carey, from India, relates a pleasing anecdote of a native Christian, whom he was called to visit. Inquiring as to the state of her mind, she replied, ‘Happy, happy! I have Christ here,’ laying her hand on the Bengalee Bible; ‘and Christ HERE,’ pressing it to her heart; ‘and Christ there,’ pointing towards heaven. Happy Christian! to whatever part of the universe she might be removed, the Lord of the universe was with her, and she was sure of His favor. ‘Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My heart and my flesh fail, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever.’

John 14:3.

“I will come again, and receive you unto MYSELF; that where I am, there ye may be also.”

WE’RE patiently waiting

Until Jesus come,

And anxiously longing

For the rest of Home;

For the glorious rapture

Which is nearing each day,

When Jesus, appearing,

Shall call us away!

Oh! to catch the first accents

Of that belov’d voice;

Beholding our Jesus

Our hearts will rejoice:

And the heavenly glory,

In prospect so bright,

For which we are waiting,

Shall burst on our sight.

Oh! it is not the glory

We desire to see,

But our Jesus HIMSELF,

Who our heaven shall be:

His presence is heaven,

His love our delight;

But we’re absent from HIM

In this dreary night.

We are waiting and watching

For we know not the day

When Jesus may come,

And call us away.

But we know that His promise,

Though deferred, cannot fail;

And, though wearily sighing,

Our faith shall prevail.

But Jesus! loved Saviour!

Whilst Thou dost delay,

No shadows can vanish,

No breaking of day;

It must be Thy hand, Lord,

That wipes from our eye

The tear of the desert,

And hushes the sigh.

We’re glad to be weary,

That then we may rest,

In unbroken enjoyment,

On Thy belov’d breast.

We’re glad to have sorrow,

That Thou mayst remove

Each trace of our crying

With Thine own hand of love!

For no other can lighten

The grief-burdened heart,

No other can bid

Our sorrow depart.

DESCEND, THEN, FROM HAVEN,

Performing Thy Word;

RECEIVE US TO THYSELF

Our adorable Lord!

J. W. T.

Notes From a Scrap Book.

Deuteronomy 34.

IT was necessary that Moses should die before the people could attain unto the promised land—their rest, because of that which he represented, viz., the law. This can never give us rest, but must die also, and that it does to all who find no life in it (see Romans 7:10), and so betake themselves to Jesus (Romans 10:4, and Galatians 3:24), as the people did to Joshua (significantly called “Jesus” also in Hebrews 4:8).

Zechariah 3:1-4.

When at― in 1862, I saw (to my mind) a very spiritual remark of the Drum-major of the ―Madras Native Infantry, drawing attention to the “filthy garments” in which Joshua was standing in before God, as contrasted with his glorious appearance before man. (Exodus 28) A rich subject for reflection!

Matthew 6:23.

“If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!”

Obviously! for a lighthouse that has not its light burning when it should have, is worse than no lighthouse at all!

1 Corinthians 8.

When at N―in 1859, this chapter, together with the latter part of the tenth, was made very clear to me in the following manner: ―I went into the room of the brother officer with whom I was residing, when, as I entered, he jocularly emptied some sugar-plums into my hand, saying, “Take care, these have been offered unto idols.” Upon inquiring his meaning, I found that the Mahrattas have a feast called the “Mukur Sunk-rant,” which takes place when the sun enters the sign Capricorn. At this season they either sow or reap (I forget which) the sesamum seed, and in order to either secure a good harvest; or to render thanks for having obtained one, the merchants, farmers, &c., &c., sugar the seed over; in other words, make sugar-plums with them, and offer them to their idol. After this, they are packed into boxes, and distributed amongst friends and patrons, as a mark of goodwill and esteem. It was in this manner that my friend became possessed of a box, and in like manner I might have become so also. Having “no conscience of the idol,” I. should, if left to myself have accepted it in the spirit, in which it was offered; but it’, standing by, any man had said objectingly, “This is offered in sacrifice unto idols,” then, I trust, I should have been able to decline the present, for his sake that showed it, and for conscience’ sake. “Conscience,” I say; not my own, but the other’s.

But (to go on with the chapter―the tenth) you will ask, why is my liberty judged by the conscience, of another man? If I by grace be a partaker, why am I to be evil spoken of for having done that which I gave thanks to God for? I reply, that whether you eat, or drink, or do anything else whatever, do it all to the glory of God. Give offense to none, &c., &c.

Might not many other portions of Scripture be opened up to us in this way, if we walked “circumspectly,” i.e. looking around us?

Ephesians 1:23.

The “fullness,” that is, the “complement.” The meaning can best be illustrated by the case of a ship and her crew. The ship is complete in herself, but of no use without “hands,” i.e., she is not ready for service. So, in this aspect, is Christ also; complete and perfect in himself, lie nevertheless awaits the enrollment of the last member of His Church, before He takes action. And what that action will be, see Revelation 19, 20, and “Behold, ye despisers, and tremble!”

A Christian should be hated of the world for no other cause than his Master’s.

If the world cannot understand Christ, how can they be expected to understand Christians?

It is a good test for our position, attitude, and occupation, the asking ourselves, “Am I now, at this present moment, as I should like to be found of Christ at His coming?”

Ιχθμς.

Your Name in the Will.

G. B. was lately distributing Tracts in Devonshire, and meeting with a poor man breaking stones on the roadside, handed him a Tract, asking him if he could read it. He replied

“Not very well.”

“Do you ever go to hear the Gospel?”

“What’s that, sir?”

“Do you ever go to hear any preaching?”

“Oh, I sometimes go to church.”

“What do you hear there?”

“Why, I heard a sermon read.”

“And do you understand what it’s about?”

“No.”

“Do you ever hear about God or Jesus Christ?”

“I don’t know much about these things; I’m not learned.”

“Can you read the Bible?”

“No, not much.”

“Have you got a Bible?”

“Yea; I have got one somewhere at home.”

“Can you read writing?”

“No.”

“Do you ever get a letter?”

“Yes, sometimes.”

“What do you do with it?”

“I get it read.”

“Well, suppose you got a letter today, by post, from a rich man, telling you he had made his will, and had put your name in his will for a fine house and plenty of money, so that you would not have to break stones any more, would you think it worthwhile to get it read?”

“I should think so; and pretty quick, too.”

“Well, there is a letter at your house from a very rich person, who has made his will, and he has put down your name in it for a beautiful house and riches in abundance, and yet you have not got it read.”

“What, sir! a letter at my house! my name in a will! Where did it come from?”

“It came from God. It is a message from Him; and the will is the will of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

“Well, who would have thought that the Bible was a will! And you say, sir, that my name is in it?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I’ll go home and search till I find it!”

“So do, and you will soon find your name there; for your name is sinner, and Christ Jesuit came into the world to save sinners’ (1 Timothy 1:15); and all sinners who believe in Him will have a beautiful house above. They will be rich, and their riches will never fade away. No thief can steal them. No death can enter there. In that happy land there will be no hunger, nor thirst, nor hard work. May the Lord, by the Holy Spirit, open your eyes to see for yourself all these blessed things which God tells us in His Word.

“The New Testament is the will of the Lord Jesus Christ, and God is not going to alter it; for He who made it has sealed it with His own blood, and so it remains forever. And according to that will, any poor sinner, be he what he may, and whatsoever sins he has committed, if he come to the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting in Him for forgiveness of sins, be shall have them all blotted out. For God, who is rich in mercy, (Ephesians 2:4)―mark the words, ‘RICH IN MERCY’―out of the fullness of His love to sinners, sent His own beloved Son into the world to save them: for God knew they could not save themselves from the curse and condemnation of sin, and therefore the blessed Lord Jesus Christ took that curse and condemnation upon himself, and died under it; and as He―blessed be His name forever―died in our stead, God doth now freely forgive all who feel the burden of their sins, and flee to Jesus, and receive Him as their Saviour.”

“Well, sir, I thank you. I did not think there was ever anything for me like this, and I hope, through God’s grace, it will be mine.”

Sacramental Efficacy so Called.

“IT is impossible to express the pestilence and fatal nature of it, and especially as it has prevailed over a great part of the world, to the great detriment of the Church for many ages past. Indeed, it is evidently diabolical; for, by promising justification without faith, it precipitates souls into destruction; in the nest place, by representing the sacrament as the cause of justification, it envelopes the minds of men, naturally too much inclined to the earth, in gross superstition, leading them to rest in the exhibition of a corporeal object rather than in God himself.”―John Calvin.

Praise the Saviour.

PRAISE the Saviour, ye who know Him,

Who can tell how much we owe Him;

Gladly let us render to Him

All we are and have.

Jesus is the pewee that charms us,

He for conflict fits and arms us;

Nothing moves and nothing harms us,

When we trust in Him.

Trust in Him, ye saints, forever,

He is faithful, changing never;

Neither force nor guile can sever

Those He loves from Him.

Keep us, Lord, oh! keep as cleaving

To Thyself, sod still believing,

Till the time of our receiving

Promised joys in heaven.

Then we shall be where we would be,

Then we shall be what we should be,

That which is not now nor could be,

Soon shall be our own.

What Is Wanted.

THE Holy Spirit is able to make the Word as successful now as in the days of the apostles He can bring in by hundreds and thousands, at easily as by ones and twos. The reason why we are not more prosperous is, that we have not the Holy Spirit with us in might and power as in early times. If we had the Spirit sealing our ministry with power, it would signify very little about our talent. Men might be poor and uneducated; their words might be broken an ungrammatical; there might be none of the polished periods of Hall, or glorious thunders of Chalmers; but if the might of the spirit attendee them, the humblest evangelists would be more successful than the most learned of divines, or the most eloquent of preachers. It is extraordinary grace, not talent, that wins the day. It is extraordinary spiritual power, not extraordinary mental power, that we need. Mental power may ill a chapel; but spiritual power fills the Church dental power may gather a congregation; spiritual power will save souls. We want spiritual power. Oh! we know some before whom we shrink into nothing as to talent, but who have no spiritual power; and when they speak, they have not the Holy Spirit with them; but we mow others―simple-hearted, worthy men―who speak their country dialect, and who stand up to preach in their country place, and the Spirit of God clothes every word with power. Hearts are broken, souls are saved, and sinners are born again. O Spirit of the living God! we want thee. Thou art the life, the soul, the source of thy people’s success. Without thee they can do nothing; with thee they can do everything. ―C. H. Spurgeon.

Notes on the Book of Revelation.

(Chap 11.)

IN the parenthesis between the openings of the sixth and seventh seals, we had the tribes of the children of Israel brought before us, as well as nations, kindreds, and tongues; so in the parenthetic announcement between the sounding of the sixth and seventh trumpets, John is not only commanded to prophesy again before many nations and tongues, but Israel, too, is again introduced. Daniel’s people, with the holy city and temple of God, are presented at the opening of this chapter. Gentiles, too, are treading underfoot the holy city. When this scene is fulfilled, Jews and Gentiles will be recognized as such. Not so now; for in the Church of God there is neither Jew nor Greek, but all believers are one in Christ; but when the body is complete, and we have been caught up to meet the Lord in the air, then, as we have before seen, the seventieth week of prophecy relating to Daniel’s people and city will have its accomplishment; therefore Jews and Gentiles will be again recognized as such. It will be the transition time between the coming of the Lord for His saints, and His coming with His saints. Our chapter, therefore, begins with the following announcement: “And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles, and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.”

We must distinguish, however, between “THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES,” and “THE FULLNESS OF THE GENTILES;” for they are very distinct in Scripture. It is clearly the former which is referred to here. Our Lord said that “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” (Luke 21:24.) We may say that the times of the Gentiles began with Nebuchadnezzar, from which time, more or less, Israel and the holy city have been trodden down by them, and Gentilism has had the ascendancy. It ran through its four successive monarchies, and since then has been hastening on to its completion in the ten kingdoms, and final destruction. (Daniel 2:31-45.) The times of the Gentiles are thus running on, and Jerusalem is trodden down. After the Church is removed, as we here see, the Gentiles will still tread it down, and even when the Lord comes in glory with his saints, He will find Jerusalem compassed with armies, and then the end of “the times of the Gentiles” will have come. The Lord himself shall fight against these nations. (Zechariah 14:1, 2.) He shall be the stone cut out without hands that shall fall upon the Gentile image, break it in pieces, and scatter it as the chaff of the summer threshing floors.

“THE FULLNESS OF THE GENTILES” is a very different thing. Israel, as a people, is now set aside, though a remnant is saved by the gospel according to the election of grace. Now God is making of the twain―Jew and Gentile― “one new man,” and in this work calling out of the Gentiles a people for His name. (Acts 15:14.) When God shall have fully gathered out of every nation, kindred, people, and tongue, unto Himself, then shall the fullness of the Gentiles be come in—come in to God; and Israel now altogether under judicial blindness, except those to whom Christ is revealed, will then be the object of God’s peculiar care and blessing. Paul calls this a mystery, and he would not have saints be ignorant of it. He says, “that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.” And so (that is, in this order) all Israel shall be saved: as it is written. “There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer and turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is my covenant with them when I shall take away their sins.” (Romans 11:25-27.) Thus we see that “the times of the Gentiles” and “the fullness of the Gentiles” are two very different things.

Our chapter, as we have seen, introduces us to the “holy city,” “the temple of God,” “altar,” and “them that worship” ―all Jewish elements: and a people recognized as worshipping not on Christian, but on Jewish ground, and oppressed by the Gentiles outside. At this very time, too God has His own special testimony. There are two witnesses. Their testimony is not of the heavenly calling, like ours, but they stand before the God of the earth, and assert His rights. They are like two olive trees for fruitfulness, and two candlesticks as bearers of light in the midst of gross darkness. They do not bear the testimony of the gospel of the grace of God, but a miraculous and righteous testimony, like that of Moses in the days of hardened Pharaoh, and Elijah in the time of infidel Ahab. They testify to the reality of the living God, and are clothed in sackcloth, under a deep sense of the dishonor done to His holy and blessed name; they have power to shut heaven that it rain not, and to turn water into blood, and smite the earth with plagues as often as they will. Moreover, they are not in the spirit of the grace of Christ, who prayed for his murderers, and returned blessing for cursing; but these witnesses are commissioned to execute vengeance on their enemies. This marks this testimony as coming on after the present gospel testimony shall have closed, and shews that the whole scene is characterized by Jewish and earthly righteous principles, and not the gospel of the grace of God. It is an important point to notice, because it proves that the gathering out of the members of the body of Christ by the gospel of the grace of God must have been finished before this very opposite testimony is introduced. We cannot conceive that God would command, and give power by His Spirit, to His servants, to “love their enemies” and “devour their enemies” at the same time. “If any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in like manner be killed.” Their testimony will continue for twelve hundred and sixty days, which is equal to about forty and two months, or three years and half; at the close of this the beast, or man of sin, is brought before us for the first time in the Revelation. “When they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and overcome them, and kill them.” To kill the body is all that man or Satan can do. Their dead bodies lie in the street of the city where our Lord was crucified, now comparable only to wicked Sodom and infidel Egypt; and both Jews and Gentiles look at their dead bodies for three days and a half, and will not permit them to be buried; and, as we might expect, these dwellers upon earth rejoice over them, make merry, and send gifts one to another, because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth. Elijah was said to be a troubles of Israel, and God’s true servants are a trouble to the world still, and ever must be, until Jesus is King over all the earth, and every knee bows to Him. But God is the God of resurrection; and this is an idea far beyond the human intellect to conceive; and, as the resurrection of our Lord Jesus from the dead struck the ungodly with utter confusion, so here again God’s own power in raising the dead, and shaking the earth, will turn the merriment and rejoicing of the ungodly into fear and distress. Resurrection has been, and will be, God’s way of vindicating His own servants, and of publicly demonstrating the reality of His own truth. These faithful martyrs may lie in the street, and appear only as worthless corpses and vanquished tormentors; but “after three days and a half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them that saw them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies beheld them. And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand.” The effect of this was, that the survivors “were affrighted, and gave glory,” not to the God of the earth before whom these witnesses stood, and whose rights they contended for, but “to the God of heaven.” They were troubled and terrified, like many others have been, at what they saw and heard; but we do not read that they bowed to Jesus as the Lord of heaven and earth, and took refuge in Him as their Saviour. Oh, no; the scene forcibly reminds us of our Lord’s own testimony to the dire depravity of the human heart, which shews that if man rejects God’s own word, no visions or calamities will savingly arrest him. “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.” This scene closes the parenthetic announcement between the sounding of the sixth and seventh trumpets; and after the solemn statement, “The second woe is past, and behold the third woe cometh quickly,”

THE SEVENTH TRUMPET

sounds, and our souls are at once drawn from earth and its miseries to heaven and its joys. Heaven rejoices that the earth is rescued from the hands of man and Satan, and that the Lord Jesus himself, the rightful heir, takes possession of it. “The seventh angel sounded: and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign forever and ever.” As usual, the elders, who delight in the exaltation of Jesus, are in intelligent communion with God about the things of Christ; therefore we find that “the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their thrones, fell upon their faces and worshipped God, saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.” The living creatures are not noticed sere. The consequences, as well as the attendants, of Christ taking the judgment and government of the earth into His own hands, follow the sounding of this trumpet. “Thy wrath is come;” for He will come, in flaming fire taking vengeance, and must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet. “The nations were angry,” or have been full of wrath, but now it is the time of the wrath of the Lamb. “Every eye shall see Him... and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him.” We also see that God’s servants the prophets, and the saints, are rewarded, and those that fear Him, both small and great; those that destroyed or corrupted the earth are destroyed; and the dead are judged. It is a brief sketch of the various acts of judgment during the reign of Christ, from the beginning of His taking the kingdom to the end of the millennium, when He shall have closed His judgments, and all men, both living and dead, will be brought into subjection to Him.

The chapter closes with the account of the temple of God being opened in heaven, the ark of the testament seen with the lightnings, voices, thunderings, earthquake, and great hail. Happy for our hearts to find, while judgment is poured out upon earth, the ark of the covenant is seep in heaven, witnessing to the everlasting stability of the believer’s hope. The ark tells us of the mercy-seat and the blood of sprinkling, which speaketh better things than that of Abel. This is rest. The precious blood, presented for us before God, always tells us of entrance into the holiest and perfect peace, whatever may be the trouble and distress around. While looking thus by faith at our Lord Jesus at the right hand of God, presenting His own perfect sacrifice there on our behalf, we not only can cry, Come, Lord Jesus! but we realize that

“Faith almost changes into sight,

While, from afar, she spies

Her fair inheritance in light

Above created skies.”

“Some rays of heaven break sweetly in

At all the opening flaws;

Visions of endless bliss are seen,

And native air she draws?”

Christian Converse.

“IN your private society seek unanimously your own and each other’s spiritual good; not only agreeing in your affairs and civil converse, but having one heart and mind as Christians. To eat and drink together, if you do no more, is such society as beasts may have; to do these in excess, to guzzle and drink intemperately together, is a society worse than that of beasts, and below them; to discourse together of civil business, is to converse as men. But the peculiar converse of Christians in that notion as born again to immortality, an unfading inheritance above, is to further one another towards that, to put one another in mind of heaven and things that are heavenly. And it is strange that men that profess to be Christians, when they meet either fill one another’s ears with lies and profane speeches, or with vanities and trifles, or at the best with the affairs of the earth, and not a word of those things that should most possess the heart, and where the mind should be most set but are ready to reproach and taunt any such thing in others. What! are you ashamed of Christ and religion? Why do you profess it then? Is there such a thing think ye, as communion of saints? If not, why do you say you believe it? ‘Tis a truth, think of it as you will; the public ministry will profit little anywhere where a people, or some part of them, are not thus one, and do not live together as of one mind, and use diligently all due means of edifying one another in their holy faith.”―Leighton.

Last Words of Departed Saints.

WHEN Goodwin felt death approach, he sweetly said, “Then I shall hold uninterrupted fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. My corruptions, uncle! which I have long groaned, and against which I have so long contended, shall mar my felicity no more forever.”

The last words of Rogers were, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”

Saunders clasped his stake, kissed it, and exclaimed, “Welcome, Cross of Christ! welcome, ye fagots and ye flames, destined to consume my mortal body; but which, instead of hurting, shall only serve to raise this immortal spirit to the mansions of glory!”

Spiritualizing Scripture a Stumbling Block to the Jew.

THE habit of spiritualizing Scripture, and especially the prophetic portions, has arisen, perhaps, in some minds, from not seeing God’s truth respecting the coming and millennial reign of Christ, restoration of the Jews, &c., and, therefore, not knowing how to interpret portions referring to these subjects: others have simply taken it for granted, because good men have so taught it, and have never been exercised about it. It is well, however, to know that the Scripture is the word of God, and written for out learning—a revelation of God’s mind to us; and, seeing how many of the fulfilled prophecies have had a literal accomplishment, should be a powerful reason for us so to understand the future.

Few, perhaps, think how the Jews are stumbled by this so-called spiritualizing of Scripture. Many instances might be related in proof of it. The following fact happened in London, after a sermon preached in the Strand. Amongst the hearers were two Jews. A discussion took place in the vestry, between them and the preacher, on the subject of a Psalm, which contained a prophecy referring to the restoration of the Jewish people. The preacher maintained that it could not be understood in the sense of a national restoration. The Jew who spoke answered him― “How, then, can you be surprised that we should deny what you call the Incarnation?” “What!” said the preacher, taking the Bible, “Is it not written, ‘And, behold, thou shalt conceive, and bring forth a son, and shall call His name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His Father David: and He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end’?” The Israelite then asked the preacher to take up again, with him, the different parts of the passage, which he did accordingly; and after having read the two or three first sentences, the Jews were convinced that they were to be interpreted literally; but when they came to these words,― “And the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David, and He shall reign over the house of Jacob,” &c., the preacher said. This signifies that He shall reign is the hearts of His people. “If it is thus,” replied the Jew― “if it is not in Jerusalem, where David had his throne―where he reigned, then I deny that Mary had a son―I affirm, for my part, that what is said on this subject signifies nothing else save that the Messiah was to be pure from His birth, and that this is the true meaning of these words, ‘a virgin having a son.’ You see, I only follow your mode of interpreting the end of the passage. I apply it to the beginning, and by this means I deny the Incarnation.” “But,” replied the preacher, “we admit the literal interpretation of this part of the passage, because the event has proved that it must be understood thus.” I shall never forget with what an air of disdain and contempt the Jew then said, “Oh! you believe this because it has happened; as for us, we believe what is written because God has said it.” We ought therefore to take heed in what manner we interpret prophecies; for, you see, if we deny the privileges promised to the Jewish nation, we shake thereby even the foundation of our faith.

I take occasion here to observe, that there is a great difference between figurative language and a system of spiritual interpretation, still too much in vogue. There are facts foretold in figurative language which have been, or which will be, fulfilled literally. I quote as an instance this perdition “Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall he scattered.” We all know that this was fulfilled in the garden of Gethsemane; yet, literally, Jesus was not a Shepherd, neither were His disciples sheep; nevertheless, the fulfillment of this was literal. This prophecy shows clearly the difference there is between the figurative language of the oracle and a figurative accomplishment. Prophecies, describing the future glory of the Jewish people under the emblem of a mountain, raised above the hills, and to which all the nations shall resort, are quoted it’s all Catholic catechisms, as proofs of the infallibility of the Church of Rome, whose authority, they say, is to extend over all the world. They say, moreover, that the geographical position of Rome proves that these prophecies really apply to her. And truly, if Jerusalem, in the prophets, signifies the Church of God, it seems that these promises concern the Church of Rome, which alone on earth has raised these pretensions to infallibility, universality, and dominion. Whilst robbing the Jewish nation of those prophecies which belong to her, to apply them to the Church of God, Christian controversialists can with difficulty contest the pretensions of the Church of Rome. But Jerusalem never means the Church of God—it means Jerusalem; Judah means Judah; Ephraim means Ephraim, and not France or England. Let us call everything by its proper name. Then we shall understand better the grand, but yet unfinished work of our glorious God, ―that work which, relating to the Jews, among others, is not fulfilled. It is for Divine reasons that the Jews have been preserved in the midst of the nations, as a separate people, waiting for the King. This King, the last King of Israel, is still alive: He has been dead, but He is risen, and He is alive; the Jews are preserved for Him, and He is preserved in the heavens for the Jews, until the restoration of all things. And then the same Jesus, who was raised up into heaven from the Mount of Olives, shall come down again in like manner, that is to say, personally and visibly.”

Readings for the Young.

Do you Love Jesus?

“MINNIE! Minnie! where are you?” called Flora Benton, running down the garden walk; “I’ve hunted you everywhere, for want―.” She stopped suddenly, for just then, on turning into the entrance of the arbor, she caught sight of her cousin on her knees, her hands clasped, and her eyes closed. Flora stood gazing at her in astonishment for a moment; then, recollecting herself, was just turning away when Minnie rose, and, wiping her eyes, asked in a gentle tone, “Did you want me, cousin Flora?”

“Yes―no,” said Flora, in an embarrassed way; “it’s not particular.”

They both sat down on the grass, and for a few moments were quite silent, ―Minnie seemingly lost in thought, while Flora watched her countenance with an expression of much curiosity.

“Minnie,” she said at length, “do tell me what ails you.”

“Nothing now,” replied Minnie, looking at her with a sweet, happy smile.

“Then what were you crying for? for I’m sure I saw tears on your cheek; and―I can’t help asking you, for I think it’s so odd―what were you saying your prayers for this time of day? If I remember to say mine night and morning, I think I’m wonderfully good!” “Flora,” said Minnie,” suppose you had done something which you knew had grieved and displeased your father and mother, and you were very sorry for it, would you wait till night to go and confess it, and ask forgiveness, or would you go at once?”

“Go at once, of course,” said Flora.

“And are you satisfied with speaking only once or twice a day to your nearest friends, when you may, if you choose, talk to them many times?”

“I’d be very, sorry, if I might not speak to mother more than once or twice a day,” said Flora.

“Well,” said Minnie, “you know that I have neither father nor mother, but I have a dear, dear Friend, dear Lord Jesus. I love Him, and I know that He loves me, and I dearly love to talk with Him. If I have any trouble, or sorrow, I tell it to Him; if I have any duty that seems too hard for me, I ask Him to help me; and, when I have done wrong, I cannot rest until I have asked His forgiveness. I was vexed with Frank, a while ago, and spoke crossly to him, and that was why I came here to kneel down and ask Jesus to forgive me,” she added, the tears again trembling in her eyes.

“He has been teasing you all the morning, and I’ve been astonished at your patience; I don’t think you were to blame at all,” said Flora, warmly.

“Yes, I was,” replied Minnie; “our Saviour had much more to try His patience, and He never was vexed; and, oh! I do long to be just like Him; and someday I hope I shall be. Cousin, do you love Jesus?”

“I don’t know,” said Flora; “I think He was very good and kind.”

“Oh, cousin, do begin to love Him today! Oh, it is such joy to have Jesus for your Friend; to lie down at night without fear, because He is there to take care of you, and all day long to feel that He is close to you. When everything seems to go right, I love Him for my happiness, and thank Him for it; and, when I am treated unkindly, I say, Well, Jesus loves me, and that is enough to make me happy.”

Dear little reader, ―Would you love to have Minnie’s friend to be yours? He says, “I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find me.” “God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

"May I Be Sure, Mamma?"

“MAY I be sure, mamma?” said Kitty, as the good news of God’s free love were read to her, and she was told there was forgiveness for her.

“Yes, dear one, you may.”

“But how, mamma?”

“Simply in believing what God has said; for God tells no lies, and breaks no promises.” “And what has God said?”

“He that believeth hath everlasting life!”

The Death of a Young Soldier.

SHORTLY after I entered the army, I became intimately acquainted with a young officer, a lieutenant in the― regiment of the― volunteers, who, during our stay at―, fell a victim to a disease peculiar to the climate. It was about half-past ten o’clock at night, when I was summoned to witness the death of my companion. Without, the sky was clear; the moon and stars shone brightly; all was still, save as the rustling of the leaves, stirred by the evening air, the occasional hailing of the sentinel, or his heavy tread, fell upon the ear. The apartment in which he lay was one of many.

The wall was covered with paintings of ancient castles and palaces, surrounded by gardens, with distant views of mountain and forest scenery. A cot, on which the sufferer lay, with a small table and one chair, composed the furniture. I approached the couch, and kindly questioned him as to the state of his feelings. He started at the sound of my voice, gazed upon me for a moment, then, with a half vacant stare, and as if talking to himself, he replied, “I must die! ―die! yes, die! No more shall I be permitted to see my home, to converse with those who, far away, so often think of me.” With more energy of voice he continued, “But the past! ―the future! The past has been a scene of hardship and toil―as ambitious striving to be great. Many years have passed since I began to exist, and now I am nothing―a mere vacuum, void of everything save conscience. The future―ah! the terrible future―awaits me! Hope! ― hope is extinct! I am irrevocably lost! a curse to existence, a miserable and degraded wretch! No God! That fatal elusion has ruined me!” His voice failing, he slowly said, “O that I could hide me in the grave! But no. His all-seeing eye penetrates the tomb; justice cries, Prepare to meet your God!” He said no more until the dock of the cemetery, which was across the way and directly in front, struck the hour of eleven.

“What,” said he, “has the clock tolled another hour, and I still exist! Oh, that I never had a being!” Delirium setting in for a moment, “Mother, save me! save your son!” the wretched youth exclaimed, with arms extended wide, as if to grasp her. All was still as death for a moment, while he gazed intently in the direction in which he had pointed. “Come back! come back! But no; she has left me!” Nature being exhausted, he fell back on his couch, from which he had partially arisen, lay for a moment, then slowly articulated, “But God is just.” And when the clock of the old cemetery struck the tour of midnight, he was a corpse.

Soon the muffled drum, and low, plaintive totes of the fife, told that he was carried to his grave.

Present Salvation.

“I FEAR,” wrote a servant of Christ, “lest you should wait for all to be said that I desire to say ere you lay hold of Christ. Of this, however, let me assure you, there is no need. You know Christ is a full, free Saviour; you are at lost perishing sinner. Then wait for nothing: it once and unhesitatingly close in with His precious offer of forgiveness. Take Him at once, as He is, for your righteousness. Rest upon what He has done. God is satisfied with it as a ground for your acceptance. Be you satisfied too. Plead it in faith before Him. Grasp His promise, ‘Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.’ It is true, true to you; and, as you come, believe that He fulfills it. He does not cast you out: coming, you are saved. As you come you are pardoned. What more can you wish? What more can you need? To delay is ruin; to come is safety.”

That Precious Word "Whosoever."

I HAD a letter the other day from a dear friend, in which he said, “I like that word “WHOSOEVER:” it denotes so clearly the world-wide freeness of the gospel invitations.” Well, I thought, I like that precious word “WHSOEVER” too; I will write a few thoughts upon it for The Evangelist; and, who can tell? perhaps the Lord will make some poor sinner like it, and use it as an instrument to lead that sinner to Himself.

Jesus says in John 12:46, “I am come a light into the world, that WHOSOEVER believeth on me should not abide in darkness.” By nature and by practice all men “abide in darkness.” They are ignorant of God. They either look upon God as being implacable and revengeful, who can only entertain feelings of hatred towards the sinner, or they regard God as not seeing their sin, and as being so merciful that he will not punish the transgressor for his sin. “WHOSOEVER” believeth in Jesus is brought into light, and has a true knowledge of God. Such an one knows that, while God hates sin, yet He loves the sinner; that He has provided a way whereby His justice has been satisfied, His law magnified, His righteousness established, and His government maintained. He sees that this way is by the cross, whereon Jesus shed His blood and died as the substitute in the place of the guilty. Thus the character and perfections of God are seen to be harmonized in the atoning work of Jesus. But here we must observe, that Jesus has come a light into the world only unto believers. All unbelievers stumble in the darkness notwithstanding Jesus has been manifested among them. We read in Exod. 10:22, 23, that when “Moses stretched forth his band toward heaven,” “there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt;” but at the same time “all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.” That which gave light to “all the children of Israel,” so that they might escape from the bondage of Egypt, was to the Egyptians “a thick darkness,” in which they stumbled and fell. (See Exodus 14:19-25). Thus also shall it be with all those who reject the light of the gospel of Christ. They shall abide in darkness and utterly perish. But “WHOSOEVER” believes in Jesus; that is, trusts in Him listens to Him, relies on Him, shall be saved for thus is it written in “the truthful word of the glad tidings”― “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that WHOSOEVER believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:14-16.) Here the word “WHOSOEVER” is twice use by Jesus. It is as though He would have us make no mistake; but be fully assured of the universality of the invitation. Here it will be well briefly to consider the wide freeness of the word “WHOSOEVER.” It means any one, and every one, who is willing to believe in Jesus. All have sinned, all need salvation; and all may have salvation by faith in Christ. Faith is the only medium of salvation; “whosoever believeth,” not whosoever worketh, or feeleth, but just simply “WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH” in Jesus Christ the Son of God, who was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him, shall be saved. Salvation is God’s free gift to all who will have it; to all who trust in the Son of God who was lifted up upon the cross at Calvary, and who regenerates us through the power of His Spirit. Believing in Christ Jesus, sinners are pardoned, and delivered from deserved punishment. Jesus died for us―in our stead. By the sufferings of Jesus God is satisfied, and sin is expiated. Jesus is God’s free gift to sinners, His unmerited gift to the world―the whole race of man that had sinned. Man had no claim on God; but when there was no eye to pity, and no arm to save, it pleased God to send forth His well-beloved and only-begotten Son, that He might be the Substitute, and die in the room of the guilty.

“Well,” asks one, “what is it to believe? I have read many times, and heard often, that whosoever believeth in the Lord Jesus shall be saved; but I cannot make out what it is to believe.” To believe is to TRUST in Christ for salvation. That little word trust is the best word to explain faith. It is a trusting to the promise of Christ, to the word of Christ, to the work of Christ, to the person of Christ—in a word, it is just trusting to Christ Himself. It is a going to Jesus as a lost sinner, relying upon Him, and looking to Him alone for salvation.

The glorious gospel which I am now seeking to make plain to you is not something new, neither is it only to be found in a few isolated passages of scripture. It is the constant, continual, uniform utterance of the whole word of God: for to Jesus “give all the prophets witness, that through His name WHOSOEVER believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins.” (Acts 10:43.) Jesus, in Matthew 20:32, 33, says, “WHOSOEVER therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But WHOSOEVER shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.” Here again the word “WHOSOEVER” means anybody who will “confess,” or who “shall deny” Jesus. There is no limitation in the word. The whole world is divided into two great classes; they who “confess,” and they who “deny” Jesus. To which class, dear reader, do you belong? In Luke 6:47, 48, Jesus declares, “WHOSOEVER” cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like: he is like a man who built a house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. The words, “cometh to me,” denote the character of true faith: it is a coming away from everything, and every one beside, and coming unto Jesus. True faith in the gospel is not so much the reception of a doctrine about Christ, as the apprehension and reception of Christ Himself, the living Saviour, IN WHOM we have life, wisdom, and righteousness, sanctification and redemption. We come unto Jesus, and are reconciled unto God, through Him as out Sacrifice. We come unto Jesus, and hear His sayings, when He speaks to us as our PROPHET. We come unto Jesus, and do His will, thus yielding homage to Him as our Lord. We come unto Christ, and build upon Him alone for salvation. Let nothing come between our souls and Jesus; then shall our faith be found to be that which shall stand in the day of trial. Jesus Christ is the Living Rock, and His work is perfect. We are only safe as we are made one with Him, by true and living faith, even by that faith which worketh by love. We must truly lay hold on Christ, and build, with all the saints, upon Him as the one sure foundation; and “WHOSOEVER” thus cometh unto Him shall be saved. As it is written, “Therefore thus saith the Lord God Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation:” “and WHOSOEVER believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.” (Isaiah 28:16; Romans 9:33.’ “For the Scripture saith, WHOSOEVER believeth on Him shall not be ashamed” (Romans 10:11.; And again, “For WHOSOEVER shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13.; In John 4:13, 14, we read that to the woman of Samaria Jesus said, “WHOSOEVER drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but WHOSOEVER drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall lever thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting life.” The soul that truly embraces he gospel declaration concerning Jesus, embraces he spirit, teaching, grace, and benefits which low from Jesus; and such a one shalt not thirst or ever. Having Christ, he shall have nothing more to desire forever. He shall be satisfied. Let him that is athirst come. And WHOSOEVER WILL, “Let him take of the water of life freely.” (Revelation 22:17) Salvation is” FREELY” given by Jesus to “WHOSOEVER WILL” take it. “WHOSOEVER liveth and believeth in” Christ Jesus “shall never die. Believest thou this?” John 11:26.) “WHOSOEVER abideth in” Jesus, “sinneth not: WHOSOEVER sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him.” (1 John 3:6.) “WHOSOEVER is born of God doth not commit sin; for list seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin because he is born of God.” (1 John 3:9.) “WHOSOEVER doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.” (1 John 3:10.) “WHOSOEVER hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer lath eternal life abiding in him.” (1 John 3:15.) “WHOSOEVER believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth Him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of Him.” (1 John 5:1.) “WHOSOEVER is born of Sod sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.” (1 John 5:18.) “WHOSOEVER transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.” (2 John 9.)

Dear readers, we have here given you some of the WHOSOEVERS of Scripture. Search and see whether your names are among them. See to it that you are saved; for “WHOSOEVER is not round written in the book of life will be cast into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:15.)

T. W. M.

Let Us Serve Christ.

Notes of An Address. By T. W. T.

IF the Queen of England saw some poor, wretched, ragged child, that was only fond of rolling in the dirt of the street, and she took up that little one, and washed it and dressed it, and brought the little one into her palace, and adopted it as her Majesty’s own child, and brought him into the Royal Family, dear friends, you might be greatly astonished, greatly amazed. But when one thinks of the Lord God Almighty, of that Almighty One! of that mighty God who made the world, taking up a poor, filthy, miserable sinner, bringing up that poor miserable one and making him one of His own children by adoption and by grace, and bringing his into His royal family, and making him one with the Lord Jesus. Ah! dear friends, whet we look on the majesty and the glory of God we would like to look more at the position to which God has raised us. When we see the mighty love of God in taking the sin from the filthy, miserable sinner, and raising that pool sinner to sit with Christ in heaven, and see that sinner brought out of a condemned world, a world that must suffer on account of its rejection of Christ; and when we see that poor sinner translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son and made a son by adoption and grace, the thought comes across my heart―and I find it coming across the mind of the converted people that find Christ― “Now, Lord, what can I do for thee?” When I see all sin on Calvary eighteen hundred years ago; and when we see it is all finished there, and we have nothing to do but to enjoy the salvation Christ has provided and to take our seat at the Father’s table, and enjoy all the great glory God has provided for the poor sinner, we then awaken to the question “Lord, what can we do for thee?” When the soul has got everlasting life, we see the expelling power of the new affection, of the new principle of life in us, constraining us to work and do something for Christ. How different the soul working to get to heaven, the soul working to get salvation, and the one who has got salvation, and who has that as the starting point, and who works out of love!

This morning I heard such a nice little verse: it gives the key-note to prayer and service; and it is this: “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” Dear friends, if there is any one here who wants to do something for the Lord Jesus Christ, let me ask, Are you abiding in Him? When a poor soul gets saved by the love of God, I have often seen it going off on a track of service, and losing sight of Jesus as the power of work, going off on a great track of service, and they have almost forgotten the Lord Jesus. I have done it myself; and I tell you there is no blessing in such service. If there are any of you wanting to get blessing in service, it is by getting up into the mind of God, it is by holding communion with our risen Head, it is by abiding in Christ that it can happily be accomplished. The Lord Jesus Christ sent down the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Spirit comes and abides in us forever. But, oh! friends, it is an important point to be living in the consciousness that Jesus is your strength, and that if you attempt to do anything except in His strength, unless you do it abiding in Jesus, it brings a curse instead of a blessing. Now, if any of you here are working for Christ, I want to impress on you that that is the source of blessing. If you say, I have prayed for this thing and that thing, we get in that verse our directions with regard to prayer; “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” Ah! when I abide in Christ, then I know I shall not ask for anything that is contrary to His will. There is your key-note, your directions for prayer, ―to abide, to continue in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now there is another point connected with service, and that is faithfulness; you can understand perfectly a father having a large family of children and going off to America, and stopping there for some time, and coming back again, and meeting his children; there would be some of those children faithful to their father in his absence, and others not faithful. Now there is a particular smile of affection for those most faithful, for those also regarded his interest, and no other man’s interests but their father’s interests. You can perfectly understand the other children being children still; but not living, as it were, in the sense that they are the children of their father, that their father also is away from them and is the one they ought to be minding, and not mind any man that would lead them from their father’s commands either this way or that way. Ah! you know, dear friend, you cannot help admiring the child that, has been faithful to the father! And the father has a special smile of love for that child. That is the position every child of God ought to covet. So faithful towards God, so setting aside man, that you won’t be minding man or anything; but when a difficulty comes, bring it to God, and get, as it were, God’s view of it, and so to be looking from God’s height, so to be in God’s thought, as to act accordingly. I know it is difficult to get circumstances out of the way.

I spoke to a man the other day, who said, “I always get an unconverted man to lead me in prayer.” And I said, “Do you think you are right to have an unconverted man as your spokesman to your Father?” “Oh, no,” said he, “it is wrong.” “Why do you do it?” “The fact is, my wife would turn me out of the house if I did not.” He was walking in the sight of his wife, instead of in the sight of the Lord God almighty. I knew a dear lady whose husband was away in the Cape of Good Hope, and when ever I met her, she used to say, “I hope my husband is coming back immediately; and I have just, got a letter from him (as the case might be), and he is telling me all he is doing.”

That was a faithful wife! looking for her husband, thinking of her husband’s return, faithful to her husband’s interest, and attending to her husband’s wishes. Now, if any other woman came and tried to deter her from acting thus, and she yielded to her, would you admire her: No; neither could I. I like to see a wife faithful to her husband when he away; and I like to see the Bride of Christ faithful to our deal Lord Jesus looking down on us here.

If you would get circumstances away, and think only of the Lord Jesus Christ, that would set you above circumstances, and above fear. The other day I was talking to a man, and he said, “Such a thing, I admit, is right; but if I do it, that meeting will be closed against me.” Thus he was purchasing a liberty to speak at that meeting through disobedience to God! There that man was setting his own wisdom against God’s. Well, that is wrong. Dear friends, it is difficult, I know, to get rid of circumstances, to lose sight of advantages and disadvantages, and to stand before God―to stand simply in the mind of God; but if you do that there would be a blessing.

I find that when Abraham was standing before God, God went to commune with Abraham face to face; and when he was obedient to him in the offering up of Isaac, when He found he could be trusted, then God said, “In blessing I will bless thee.” And God gave Abraham such blessing as has continued ever since, “Because,” He said, “you have obeyed my voice.” Oh! obedience is a blessed thing! and it brings a blessing to the soul. Oh! yes, it is a happy thing to be faithful to God.

There was a gentleman the other day who said, “Now, here we are talking of these things and when we get into the next world, we will think very differently. We do not believe in all these meetings. To be sure, there is this excitement, and there is that excitement; but I doubt if there is a reality in the Revival.” “There is a downright reality in the Revival! My brother was converted in Kerry three years ago, and I was converted through what he said. And if you say the Revival is moonshine, I say, “It is not true, sir; for I know I am saved, and that I am to live forever in glory with Christ. And I know the reality for my own soul, and I know the reality in the souls of others.”

Oh! when we get up there, we will wonder that we were not more faithful to Him; and we will say, “Why did I not follow thee through black and white, through thick and thin; for thou art one worthy to be trusted.” May God give us grace to serve that blessed Jesus, and to put out of sight all fear, circumstances, everything, and say, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” If there be any people wanting a guide—I know I have often felt it myself; I have been engaged in things, questionable things; what is to be my rule and my guide? “If I am engaged in that, and the Lord Jesus Christ came, would I be ashamed, would I meet Him face to face?” There are different ways of meeting a friend. I may meet a friend, and yet feel ashamed to look him in the face; but when I meet a friend, and know there is nothing between us, I meet him face to face; I look him in the face. Now, dear friends, all I say is, if you want a guide with reference to any personal thing you are engaged in, just consider if the Lord Jesus came, “Lord Jesus, could I meet thee as a faithful bride?” Oh! let us trust God more! Let us confide in God more! Let us get outside man! Let us get outside our friends! and let us walk in charity and love! Not man first, and God second; but God first, and man second! Now, let us sing that hymn:

“My God we are thine,

What a comfort divine!

What a blessing to know

That my Jesus is mine.” Hallelujah! soon the glory!” &c.

"He Is Our Peace."

THOU art my peace―I lift mine eyes to Thee;

I see Thee bleeding, dying on the tree;

I hear Thy mournful voice, ‘twas all for me.

Thou art my peace.

Thou art my peace―I lay my trembling hand

Upon Thy wounded head, and fearless stand,

Nor dread the thunders of the law’s command.

Thou art my peace.

Thou art my peace―Thy face I cannot see;

My faith ebbs low, troubled my heart may be;

My life is sure―’tis hid in God with Thee.

Thou art my peace.

Thou art my peace—Mine inmost being thrills

At that blest thought; I rise above the ills

Of this dark world: with joy each hour it fills.

Thou art my peace.

Thou art my peace―though heart and hand may fail;

Tho’ earthly storms and angry winds prevail,

My hope is sure, anchored within the veil.

Thou art my peace.

Thou art my peace―a while, a little while

Of wandering here: though many an earthly wile

May draw me from the glory of Thy smile,

Thou art my peace.

Thou art my peace―Thou wilt not change to me:

Oh! make me ever closer cling to Thee,

Until that day when I Thy face shall see,

Where all is peace.

F. C. A.

"What Saith the Scriptures?"

“Our conscience is bound down by the Word of God: we can suffer all things, but we dare not overstep the Word of God. The Word of God most reign above all things, and remain the judge of all men.” ―Luther.

WHEN the tabernacle was pitched in the wilderness, what was the authority for its length and breadth? Why was the altar of incense to be placed here, and the brazen laver there? Why so many lambs or bullocks to be offered on a certain day? Why must the pass-over be roasted whole and not sodden? Simply and only because God had shown all these things to Moses in the holy mount; and thus had Jehovah spoken, “Look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shelved thee in the mount.” It is even so in the Church at the present day; true servants of God demand to see for all Church ordinances and doctrines, the express authority of the Church’s only Teacher and Lord. They remember that the Lord Jesus bade the apostles to teach believers to observe all things whatsoever He had commanded them, but He neither gave to them nor to any men power to alter his own commands. The Holy Ghost revealed much of precious truth and holy precept by the apostles, and to His teaching we would give earnest heed; but when men cite the authority of fathers, and councils, and bishops, we give place for subjection, no, not for an hour. They may quote Irenæus or Cyprian, Augustine or Chrysostom; they may remind us of the dogmas of Luther or Calvin; they may find authority in Simeon, or Wesley, or Gill — we will listen to the opinions of these great men with the respect which they deserve as men, but having so done, we deny that we have anything to do with these men as authorities in the Church of God, km there nothing has any authority, but “Thus saith the Lord of hosts.” Yea, if you shall bring us the concurrent consent of all tradition―if you shall quote precedents venerable with fifteen, sixteen, or seventeen centuries of antiquity, we burr the whole as so much worthless lumber, unless you put your finger upon the passages of Holy Writ which warrants the matter to be of God You may further plead, in addition to all this venerable authority, the beauty of the ceremony and its usefulness to those who partake therein but this is all foreign to the point, for to the trot Church of God the only question is this, Is then a “Thus saith the Lord” for it? And if divine authority be not forthcoming, faithful men thrust forth the intruder as “the cunning craftiness of men.”―Spurgeon.

“Earnestly contend for the faith ONCE delivered unto the saints. (Jude.) “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” (Colossians 2:8.) “Teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake.” (Titus 1:11.)

“To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” (Titus 1:11.)

“These were more noble than those of Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily whether these things were so.” (Acts 17:11.)

“He that is of God heareth God’s words.” (John 8:47.)

“SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES.”

Notes on the Book of Revelation.

Chapter 12:1-5.

WE here have another vision. It is very extensive in its range, though the subject is especially Israel. Perhaps it takes us back further than any part of the Apocalypse, even to the birth of Jesus, and carries us on to the remnant in affliction, just before the Lord himself appears as their deliverer. The woman spoken of in the first verse is described as “clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.” In referring to the book of Genesis, we find that one of Joseph’s dreams was, that “the sun and the moon and the twelve stars made obeisance to him;” and when he told it to his father. Jacob understood that the dream referred to himself, and the mother and brethren of Joseph; therefore he rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee on the earth.” (Genesis 37:9, 10.) From this we may gather, that the woman, in the opening of our chapter, refers to the house of Israel, from which, according to the flesh, our Lord came; for He was “the son of Abraham,” and was “made of the seed of David, according to the flesh;” (Matthew 1:1; Romans 1:3;) thus connected with all the promises to Abraham, and all the royalties through David. Therefore we read in the next verse, “And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.”

There was, however, another wonder in heaven, which we are told, in the ninth verse, was that old serpent which is called the Devil, and Satan. This terrible being is presented to us as a great red dragon, having seven heads, and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads, and drawing a third part of the stars of heaven with his tail, and casting them on the earth. Thus we see one mighty in person, terrible and fierce as a great devourer in appearance, and followed in the train by those whose proper element was heaven, but who, by his drawing, are cast into a lower region.; which may be those who have wandered from their exalted sphere, and become apostates in league with Satan, and to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.

The attitude this awful dragon takes, is that of watching for Messiah’s birth, and to swallow Him up, if possible. “The dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.” (verse 4.) Now, who can have attentively read the second chapter of Matthew, without seeing how literally this was accomplished! There we see, that directly the birth of Jesus was announced, that “Herod and all Jerusalem were troubled,” and that the king, as if imbued fully with the subtlety of the great deceiver, though he professed a desire to “worship” Jesus, only had an earnest longing “to destroy Him,” (Matthew 2:8,18,) and afterward in great wrath issued a command to put to death all the young children from two years old and under, hoping in this way to include the Son of God—the man child, who should yet have the heathen for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession. As we might expect, the entrance of Jesus into this world would be connected with a mighty opposing energy of Satan; so in no period of the Divine record do we find such hosts of Satanic powers working on the earth, and especially in the land of Israel, as during the days of our Lord in His flesh. We know, too, that though Herod’s murderous scheme only turned out to his utter confusion― to the complete failure of the roaring lion, yet we see him afterward as the wily serpent, tempting the blessed Lord with, “If thou be the Son of God,” &c. When again, as at all other times, the great red dragon was so utterly confounded, that the “devil left Him, and angels came and ministered unto Him.” From these records in the gospel, it is clear that Satan was especially set upon devouring this man child.

We are further told, “And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to His throne.” This shows us that, however the hatred of Satan and man might rage, yet the God of resurrection could raise up Jesus from the dead, and seat Him at His own right hand in the heavenlies. And what child was ever born of a woman, that will sway the universal scepter but Jesus? Who else shall rule the nations with a rod of iron, or break them to shivers as a potter’s vessel but Jesus? His death on the Cross, instead of checking the onward course of this man child, only manifested God’s love, and man’s wickedness; and was so infinitely meritorious to God, that we are told “He humbled himself, and was obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross; wherefore God Hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow,” &c. So we read, “the child was caught up to God, and His throne.” It is ascension that is here brought out; and while the church must always be included when the resurrection and ascension of Christ is brought out, nevertheless, the subject of this chapter is not the church, but the history of those (of Israel especially) who suffer under Satan and his great minister, the man of sin, during the Apocalyptic week. Though at present the people of Israel are virtually cut off, yet they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes; and though the ten tribes are scattered to the four winds, God is able to gather them again from the four winds; and, even before that, His eye will be upon a remnant of them for good and bring them through the fire of unparalleled tribulation and anguish, into their long promised blessing, when there shall be the days of heaven on the earth. (Deuteronomy 11:21.)

Service and Waiting.

Luke 19; John 14; Luke 5:23.

THESE Scriptures speak to us of service and waiting—of the season of separation between Jesus and His saints, and their occupation and watching while He tarries. In John 14 He tells us of His occupation for us― “I go to prepare a place for you.” “I am in heaven on your behalf, serving you there: when down here with you, I was your servant through all the varied details of human life; and now that I am going away from you into heaven, I shall be your willing servant there.” Yes, beloved, our blessed Lord Jesus has entered on His work for us with free and ready purpose of heart and intense delight, whereas we have to be set at the work: we need the exhortation, “Occupy till I come.”

And now tell me, what thoughts and desires fill the heart of Christ, while His hand is in service preparing the abode of love for us in the Father’s house? Oh! beloved―sweet blessed truth for our souls to drink in, to animate and sustain during His absence―the affections of His heart are reaching forth in anticipation of His joy in coming to receive us to Himself. Yes, though it may surprise us, the absorbing desire of our absent Lord is to have us with Himself, to see us by His side, to gaze upon us with delight. Now, I ask, what should be our attitude towards Him? Are our hearts for Him? How are they affected towards His coming again? In Matthew 25 we get the divine test whereby to judge. The wise and foolish virgins were together in going forth; but the foolish had no heart for Him; the affections were not awakened, as the lack of oil bespeaks. There was religiousness but no reality; and the answer to this we get in Luke 5:33: ― “Why do John’s disciples fast, and thy disciples fast not? When the Bridegroom is taken from them, then shall they fast.” This is the divine fast, the fast of earnest desire, the fast of the aching heart that has followed Himself up yonder, and yet looks, and waits, and gazes, and watches, to catch the first glimpse of Him when He returns; this is the real fast, the fast of faith. But, oh! the fast of human religiousness―how intolerable to faith! Put them, beloved, at an immeasurable distance. How abhorrent, I say again, is the fast of mere profession; but the fast under pressure of sorrow for an absent loved one meets heaven’s approval, gets God’s sanction and His eternal seal. Oh, beloved, are we in ready service for an absent Lord, and in joyful expectation of our loved Bridegroom. May our hands be active indeed, and our hearts earnestly desiring to see Him, to be with Him, to be met by Himself and brought in to our home, to sit down by His side, through a bright and blessed eternity.

Now, one word in conclusion. We see our blessed Lord Jesus surrounded by the glories of heaven, yet undistracted by them from His service for us. He serves faithfully and lovingly, and shall we suffer the wretched fascinations of the scene around to allure us away from any little measure of service we can do for His name. O for increased purpose of heart to glorify His name in our day and generation! Amen.

A Word to the Tried and Suffering Saints of God.

BELOVED in the Lord Jesus, be well assured that He, whose nature and whose name is love, will mete out to you the greatest possible measure of earthly happiness, and the least possible measure of earthly trial and suffering, compatible with the accomplishment of the gracious purpose of His everlasting love and with your welfare. What can you desire more than this to keep your soul, reposing on your heavenly Father’s love, in perfect peace? There is one verse, shining with pre-eminent splendor amidst a nucleus of bright and precious promises, which, more persuasively than ten thousand arguments, ought to rebuke every distrustful suspicion about God’s dealings, and silence every unbelieving fear about His love. “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” My brother, my sister, is not that verse worth ten thousand worlds to you? It is to me.

Do you doubt His love? What unnecessary suffering will He inflict on you, who, to save you from everlasting sufferings, spared not His own Son? What real good will He withhold from you, who withheld not Him? What real blessing will He not freely give you, who freely gave Him for you? What will He allow you to want, that is not better for you to want, who would not allow you to want everlasting salvation, though, to purchase it for you, He delivered up His own, His only, His well-beloved Son to death, even the death of the Cross? Oh! what a precious promise. How many weary pilgrims has it not already refreshed, comforted, gladdened! and it is, this moment, a never-failing spring of consolation and joy, as fresh, as full as ever. It is that wondrous question, “How shall He not?” which makes it so full of Divine comfort. It is the implied impossibility, because the implied insult to the Son of God, involved in the supposition that there is any blessing which He, who loved you well enough to give His own Son for you, does not love you well enough to give; as if there was some blessing dearer to the Father’s heart, more precious in the Father’s sight, than His own Son! Is there any dearer or more precious in yours, beloved one? Is there any you more highly prize, more earnestly desire, or would more gratefully receive? If you shudder at the thought, will you seem, by discontent, disquietude, or distrust, to tell God that there is such a blessing―one dearer and more precious to you than Christ Himself, the want of which strips that promise of its consolation?

Whatever, then, be your trials, your sufferings, cast yourself on this one verse, this one promise, and all will be peace and rest. Whatever your trials―for I say not that trials, deep, agonizing, desolating trials, may not be sent; but I do say, that if they are, they will be sent by the Father, even as He sent His Son, in love―they will come, as Jesus came; “with healing on their wings.”

The earthly props you have loved to lean upon may be all taken from you―it will only be that you may lean more confidently on the arm of Jesus. The earthly gourds, under whose shadow you so loved to repose, may all be withered―it will be only that you may rest in sweeter peace under the shadow of a Saviour’s love. The earthly cisterns, out of which you so delighted to drink, may all be broken―it will only be that you may drink more deeply from the fountain of living waters, the only fountain of satisfying happiness. Say of every dispensation, every trial, “It is well,” “My Jesus hath done all things well.” Be careful for nothing; for, for every need you have, there is a corresponding grace in Jesus. Be careful for nothing; but in a spirit of faithful carelessness cast all your care on Him, who so cares for, so loves you, that He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for you. Leave all cheerfully in His hands, receive all thankfully from His hands, and all will be well.

“Though we pass through tribulation,

All will be well.

Ours is such a full salvation―

All, all is well.

“Happy! still in God confiding;

Fruitful, if in Christ abiding;

Holy, through the Spirit’s guiding; ―

All must be well.

“We expect a bright tomorrow―

All will be well.

Faith can sing, through days of sorrow―

All, all is well.

“On our Father’s love relying,

Jesus every need supplying,

Or in living or in dying,

All must be well!”

T. S. H.

Genesis 15:13, 17.

A STRANGER and a pilgrim here,

I wander in a foreign land;

My home, my Father’s house, is there,

Whither He leads me by His hand:

And I am longing for the day

When this dark night shall pass away.

I speak a language quite unknown,

And tread a path that’s dark and drear,

To those whose hopes are here alone;

But Jesus says, “Be of good cheer;

Though all should fail, my love can’t cease:

Seek not earth’s joys, I am thy peace.”

Trial by fire is the lot

Of those who tread the path He trod:

They reign not, if they suffer not,

For suffering is the will of God;

And, in the blackest, darkest hour,

Will He display His greatest power.

For, when with fiery trial tried,

He bids us thus rejoice in Him;

So one with Him should we abide,

Partakers of His suffering;

And, when the smoking furnace burns,

God’s shining lamp my soul discerns.

Yes, we rejoice to tread the road

That leads where Christ has gone before,

That brings us fellowship with God,

Like Enoch, in the days of yore;

We will receive no smiles, but scorns,

Where our dear Lord was crown’d with thorns.

Oh! if we did not see His face,

Our walk would be a dreary way;

Lord! may we never fail to trace

Thy footsteps marked in blood each day,

Until has passed this “little while,”

And Thou shalt greet us with Thy smile!

J. W. T.

Believers' Meetings in Dublin.

IT is always happy when the children of God can meet together as such, to worship the Father, to rejoice in their precious Lord and Saviour, in dependence on the indwelling Comforter―the Holy Ghost; and to exhort, comfort, and edify one another in truth and love. Can anything on earth be more refreshing and profitable to us, or more pleasing to God? How sweet to see believers embracing each other, and meeting together as worshippers, feeling that the world is outside, and that they are shut in with Jesus “in the midst,” as “gathered together in His name.”

Hundreds of saints realized a goodly measure of these blessings at the half-yearly meeting of BELEIVERS lately held in Dublin. There was much earnest and united prayer before the period arrived. Some were so drawn out in supplication, as to spend much of one night in prayer to God for blessing. Many dear saints were invited from almost every part of Ireland, and some also from England and Scotland. The meetings were fixed for Tuesday and Wednesday, January 3rd and 4th. Many arrived on the Monday, and met several of the dear saints in Dublin that evening for prayer, when there was much earnest crying to God our Father in the name of Jesus for His help, guidance, and blessing on the expected meetings. It was delightful to see the joyous faces of the dear believers, and the fervency with which they greeted each other. Many residing in Dublin lovingly opened their houses, with the most cheering hospitality, to welcome those who had come from a distance, and brotherly love and confidence abounded on all sides.

Tuesday Morning.

Our space will only allow us to give a brief notice of the different addresses and other subjects of interest in those meetings. The first meeting was appointed at eight o’clock on Tuesday morning for prayer, in the Pillar-room of the Rotunda. Many were assembled, in spite of the cold wind and frost, soon after half-past seven, and were seen there apparently in quiet waiting upon God, before the light enabled persons to recognize each other distinctly. No man presided at these meetings and no one was called on to pray. The Lord was recognized “in the midst.” With the exception of singing two hymns and reading the first chapter of the first epistle of John, this meeting, which continued to half-past-nine, was one continuous out-pouring of heart in fervent prayer to God. The brevity and simplicity of the prayers, and the emphatic way in which many asked in the name of Jesus, were very striking. After this, many breakfasted together, when it was manifest that the intercourse was on the things of God. Prayer, praise, and reading the scripture occupied again some portion of the time before noon, when the next meeting at the Rotunda was held.

Tuesday Noon.

Now every part of the Pillar-room was occupied. It was a solemn time. After waiting on God in silent prayer, all hearts and voices joined in singing the hymn beginning―

All hail the power of Jesus name,

Let angels prostrate fall:

Bring forth the royal diadem,

And crown Him Lord of all.”

A suggestion was then made, that praise should be offered to God for so mercifully and abundantly answering prayer that had been made at the last half-yearly meeting for Sligo, when simultaneously all seemed to rise and sing―

Glory, honor, praise, and power,” etc.

Many requests for prayer for God’s blessing in many parts of Ireland were then read, but the requests for prayer for individuals were too numerous to bring before the meeting. Then, for nearly an hour, hearts were again lifted up in earnest crying to God, for His blessing on the gospel in many parts of Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales, Abyssinia, Ceylon, etc., etc.

There was then sung the well-known hymn beginning with―

“There Is a name I love to hear,

I love to sing its worth;

It sounds like music in mine ear, ―

The sweetest name on earth.”

Mr. DISNEY spoke of the importance of such meetings, the blessedness of Christians walking together, and forbearing one another in love. He called attention to Philippians 2:1-5― “If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind, Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus”―and exhorted believers to watch against pride of intellect, and self-love. He enlarged also on the importance of avoiding doing anything through strife or vainglory, and of esteeming others better than ourselves.

The hymn was then sung―

“My God I am thine―

What a comfort divine!

What a blessing to know

That my Jesus is mine!

Hallelujah, thine the glory!

Hallelujah, Amen.

Hallelujah, thine the glory!

Revive once again.”

To this a stanza from another hymn was added, ―

But come, Saviour, come,

And take us all home;

We long for the glory

With Thee on thy throne.

Hallelujah. thine the glory!

Hallelujah, Amen.

Hallelujah, soon the glory!

Come, Saviour, again.”

Mr. DENHAM SMITH remarked, that he felt exceedingly the solemnity of such a meeting―such a number of believers gathered together around Jesus. He said, “We read of five hundred brethren seeing the Lord at one time, but there is a much greater number than that now assembled.” He enlarged on the preciousness of believers to God; His grace in making us what we are; His full salvation, making us complete in Christ Jesus, who is the head of all principality and power. He referred also to the doctrine of “circumcision made without hands,” brought out in Colossians 2:11, ― “In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ,” to show how completely God had judged and set aside man in the flesh, and given us a standing of completeness in a risen Head. He sought also solemnly to lay on the conscience of believers the REALITY of these things. “We want, brethren,” said he, “to deal solemnly with ourselves in these matters. Are these things regarded by me and by you as REALITIES? Then how happy we ought to be.”.... He concluded by giving out the following hymn: ―

“A mind at perfect peace with God.

Oh, what a word is this! ―

A sinner reconciled through blood!

This, this indeed is peace.”

After which, Mr. BARTON prayed, and closed the meeting.

Tuesday Evening.

The Pillar-room was again quite crowded in every part. After silent waiting upon God, and singing, a great spirit of prayer was again manifested. For an hour or more there was incessant calling upon God, and the many requests sent in were earnestly presented to God in the name of Jesus. The hymn beginning―

Thy name we bless, Lord Jesus,

Thy name all names excelling,

How great Thy love,” etc.

was sung with great fervor, when Mr. H. GRATTAN GUINNESS made an earnest appeal to believers to seek after a higher standard of practical godliness, not to be content with the present measure, nor to rest short of anything less than being “filled with the Spirit:” then there would be meekness, gentleness, and love characterizing us.

Mr. T. W. TRENCH spoke of the errors he found, even among many believers, regarding what God has revealed in His word about judgment. He shewed first from John 5:24, that the believer was delivered from condemnation and judgment as to salvation, and that because his sins had been judged in Christ on the cross, and that condemnation had fallen upon Christ there instead of us. Secondly, that all believers would have to appear at the judgment seat of Christ; but that would not be a judgment as to salvation, but as to reward for our service. (2 Corinthians 5:10.) Thirdly, that Christ would judge the living nations when He comes in His glory, and that we shall then be with Him. He referred to the parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31-46) in proof of Christ thus judging the living nations, and showed that there was no idea there of resurrection. Fourthly, that Christ will judge all the dead at the great white throne, small and great, and that whosoever is not found written in the book of life will be cast into the lake of fire.

After singing―

“Lo, He comes with clouds descending,

Once for favored sinners slain;

Thousand, thousand saints attending,

Swell the triumph of His train:

Hallelujah!

Jesus comes on earth to reign.”

The meeting was concluded with prayer.

Wednesday Morning.

Soon after half-past seven again believers began to assemble. The meeting was much as on the previous morning, only it was evident that there was a growing spirit of prayer, and almost the whole time was taken up in earnest crying to God. The coming of the Lord was frequently referred to at all the meetings, though the subject was not so prominent as on some other occasions. At nearly ten o’clock the meeting separated after singing―

“Now in a song of grateful praise

To our dear Lord our voice we raise;

With all His saints well join to tell,

Our Jesus has done all things well,” etc.

Wednesday Noon.

After silent waiting on the Lord, and singing a hymn, a great number of requests for prayer were read, especially for God’s blessing on the gospel in various parts of Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, and other parts of the world. This was followed by many earnest, brief, pointed prayers. After which Mr. H. H. SHELL rose, and called attention to the very solemn and practical tone of these meetings. Almost all the addresses had been exhorting us to a higher character of walk. He believed that one mark of blessing resulting from these meetings would be an increase of personal, heart-felt fellowship with the Lord. We are the Lord’s―purchased, and made nigh to God by the blood of Christ―our present strength, joy, and blessing are connected with abiding in Him. We often feel need, we thirst for something we lack; what is the remedy? Looking away unto Jesus, hiding in Him, drinking more deeply into His love. The Israelites thirsted after they had tested of the water from the smitten rock; and what was their remedy? God commanded Moses to speak to the rock, and it shall give forth its waters” (you can read it in Numbers 20:7-11). We are told, in 1 Corinthians 10:4, that rock was Christ. There was need only to speak to the rock, and refreshing streams of water would flow out Moses sinned. He altered one word of God, he smote the rock, instead of speaking to it. How we should honor God’s word! How accurate it is! Water, however, came out, and the Israelites were refreshed. They not only saw the water, but they drank it. We should drink in the living stream of God’s love in Christ by meditating on the scriptures. Two results followed: first, they were courteous to the Edomites; and secondly, they fought the battles of the Lord valiantly. He then concluded by referring to illustrations in the New Testament, to shew the necessity of personal communion with the Lord Jesus for peace of soul, godly walk, and service.

Mr. WHITFIELD read Psalms 27:1-4. He remarked on the blessedness of having God For our light, salvation, and strength, as giving full deliverance from all fear, and victory in every conflict. He pointed out also the importance of a single eye― “one thing have I desired of the Lord,”―and the need of watchfulness; but through sin a cloud may come on the conscience, and separate our souls from communion with God.

Mr. RAINSFORD spoke on the security of the believer as presented to us in Hebrews 6:13, 20. He began by noticing that God’s motives and resources are all in Himself. “I will bless thee,” that is, without fail, without measure and without end. He said that the sincerity of the intention of the Promiser, the stability of God’s purpose, and the certainty of the fulfillment of it, the very things that unbelief questions, are the very things to which God swears to. That the blessing of Abraham was at least the promise of the Seed-justification, adoption, the promise of the Holy Ghost, and of the inheritance. He also enlarged on the oath of God in addition to the promise, being not to make the blessing more certain, but to give us “strong consolation.” That believers are here spoken of as “heirs of promise,” and as “having fled for refuge to lay bold of the hope set before us.”

After singing―

“I’m pilgrim and a stranger.

Rough and thorny is the road,

Often in the midst of danger;

But it leads to God,” etc.

Mr. BARTON closed the meeting with prayer.

Wednesday Evening.

The room was very crowded. After singing, reading a large number of requests for prayer, sad much supplication, Mr. CODE read Exodus 13:1-16. He drew attention to God’s speaking there of the first-born of Israel as His own, and typical of us: “Sanctify unto me―they are mine.” Four times we are told, “By strength of hand have I brought them out of Egypt.” They were God’s; redeemed by power, and by blood. This is what God has done for us, we are made nigh to God by the blood of Christ, quickened together, raised up together, and made sit together in heavenly places in Christ. We are God’s. He says of us, “They are mine.” He then made some important remarks on sanctification― “Sanctify unto me”―and enlarged on our obligations as God’s dear children to be separate from all evil. He referred to the seventh verse to show how decided God is on this point. First, they were to eat unleavened bread—a type of Christ. Secondly, no leavened bread was to be seen with them; third, no leaven, which would make leavened bread, was to be seen in all their quarters.

There was then sung―

“Jesus! the name I love so well,

The name I love to bear;

No saint on earth its worth can tell,

No heart conceive how dear.

“This name shall shed its fragrance still

Along the thorny road,

Shall sweetly smooth the rugged hill

That leads me up to God.

“And there, with all the blood-bought throng,

From sin and sorrow free,

I’ll sing the new eternal song

Of Jesus love to me.

Mr. JOHN HAMBLETON gave an address, on “Jesus only.” First he exhorted the Lord’s children to think of “Jesus only” as their wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. And secondly, although there was reason to believe that scarcely any unconverted persons were present, still, if there were only a few, he affectionately addressed them on “Jesus only” being God’s way of salvation, and earnestly warned them to flee from the wrath to come.

Mr. H. G. GUINNESS then gave out―

“Yes, we part, but not forever;

Joyful hopes our bosoms swell;

They who love the Saviour never

Know a long, a last farewell.

Blissful unions

Lie beyond the parting vale.

“O, what meetings are before us:

Brighter far than tongue can tell:

Glorious meetings, to restore us

Him with whom we long to dwell.

With what raptures

Will the sight our passions swell.”

Before singing he briefly called attention to the solemnity of such meetings, and the need of watchfulness lest we brought unbelieving prayers to God, instead of the prayer of faith: “Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.”

These happy meetings were closed with prayer.

Thursday Morning, January fifth.

A christian gentleman invited about 150 believers to breakfast at an hotel, after which there was again exposition of the scriptures and prayer. At noon, they were all conveyed in carriages to his residence, about five miles from Dublin, to an early dinner; after which meetings of the same character were resumed. After asking the blessing of God in prayer, Mr. RAINSFORD spoke of the goodness of God― His character, the blessing of those who trusted Him, and the recognition of such that God had, is taught in Nahum 1:7. “The Lord is good, He is a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knoweth them that trust in Him.”

Mr. J. T. TRENCH said that much had been brought before us at the late meetings on practical godliness, but he thought there were three things necessary for spiritual attainment. First, the right object; secondly, right principles; thirdly, power—the power of the Holy Ghost. He happily enlarged on these points, and gave several illustrations from scripture.

Mr. W. REID; of Edinburgh, referred to parts of Colossians 2, to show that God in His rich grace called us into union with Christ our Head, “having forgiven us all trespasses,” and exhorted believers to rely on God for grace and strength for practical holiness, and all other things: God having given us His Son; what then can He withhold?

The meeting was adjourned till after tea, when Mr. H. H. Sward, referred to the three things brought forward in the afternoon by Mr. Trench, and said that if we would have “right principles,” they could only be got from God’s word, and that by prayerful, diligent searching. Never, perhaps, was there more need of this than in the present day. We should refuse everything that has not the authority of the written word of God. The importance of rightly dividing the word of truth can scarcely be overrated; for we live in a lay when a number of opposite things are jumbled together, and great confusion is the result. What can be more distinct in scripture than “law” and “gospel?” How many times too the word gospel is presented in scripture in various aspects. We read of “the gospel preached to Abraham,” “the gospel of the kingdom,” “the gospel of the grace of God,” “the gospel of Christ,” “gospel of God,” what Paul called “my gospel,” and” the everlasting gospel.” Surely these various expressions are not given to us without a meaning. Then, again, you bear some speaking of “the kingdom of heaven,” and “the church,” as if they were synonymous lie then called attention to the following texts, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2); “The church, which is His body” (Ephesians 1:22, 23); and, “the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign forever and ever. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their thrones, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God” (Revelation 11:15, 16); and then endeavored to shew the difference between “the kingdom of heaven” and “the church of God,” as an example of the necessity of digging deeply into the Scriptures, if we would have right principles.

Mr. TURPIN called attention to believers walking in love, to put on, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, &c.

Mr. J. ALFRED TRENCH most solemnly and earnestly called attention to the Lordship of Christ, as emphatically a truth for the times. He referred to the way in which this was set aside by many, and that Jude spoke of the last times as characterized by “denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.” He shewed that the Holy Ghost alone taught us to own and confess Jesus as Lord (1 Corinthians 12:3) that when evil abounded among the Corinthian saints, the Holy Ghost, through the apostle, continually in his First Epistle, insisted on the Lordship of Christ; and in Paul’s Second Epistle to Timothy, when also terrible failure had set in, he most pointedly called attention to the Lordship of Jesus. He also gave references to Scripture, to shew the blessing always connected with obeying the Lord Jesus, and gave earnest exhortations to believers, to search and see if any were lacking in punctually carrying out the commands of Jesus our Lord.

Mr. T. S. HENRY then gave out the hymn beginning―

Lord Jesus, are we one with thee?

O height, O depth of level

Once slain for He upon the tree,

We’re one with thee above;”

and the meeting separated.

Friday, January 6th.

Today upwards of 100 believers breakfasted, dined, and took tea together, at the invitation of another Christian gentleman. A good part of the day was spent in united prayer, and short expositions of the Scriptures. Mr. Bewley read Romans 14 to 15:6. Mr. Whitfield spoke on the necessity of being without care, making our requests known unto God, and being thankful, if we would experience “the peace of God;” and also on dwelling on things godly, to enjoy the presence of “the God of peace.” Mr. Reid exhorted to walking in love, &c., and Mr. Rainsford expounded Paul’s prayer to the Ephesian saints, in chapter 3. In the evening Mr. Bewley read John 15. Mr. Code called attention to verse 3, “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you,” and shewed that all our blessing proceeds from God’s perfect love to us, and that it is so complete that “He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified,” and we are also told, that “as He is, so are we in this world.” Mr. Cross made, also, some remarks on the two natures of the believer. Mr. Disney also called attention to the connection between love and knowledge in Philippians 1, “That your love may abound yet more and more in all knowledge, and in all judgment.” After which the meeting concluded by singing, “Glory, honor, praise, and power.”

Saturday Evening.

Another Christian gentleman invited several believers to tea, and to spend the evening in prayer and praise, in reference to the meetings of the week. It was a blessed time. About fifty prayers were uninterruptedly presented to God; for the most part brief, pointed, and earnest. At the request of some English present, prayer was often made for revival of the work of God in England. After which Mr. SNELL remarked, that he judged that the secret of their blessing in Ireland was the earnest, simple spirit of prayer to the Father in the name of Jesus. He exhorted them to watch on this point, and to be alarmed the moment the spirit of prayer declined. He read parts of Revelation 17 18. 19, and 21 to show―1st, that there was a mighty power of Satan all around us, and that we needed the power of the Spirit as much to discern “the harlot,” as “the Bride the Lamb’s wife;” 2nd, in Babylon “gold” stands at the top of the list, and “souls of men” last; with true, earnest saints the worth of souls was uppermost; 3rd, Babylon, the false thing, is most attractive to the senses, but gives nothing for the conscience and heart— her wine from the golden cup only intoxicates; 4th, our glory is not in scarlet and precious atones, but the fine linen a the righteousness of saints, and our cup is the cup of blessing―the communion of the blood of Christ. Drinking of this cup, we shall flourish and prosper in the things of God. Let a beware of taking even a sip out of the harlot’s cup.

Mr. J. HAMELETON said he would like to add a few words to confirm what had just been said He exhorted the dear saints in Ireland to cultivate this spirit of prayer, and to watch against the ten thousand ways in which Satan is seeking to allure us through the eye and ear, and hoped we should discern between those things which differed, and live upon “Jesus only,” hold fast “Jesus only,” drink out of the cup of “Jesus only,” and glory in “Jesus only.”

The believers now separated, blessing God for a week of remarkable refreshment and blessing, after singing―

Now, to a song of grateful praise,

To our dear Lord our voice will raise;

With all His saints will join to tell,

Our Jesus, has done all things well.”

Familiar Letters From a Father to His Children, on "The Four Empires."

No. 5.

MY DEAR CHILDREN, ―The subject of this letter is the empire which succeeded the Babylonian; viz., the Medo-Persian, described in the dream by the words, “His breast and arms of silver,” and in the interpretation by, “After thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee.” Now as this second kingdom in extent was far wider than the Babylonian, for towards the north it extended to lake Aral, towards the east as far as the Indus, embracing the Bactrian provinces, where our armies a few years ago suffered such disasters, whilst to the west its power was recognized in Europe, that is, in Macedonia and Greece, we must find some reason for this inferiority. Such is to be found in the character of its power, and this in two ways: first, in that Nebuchadnezzar’s was an absolute despotism uncontrolled by any human laws whatever. He seems to have decreed, to have annulled-decrees to have put to death, and to have kept alive, just as he chose. This reads us the lesson of how thoroughly misused the power was that God gave him, as, indeed, everything given by God to man is misused to his own purposes. Now in the Persian empire the king appears to have been subject even to his own laws, and unable to rescind them, however foolish and unreasonable they might have been—more honored in their breach than their observance. This we see in the case of Daniel in the lions’ den, although Darius would have wished it, he could not release him; for, as said the counselors, the law of the Medes and Persians altereth not. Nor could Ahasuerus, in the time of Esther, alter the decree for the slaying of the Jews, although he might make another that they should defend themselves. Secondly, whilst Nebuchadnezzar succeeded in everything he undertook (he was “the hammer of the whole earth”), whilst nobody ever withstood his arms, or rebelled against him with success, the Persian history has its reverse side. Cyrus himself, the founder of the empire, was slain in battle, in an unsuccessful attempt upon a rude people of the north―the Massagetœ―and from that time till its fall, although it lasted nearly 210 years, it had to contend against treason within and rebellion without. Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, was six years in Egypt, quelling a revolt of the Egyptians, in which country he died. Then there was the usurpation of Smerdis; and after this, when Darius had established himself, there was the rebellion of Babylon once, if not twice, and numerous other insurrections; so that his tablets record principally his successful putting down of rebellious provinces. He himself had to retreat from the Scythians, in an expedition over the Danube. It was in his reign that Greece came into prominence. In it was the battle of Marathon; and although his generals took and burnt Athens, yet they never could subdue the territory; and after his death, it was one great retrogression.

This slight sketch of the Persian empire in her palmy days, will account for the expression, “inferior to thee;” for silver, as a metal, is inferior to gold. It was larger in extent, but the autocratic rule and the complete success was no longer there.

But we must begin with its rise, and the reason of its combined name of Medo-Persian. Some have supposed an ancient Median kingdom, with Babylon for its capital, before the Chaldean kingdom commenced; but when reliable history begins, the Medes’ capital was at Ecbatana, in a beautiful situation among the mountains, built by Dejoces, the first king, about 712 B.C. It was ever after the summer residence of the kings of Persia. In the dynasty beginning with Dejoces, Media became very powerful, and subjugated Persia, whilst Assyria, her neighbor, being correspondingly weakened by the incursions of the Scythians, and other misfortunes, Cyaxares, the king, with the help of Nabopolassar, the father of Nebuchadnezzar, took and destroyed Nineveh. Nebuchadnezzar married the Median king’s daughter, and there was a sort of alliance between them, to the advantage, of course of Babylon. But, as with the successors of Nebuchadnezzar the empire declined, Media assumed a flesh importance, having become incorporated with Persia. Now we come to the history of Cyrus. In Isaiah 44:28, 45, Jehovah thus speaks of him: “That smith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.” “Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings to open before him the two leaved gates,” &c. This was written about 712 B.C., perhaps 150 years before Cyrus was born, and the two leaved gates of Babylon set up. We see that he was chosen to destroy Babylon, and to liberate the Jewish captives, that Jerusalem, both city and temple, might be rebuilt. Herodotus, the Greek, called the father of history, and who furnishes the principal out lines of our history, has a long story about the circumstances of his birth and education; how that he was the grandson of the Median king Astyages, whose daughter was married to a Media Persian chief, Cambyses, whose son, therefore was Cyrus. His grandfather tried to dispose of him by death, owing to a terrible dream which he had; but in an unforeseen manner his purpose was frustrated, and he grew up, being, as was supposed, the son of a herdsman; but his rank being discovered, he was sent for by his grandfather into Media, where his brilliant talent, became known. Subsequently he returned ta Persia, and organized the forces in that country and raised her in the scale of nations. As to whether he dethroned his grandfather, and tit became king or whether upon the death of Astyages he reigned, or whether he had a sort of joint authority with his uncle, Cyaxares, commending his armies until that king’s death history varies. Most probably the latter is the fact, as Scripture gives prominence to Media a first. (Daniel 5:31.) That one intended by God’s decree for such a destiny had a fitting education we may be sure; therefore, the story of his early education need not be rejected, although Xenophon, another historian, gives quite a different account. His first public expedition, when it the prime of his life, was against Crœsus, king of Lydia, of whom you have heard in the proverb “As rich as Crcœsus.” This king had dominion over all Asia Minor, with his capital at Sardis near the sea-coast, and afterward the seat of one of the seven churches of Asia. Dreading the greatness of Persia, he had formed alliance with Babylon, and other independent powers grown so under the weak rule of the successors of Nebuchadnezzar, and had attacked Cyrus. After the great but indecisive battle of Thymbra, in Lydia, he found himself obliged to retire to Sardis where Cyrus vigorously pursued him, and took the capital after a siege. He spared the king’s life, whoever after became his friend and adviser. Finding the governors of some of the provinces of Babylon indisposed towards that city, he ingratiated himself with them, and subdued others until at last he became acknowledged as the chief power in Asia. He is well known, and much celebrated in independent Persian history for his achievements under the name of Ka Khoosroo. The Lord says of him, “I have sur named thee, though thou hast not known me;” yet, although this was the case, according to hit light he was a religions man, always giving honour to the Deity. Besides which, he was temperate in his habits, and inured to fatigue and was not, strictly speaking, a worshipper of idols. It was whilst in Asia Minor that he first became acquainted with the Greeks, who were settled in great numbers in these parts; ―that people who, during the whole time of the Persian monarchy, caused it so much trouble, and eventually supplanted it. Having settled the affairs of Asia Minor, it is said that he made successful campaigns in Syria and Arabia. At last the only city in the East which disputed his power was Babylon.

It was from sixteen to twenty years after he had attacked and taken Sardis, before he had accomplished the subjugation of all other parts of Asia and Egypt. He now left Susa to attack the great city, according to the decree, “Make bright the arrows, gather the shields; for the Lord hath raised up the spirit of the king of the Medea; for his device is against Babylon to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of His temple.” The Babylonians having tried one battle outside the city, retired within it, not fearing their ability to withstand all the efforts of Cyrus; for the walls and gates were in excellent order, and the city provisioned for many years, by the prudent counsels of Nitocris, the queen mother, who, ever since the fall of Sardis, had foreseen and feared the power of Persia. But all was vain against the decree of Jehovah. Having been some time before the walls, without any seeming hopes of taking it, he bethought him either of the old lake made by a former queen, who, as I told you, had dug it for the reception of the Euphrates, whilst she scarped and bricked the banks of the river running through the city, and placed in its bed the buttresses for the bridge; or, perhaps, following her idea, made a new one. When all was ready, he posted a division of his army at one end of the city, nearest the river, with orders that they should wade into its waters, when they were seen to fall and become fordable. Meanwhile, he drew off the rest of his army to the work of the lake, with its dikes and the sluice, by which the waters were to run into it. Scripture gives the name of the Babylonian king as Belshazzar―a word compounded in part of Bel, or Jupiter, this being his protecting deity. Cyrus chose the time of the annual feast day in honor of the god, when the king feasted with his nobles, and praised “the gods of gold,” for the attack, as being the time most likely to find the city off its guard; therefore, letting off the river from above the city into the sluice, the troops marched into it, and finding the river gates leading from the streets open, rushed up the steps into Babylon. The city was so large, that it was morning before a part of its inhabitants knew of the attack. (Jeremiah 2:31.) All was dismay; the king was slain, and the fortresses delivered up next day.

You remember, my dear children, the solemn and instructive account of this last day of Babylon’s power, as given in Daniel 5. The king, not content to drink wine with his lords at a great feast, must send for the golden and silver vessels which had been brought from the temple by Nebuchadnezzar, that they might use them in their revelry. Upon this came forth the fingers of a man’s band, and wrote upon the wall the sentence of the end of the Babylonian kingdom. Daniel was still alive, although he can hardly have been less than eighty years of age. He had, in all probability, lost his post and honors at the death of Nebuchadnezzar, and had lived in retirement, well aware, from Daniel 8, 9, of the speedy end of the Nebuchadnezzar dynasty. When this terrible sight appeared, the king, trembling and affrighted in the midst of his assembled lords, sent for the astrologers; but they could neither read the writing, nor tell the interpretation, till, by the advice of the queen mother, Daniel was sent for, who did both. From this time Babylon occupies an inferior place. Cyrus broke down―made great breaches, I suppose―in its walls; but it was strong enough to rebel against Darius, who still further demolished them, although he and his successors held their court there occasionally; but they seem to have been in part standing in Herodotus’s time, and it was evident that Alexander (for it still retained a sort of glory) had the thought of rebuilding it, and making it the metropolis of his empire, when death seized on him. The Seleucidoæ, his successors, deserted it for Seleucia, and used its materials for that city. It was afterward a hunting ground, says St. Jerome, for the Parthian monarchs. Its site, at present, is recognized, or, at all events, its features, with difficulty; but there is a great vitrified mass of brick, supposed to be the remains of the temple of Belus, on the site, perhaps, of the tower of Babel itself. Scripture has long pronounced its doom, and the few travelers who have visited it invariably witness to the singular agreement of its present state with these predictions: “Because of the wrath of the Lord, it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate: every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues.” (Jeremiah 1:13.)

I remain, your affectionate father,

Readings for the Young.

Conversion; What it is.

IN the year 1862, a Miss H―, sister of a young man who at that time lived in the village of G―, came to reside with some friends of hers who lived at C―, some three miles off. Hearing that she was consumptive, and was not likely to recover, I asked her brother whether with her the great matter of her soul’s salvation was settled. He told me that she was very careless about the things of the next world, and that she did not seem to think of herself as being in any danger. We agreed to pray for her conversion; and accordingly knelt down and prayed earnestly that God would convert her, and give her to know Jesus as her Saviour. We also subsequently prayed for her at the regular prayer meeting, where the Lord’s presence was often manifested in power. Still no answer came.

Weeks rolled on, and I heard that she had left C —, and had gone to the Co. Kildare.

Looking at circumstances, instead of at God’s Word, doubts came in on my mind; and as there daily seemed less prospect of her meeting any who would speak to her of her immortal soul, I feared that we had lifted up our hearts in vain and that the Lord was not going to grant out request.

We are but too ready in such cases to look to circumstances, instead of to the faithfulness of God. We should be ashamed to treat an earthly father with as little confidence as we grudge to Bestow on our heavenly Father.

About this time I happened to ride down to be railway station, where Miss H―’s mother had just arrived. She came up to me, and at once asked me whether she could get lodgings in G― for her daughter, who was very ill, as she had heard G― was a very healthy place. It at once flashed across my mind, the Lord had heard our prayers, and that He was now going to send her to G―, and would convert her there. What a contrast the Lord’s faithfulness is to our faithlessness!

Lodgings were at once taken for her in a Christian family. A few days after her arrival, a Mr. A―, who was staying at G―, called it the house, and spoke seriously to her about the danger of her present condition, and the ill-sufficiency of the blood of Jesus as a satisfaction for sin. She said that she was not saved; she was anxious about her soul, but she seemed unable to accept of the sacrifice of Christ as an expiation for her sin.

At this time a friend of hers came in, and warmly disputed something which Mr. A―had said. During this discussion the light broke in on Miss H―’s soul. She saw that Jesus was a fit Saviour for herself; she then and there appropriated to herself His atonement for sin. She relied on it as having made full satisfaction to God for her transgressions; and as she did so, she passed from death unto life, never again to come under death’s dominion. Our prayer was answered. She was converted to God.

How strange that for 1800 years Christ’s atonement for sin has been steadily rejected by hell-deserving sinners, who are merely kept by the brittle thread of life from dropping into everlasting fire. Reader, are you saved? or are you still a Christ rejecter?

From the moment Miss H― was saved, (not before, as many seem to think necessary,) her life was changed. From being careless and thoughtless, she became a Bible-reading, thoughtful, earnest Christian. Though harassed with many a fiery dart from the wicked one, she enjoyed a quiet certainty of coming glory. Many a time have we wondered at her knowledge of the Word of God, and at her spiritual apprehension of those deep truths which the Holy Ghost loves to unfold concerning Christ.

Her weakness steadily increased. Her cough became more frequent. She was at length unable to go out, or even to rise. During the severe fits of coughing, her sufferings were heart-rending to her friends. She alone seemed not to mind them.

As her bodily strength was on the decrease, her spiritual strength seemed to be renewed day by day.

“Oh, mother,” she said to her whom she loved most on earth, “what should I do now, if at this time I had to seek for my Saviour?” And, at another time to her cousin, “After all, it is a simple thing to believe in Jesus.”

As she neared the heavenly land, all her doubts and fears seemed to melt away; and the enemy’s darts, ere they could reach her, seemed broken on some invisible shield.

She sent for me to say, “Good-bye, for the present.” She was only able to speak in a very low whisper; but her mother told me afterward, how she had said she longed to tell me all that her precious Saviour was to her at that moment. This was death-bed testimony to that power of Jesus which He loves to impart to His believers.

The struggle of nature was now almost over; and as she lay, supported by her mother and a friend, she waved her hand over her head, as for a victory which had been fought and won for her on Calvary. In a moment her spirit was gone, to be forever with the Lord. We, believers in Jesus, who shall be alive upon earth when He comes again, shall see Miss H―, and we shall be caught up together with her in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore let us comfort one another with these words. (1 Them 4:17, 18.) Reader, do you understand these things?

A Child of Ten Years.

IN a poor unwholesome home, a little time ago, a father died of fever. He left as desolate a some as I had ever seen. On the burial night, his widow and children were seated by the fire; the only daughter, a child of ten years, looking with a wearied look into her mother’s face said, “Mother, how sore my head is!” Next day fever in her was also developed, and for the safety of the rest she was ordered to the infirmary. She was one of our Sunday school children. Just before the twilight hour the Infirmary van came to take her. In times of trouble you often see among the poor a quiet strength that rises to heroism. When the wheels of the van were heard in the lane, and pausing at the door, there was simply “Maggie, they have come for you now.” To prepare to go, the child at once raised her aching head from the pillow, with her artless, “Mother, ye ken I may not come back to you again. Will the man wait till I sing my hymn?” And with a quivering voice she began with,

“Come, sing to are of heaven,

When I’m about to die,

Sing songs of holy ecstasy

To watt my soul on high.”

After a moment’s pause she took up the chorus of another favorite hymn with our scholars: ―

“Here in the body pent,

Absent from thee I roam,

Yet nightly pitch lily moving tent

A day’s march nearer home, Nearer home.”

And so they carried the ailing child that night, with joyous thoughts like these filling her young heart, to pitch her tent in the place where the journey from this to the eternal world is so short and so often made.

O blessed Salvation, this of Jesus! Blessed to the child of ten as well as to the sage of seventy years. “This is but a child’s religion,” you say: Yes, and is it not the glory of the Gospel that it does give strength and gladness to the young heart? The most childlike are most blessed by it. Jesus the loving Saviour will yet, as when on earth, deal gently with the little ones; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

Peace With God.

“DO tell me what I should say to one who would like to believe, but who can’t believe?” said a lady to Captain ― and myself, as we were sitting quietly one morning, talking to her about the Lord’s work, and of souls who had lately found peace in believing.

“I don’t know what to say in such a case,” I said.

“You must only pray for her,” said my friend.

“Oh, but I have been praying,” said the lady, “and I see no answer.”

“Well, you must only wait for the answer; she will be saved yet,” said my friend.

“Oh, but I can’t wait,” said the lady, suddenly, clasping her hands together.

I felt a strange inclination to go and call on her husband, who was occupied elsewhere, and whose acquaintance I had not yet made; and still I thought it would look so odd, if I got up and left them there and yet may-hap I thought it is of the Spirit of God, and now’s the time which He has selected.

I took up my hat suddenly, and said, I beg your pardon, Mrs.―; you will excuse me for a little: and I left the house before they had well time to ask me where I was going. I went straight to where I knew Mr. was engaged I introduced myself as one who had the pleasure of knowing Mrs.―, and wished to make his acquaintance.

He was very courteous, and kindly asked me into his own private office.

“Mr.―,” I asked, as soon as we got in have you got everlasting life?”

“Well, indeed, I am afraid not, Mr.―,” he replied.

“Why not,” I said; “have you ever considered that sin-an unsettled account of sin―is the only thing standing between a sinner are God?”

“I know it.”

“Well, and what is the penalty attached to the commission of sin?”

“Death,” he said.

“Yes,” I added, “the wages of sin is death, and how are you going to pay that debt?”

“I’m sure I don’t know.”

“It is eternal death, and you can never pay it. God wanted to have your soul saved, and seeing that you could never pay that debt, He gave His own Son to pay the debt, and He has paid it.”

“Did He suffer death for His own sins?”

“No, certainly not.”

“Well, has Christ’s death satisfied God’s demands with regard to sin.”

“It has,” he said.

“Well,” said I, “why ain’t you satisfied with what God is satisfied? Do you acknowledge that is God’s Word,” pointing to the New Testament?

“I do, indeed,” he said; “I believe one ought to have the most absolute confidence in all God says therein.”

“And do you believe that Christ’s death has fully met all God’s demands for sin?”

“I do believe it,” he said.

“Then God is reconciled now, and fully satisfied with the death of Christ?”

“Then nothing now remains between you and God,” I added. “Christ has paid the debt, God is satisfied, and so are you; it is set down to your account.”

“I believe,” he added, “what God has written, but I don’t feel anything.”

“God does not want you to feel anything,” I said. Look here: “He that believeth on me hath everlasting life” ―not a word about feeling.

“Well, I believe on Him.”

“Then, in that case, do you see that you have it written in God’s Word that you have everlasting life?”

“I do,” he said.

“Will you believe God’s word?” I said.

“I will,” said he, with a firm voice.

“Can you stay on it?”

“I can,” he said in a determined way.

“Well, good bye, Mr.― God bless you. I have got nothing more than you have. I stand or I fall on that word, and I stake my whole soul on its truth.” We shook hands warmly, and I hurried back to rejoin Mrs.― and Captain―.

They had been holding an interesting conversation, and did not even ask me where I had been. I did not tell them, and we soon after got up and left the house.

That whole day I was much drawn out in prayer for the soul with whom I had been having such a deeply interesting conversation.

That evening we had a prayer meeting. To my surprise Mr.―, who had never attended one before, came in boldly, and sat down, listening evidently with pleasure to the address. His wife, who had before been at the meetings, did not come on this occasion, being engaged at a small party at the clergyman’s house, from which he had contrived to get away.

After the meeting a large number remained, while some hurried out, perhaps lest Captain or I should speak to them too personally about the precious Saviour.

Mr.―, on the contrary, deliberately sat down, and soon after, being near him, I said, “Well, Mr.―, is it all clear now?”

“I don’t feel anything,” he said.

“Well, no matter,” I said, “about the feeling. Do you see it written in God’s Word that you have eternal life?”

“I do,” he said.

“And you believe it?” I said.

“I do,” he added; and once more we parted, he giving me a warm grasp of the hand. I called on him the next day.

“Well, Mr.―, you see it all now?”

“I feel a great change today,” he added, with such a sweet smile!

I was going to say, “Never mind your feelings;” but I saw he was resting not on his feelings, but on the Word of the living God; so I said, “It’s very simple, is it not?”

“Very; it’s so simple that one can scarcely believe it.”

“And yet if it was difficult it would never do for us. It’s great happiness, is it not?”

“Oh yes, it’s great peace―it’s the peace of God,” he said thoughtfully.

“It’s a remarkable fact,” said he to me one day, “that if you had come to me on any other day, or at any other hour, and spoken to me on such a subject, I should have turned you out of the house.”

I think I can see you, dear reader, looking up, as you close this little story. Mayhap you are thinking about “Peace with God.” If you have not got it, all the happiness which this world can give you is not worth a straw.

Familiar Letters From a Father to His Children, on "The Times of the Gentiles."

No. 6.

MY DEAR CHILDREN, ―The history of the second or Medo-Persian Empire is full of incident. We know hardly anything of the Babylonian, except from Herodotus and Ctesias (who are not always trustworthy), and from the Bible; but of the Persian we derive accounts from many channels. First, we have several books in the Bible in which Jewish history is intertwined with Persian, as Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Daniel, Haggai, Zechariah, &c. Secondly, in some of the Apocryphal books, we have notices of this monarchy. Thirdly, in some of the Greek plays of Æschylus and others. Fourthly, the old history of Persia by native authors. Fifthly, besides Herodotus, and Xenophon, we have the writers of the history of Alexander the Great, as Arrian; but he did not live till the first century after Christ. Finally, the remarkable corroboration of history in “the rolls” (Ezra 6:1) of the kingdom lately discovered and laid bare to us by the interpretations of Rawlinson and others. These “rolls” are clay cylinders, inscribed with arrow-headed or cuneiform characters.

I am inclined, however, before we enter into the history and end of this second monarchy, to tell you something about the internal condition or civilization in the East generally. We may be quite sure that these regions were the cradle of the arts and sciences; I might rather say that they sprung up there in ripe maturity. We are so apt to think that nothing has been known till our own time; but in truth it is rather a question whether we could achieve, in many branches of science now known to us, the great works which they accomplished. Instead of wearying you with architectural details, I will give an instance or two of the size of some of the stones in their buildings. Thus, in the foundation platform upon which the temple of Jerusalem stood, there are stones which run as much as twenty-four and a half feet long, and five feet four inches deep; and a modern author tells us he measured, in the old foundations of insular Tyre, a stone, regularly hewn and beveled, of nearly seventeen feet long and six-and-a-half thick. They understood the arts of weaving and dyeing. They wrought iron and steel, and worked ‘the precious metals into ornaments of all sorts. The burning fiery furnace into which the three youths were cast was heated seven times more than usual; by which we learn that such furnaces were in use for the casting of statues, gates, &c. &c. They understood graving; this is proved by the cuneiform writing which is frequently found, most beautifully engraved, on obelisks of hard stone. They must have studied geometry with effect, from the excellence of their buildings; and all allow they had a considerable knowledge of astronomy. As to music and painting, of the former they knew probably less than of the latter; but we have no means of knowing, except that in Daniel we hear of “the cornet, flute, and harp,” &c. Their paintings were elaborated with much care; but no nation of antiquity appears to have understood the art of perspective. They seem to have been acquainted also with the laws of hydrostatics, that is, of the pressure of water, if the enormous reservoirs and embankments which they made are a fair indication. But you may inquire, Whence and how did all this knowledge come? My answer is, they always possessed it, ever since the flood, ever since Noah landed on the new earth. But to show yet this we must go back to the fall of man. Adam after he fell, was neither an idolater nor a savage Although death entered, and he was sent forth to till the ground, which through his fall had inherited the thorn and the thistle, yet his mind was as capacious as ever, and he must have transmitted to his posterity through his lengthened existence that knowledge of the resources of the earth, and that intuitive perception of the uses which things upon it were to be put to, that had originally enabled him to call the animals by names which denoted their habits and uses. His fall, dreadful though it was, spiritually considered, did not make him a savage; nor did Cain’s frightful and full-blown murder deprive him of the faculty of building a city, nor his family of being instructors to those who forged iron, and teachers of the harp and organ. Now, this transmitted knowledge was brought by Noah into the new earth. Let us remember that Methuselah lived 243 years with Adam, and died only the year before the flood; and Lamech, Noah’s father, lived 56 years with Adam; so that the Tower of Babel, projected and partly completed, need not surprise us. Thus there was always civilization in the east; quite apart, it is true, from the knowledge of God. In Egypt, although we can trace improvement and one age to be superior to another, there is, in the oldest monuments, no absolutely rude state. Indeed, it is said that the masonry in the very oldest―say, 1800 years before Christ—is superior to any of the rest. I write this only to guard you against the idea, that when our missionaries meet with a hitherto unknown nation, such as the aborigines of Australia, sunk in the lowest depths of ignorance and degradation, it has been so with their remotest ancestors. It is true, that from well-defined causes, such as conquest and tyranny, emigration and consequent change of climate, gross idolatry, &c., men do get into a barbarous state, but this is not their original condition. Africa had once its civilization and flourishing cities; so had Egypt and Greece; yet the condition of these countries is now very different, as having been ruled over by Turkish fanaticism and despotism. But when a nation comes to its lowest, a change often takes place for the better, as by the arising of some ruler of superior intellect, who engrafts a new character on the entire nation, or, as in England, by the arrival first of the Romans, and then of Christian teachers among us; for, at Cæsar’s invasion, we were hardly better than savages. As to the effects of change of climate by emigration, we may look at Mexico, under the Aztecs, when Cortes the Spanish conqueror, arrived among them. These Aztecs had not reached Peru, from Asia, more than four or five centuries; but they had an indigenous civilization suited to the soil they occupied, and well-defined laws. The further we reach back to the flood, the greater seems the mental power and physical capacity of man. If left alone he deteriorates, because, in process of time, the lowest idolatry enters. It is the object of Satan to brutalize him. Christianity thus sometimes finds him at the lowest, as in Africa or Australia; at other times a little more advanced, as in New Zealand; and at other times, as in India, China, and Japan, under the influence of a high-wrought and ancient civilization, which the devil has made the depository of some most elaborate superstition.

We may now return to the Persian empire. We are to remember, notwithstanding what heathen historians say, viz., that the Persian part of the monarchy had already taken the lead when Babylon was taken, that Scripture distinctly declares that it was Darius the Median who “took the kingdom.” (Daniel 5:31.) Who this Darius was no one seems sure, although some think him to be the same as Cyaxares, the uncle of Cyrus; at all events, Cyrus ruled under him till his death, and is then called king of Persia. (Daniel 10:1.) In chapter 8:3, this kingdom is likened to a ram with two horns; “but one was higher than the other, and the highest came up last:” this being a clear allusion to the eventual supremacy of the Persian dynasty of which Cyrus was the head. It is also said of this empire, that it was to “arise and devour much flesh;” and this was its character historically. It moved slowly. Its armies were composed of large masses, and these coming into a country, if successful, ruined it, and as I told you in my last letter, the monarchy, during its whole duration of more than two hundred years, was constantly involved in wars. Cyrus, having reigned alone for the last seven years of his life, was succeeded by Cambyses, who, according to Egyptian accounts, for he was there during the principal part of his reign of seven years, was a tyrant and madman. Out of jealousy he ordered his brother Smerdis to be put to death―but to his own sorrow; for his long absence from Persia gave occasion for a false Smerdis to appear and seize the kingdom. Cambyses, on hearing of this, was mounting his horse to lead his troops back to Persia, when, his sword falling out of its scabbard and wounding him in the thigh, be died. This false Smerdis was a man who, for some misdeed, had been punished by Cyrus with the loss of his ears; but it is supposed that the revolt―Magian, as it is called―was connected with religion, as Darius who put it down and became king, says, in one of his inscriptions, “When Cambyses had gone to Egypt, then the state became heretical, thee the lie became abounding in the land.” Again he says: “The sacred offices of the state, both the religious chants and the worship, I restored to the people, which Gomates (Smerdis) the Magian, had deprived them of.” There is a great deal of obscurity about the early worship of the Persians. The god whom Darius worshipped was called Ormazd. He was the god of the Arians, to which great stock Darius prided himself as belonging. They came into Asia out of India, and are supposed to be descendants of Japhet, to whom we in England are also related. The descendants of Japhet usually write from left to right, whilst those of Shem, as the Hebrews write from right to left. Whilst we are uncertain of their absolute tenets, there are great doubt: whether the Persians were idol worshippers, and thus they were well chosen as the destroyers of that city which was “mad upon her idols.” More over, it has been remarked, that those kings who acknowledged Jehovah, and dealt favorably with the Jews, prospered; at all events until they neglected this duty. I enumerate those which are mentioned in Scripture.

1. Darius the Median, under whom Cyrus at first served. He appointed Daniel chief of the three presidents who overlooked the kingdom.

2. Cyrus. In the first year of his reign the Lord stirred him up to build his house at Jeru Salem. He releases the Jews for that purpose (2 Chronicles 36:22, 23; Ezra 1)

3. Cambyses, called Ahasuerus, as it is supposed. (Ezra 4:6.)

4. Smerdis the Magian, called in like manse: Artaxerxes. (Ezra 4:7.) As between Cyrus ant Darius only these two kings reigned, and as the work of the temple ceased, owing to the reclamation of the Jews’ enemies at Jerusalem, until the second year of Darius the Persian, we have no other way of reconciling history. In truth these Babylonian and Persian monarchs hat titles as well as names, and they are called by the one or the other indifferently. It is remark able that both these kings reigned but a short time, not understanding their calling to assist the Jews.

5. Darius. (Ezra 5:5, &c. &c.) In his reign the temple was finished: he acceded to all the requests of the Jews. He reigned 36 years.

6. Xerxes, usually, and with good reason supposed to be the Ahasuerus of the book of Esther. (Compare Daniel 11:2.) He died, after 21 years’ reign, 464 B.C.

7. Artaxerxes Longimanus, who befriended the Jews. He decreed in their favor in the seventh (Ezra 7:11) and twentieth years of his reign. (Nehemiah 2:1.) We trace him (Nehemiah 13:6) to the thirty-second year, and history says he reigned forty-one. It is the last decree (Nehemiah 2:1) to which Daniel 9:25 undoubtedly refers.

None of the remaining kings are noticed in Scripture, and it may be remarked that the Jews, unlike those in Nebuchadnezzar’s time, remained perfectly passive under their authority, and in some instances occupied places of trust.

I remain, your affectionate father.

Workhouse Visits.

No. 4.

“IF thou hadst known, even thou at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes” (Luke 6:19, verse 42), ―so spake the sorrowing Saviour―

“Whose heart is filled with tenderness,

Whose very name is Love.”

And what must be the deadening power of sin on the soul, that brought tears of real sorrow from the weeping eyes of Jesus? Precious Jesus, thou didst shed thy blood to save poor sinners; and yet men “reject the counsel of God against themselves,” and perish.

On my visit to the Lock-ward, mentioned in my last, I hinted at another incident occurring at the same time. May God, in the riches of His grace, grant the broken and the contrite spirit through His own word, “which is by the Gospel preached unto” men.

― had been an inmate of this ward for upwards of eight months; she was, while there, of a meek and quiet spirit, and her demeanor at once commended itself to every visitor. She was thankful for every kindness shown, and ever ready to listen to any advice given, and gave an attentive ear to the Gospel whenever spoken. Her fair, transparent-looking face, with the pink color on the cheek, showed signs of an inward disease on the constitution, which at once made her to be an object of interest to every visitor, who always had a word for her. Many were the prayers offered on her behalf, and very much was the Gospel news of salvation to poor perishing sinners poured forth in her ears, which she always received in a quiet and becoming manner; which gave hope to the visitors that their labor had not been “in vain in the Lord.” But, alas! alas! how little we know of the blinding power of Satan, the hardening effects of sin, or the deceitfulness of the human heart.

Not seeing her on a visit one Lord’s-day afternoon, I was told she “was gone out,”―this was a month previous to the visit now referred to, and this being no unusual circumstance, no remark passed. However, on going round to each occupied bed, to speak to and give some Gospel tracts to the unfortunate occupants, I saw one bed wholly covered up, although occupied by someone, and on throwing back the upper part of the quilt to say a word or two for Jesus, I stood amazed at beholding a human being lying there, in a perfectly helpless, unconscious state: the head and face swollen to an immense size, the eyes closed up, and her body too was swollen is the same manner, which seemed rather to resemble a sack of flour than the body of a human creature; no sight, no hearing, no consciousness was left there at all, and with a sorrowful heart I covered over again this wretched woman. “Whoever is this you have here?” said I to the nurse. “Oh, sir,” she replied, “it is come back again.” She died a few days afterward, and on being asked a question by the nurse, as to her future state, she replied, “that if suffered to recover she would go again into the same course of life.”

On a recent visit, one of the inmates, whose heart has been wrought upon by the Spirit of God, said to me, after speaking of this horrible death-bed, “O, sir, the death which took place last in the bed on which I am now lying was a dreadful one. Just before the person died, she exclaimed, “I am going to hell! I am going to hell! I feel the flames! I am going to hell! I am going to hell!! and then died.” Ah! my dear reader, “fools make a mock at sin,” but after death comes the judgment. Death is a reality; judgment is a reality; and how shall we stand before God, if not cleansed with the blood of Jesus? God loves poor sinners, and gave Jesus, His only begotten Son. Do you accept Him? Will you take the Lord Jesus as your righteousness? It is enough for God. What do you want more than this? May God, in grace, lead you to Jesus, and may you believe on Him, and be saved.

And, my dear fellow believer, and fellow citizen, do help, by prayer, those who thus, through grace, visit the sick and dying, that God would hold them up; that He would give them wisdom so to speak, and so to commend Jesus, that hearing, they may receive the message, believe the good news of mercy through Jesus Christ, trust in His blood, and so escape the wrath to come. May they from the heart say―

“Lord Jesus! now to thee I flee,

And seek my hope alone in thee.”

The Jews crucified the Son of God, and kept their own religion.

"He Was Wounded for Our Transgressions."

Isaiah 53:5.

HERE is a marvelous wonder, that Jesus, the Son of God, should be wounded for the transgressions of sinners! The God of all grace was angry with one who had never offended Him, that He might reconcile rebels unto Himself! The God of all justice punished the innocent Jesus, that He might, consistently with His justice, justify the ungodly! Truly here are wonders of grace! When we read the wonderful fifty-third chapter of Isaiah’s prophecy, and compare it with the history of Jesus as narrated in the four gospels of the New Testament, we are amazed at the thickness of that veil which is cast over the eyes of the Jew, and which prevents him seeing in this “glass” the countenance of that Jesus whom he has so long despised and so scornfully rejected. Our amazement is, however, increased when we turn our eyes over the so-called Christian church, and see the large numbers of professing Christians stumbling over the same stone of unbelief as that on which Israel was broken. The Jews have spiritualized and allegorized this portion of God’s Word, and have wrested it to their own destruction. Some of them have maintained that this chapter has reference, not to the Messiah, but to the Jewish nation; others have said that it refers to the whole of the prophets taken collectively; and others, that some individual prophet is intended. This is just similar to the plan which men are adopting now-a-days, in order to get rid of the scriptural fact, that Jesus shall come personally a second time, to reign on the earth, over the whole house of Israel, with His redeemed church. The very same process of false reasoning, which enabled the Jew to evade the obvious meaning of this chapter, is now employed by hundreds of preachers and writers in their endeavors to evade the plain teaching of God’s Word concerning the second and pre-millennial advent of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. O let them beware! lest it be found at last, that because they have been fighting against God, therefore, He will fight against them. True Christians should receive the Scriptures simply because they are the words of God, and believe whatever they find noted therein, even when they cannot understand it. When God says, “And the Lord shall inherit Judah His portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again” (Zechariah 2:12), what right has man to spiritualize, and to say that Jerusalem means the church? Jerusalem is spoken of by God, and God means Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be rebuilt in more than her former splendor; the protection and glory of the Lord shall be unto her as walls; the people shall be gathered to their own land, and Jerusalem shall be the city of the great King, and the center of the Divine glory. Jesus Christ will come again―He will come personally―He will come to reign over this earth. As truly as Jesus suffered, bled, and died on this earth, so surely shall Jesus reign over this earth as universal Monarch. As literally as the prophecies which referred to the first coming of Christ have been fulfilled, so literally shall those prophecies be fulfilled which speak of Christ’s second coming and reign. Here let all who love their Bibles take their stand, and watch for the return of their Lord from heaven.

But to return to the passage of Scripture at the head of this paper, let us notice the wonderful person here spoken of. “HE was wounded for our transgressions.” He whose name is “Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace,” He who was the Creator of the Universe, He was wounded! Those hands, which might have burled thunderbolts on His foes, were nailed to the accursed tree! Those lips, that might have been the doors of thunder, were cruelly buffeted! Those feet, that once trod the waves, and that shall again tread this earth as the robed Monarch, were pierced by the rude iron! Surely here is a marvel of marvels, and wonder of wonders, that the altogether-lovely Jesus should suffer, groan, agonize, bleed, and die! That He, for our sakes, should become “a Man of Sorrows,” and be despised of all the people! Is it not to be feared that we sometimes forget that Jesus, the eternal Sun of God, did really die for us? that He was actually wounded for our transgressions? He was “wounded” in His body, in His soul, and in His reputation. His head was crowned with thorns, His back was lacerated with the cruel whip, His face was spit upon, and smitten, the hair was plucked from His cheeks, His back bore the heavy cross, His hands were nailed, His feet were pierced, His side was opened, His heart bled for us. He poured out His soul unto death. His soul was filled with exceeding great sorrow. His character was blackened, and His fair name traduced for us.

Jesus was wounded, not for angels, not for His friends, but “for us,” who were sinners, and enemies. On His Cross it might have been written, “He who is not a sinner hath no part here.” He died for sinners. This little word “FOR” has in it the pith and marrow of the whole gospel. It contains within it the great doctrine of substitution. Jesus stood at the bar of justice as though He were a sinner, He was punished as though He had transgressed, He died as though He were guilty, that we who were sinners might be pardoned, and stand before His Father’s throne as innocent. Oh, how blind were the Jews to reject the suffering Messiah! How blind were God’s children, before conversion, to despise their bleeding Saviour! How blind are unbelievers now, who see no beauty in a crucified Redeemer! Jesus shed His blood, not for the righteous, but for sinners; not for the innocent, but for the guilty. If Jesus shed His blood for sinners, then His blood must be efficacious to cleanse my polluted soul, yea, to cleanse the souls of all the myriads who trust in Him.

Sinners, did Jesus die for you? Do you feel your need of Him? Do you hate all sin? Are you seeking for Jesus? Then Jesus died for you, and you are secure. Believe in Him and you shall be saved. How foolish is self-confidence and self-love! Throw them both away, and cast yourself, a naked, empty, vile, polluted, black, filthy, lost, helpless, ruined, and dead sinner, upon Jesus, and the moment you do so, that moment you are saved; but if you continue a careless, Christ-rejecting sinner, then for you there is no hope. Reject Jesus, and you reject Him who is the only Redeemer of lost and guilty souls. Reject Jesus, and you reject the only balm that can soothe your sorrows. Reject Jesus, and you reject the only light that can dispel your darkness. Reject Jesus, and you reject the only refuge that can shield you from destruction. Reject Jesus, and you reject the only life that can deliver you from death. Reject Jesus, and there remains no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. O reject Jesus no longer! Oh, receive Jesus!

“For the human breast

Ne’er entertained as kind a guest:

No mortal tongue their joys can tell

With whom He condescends to dwell.

Receive Him ere His anger burn,

Lest He depart and ne’er return;

Receive Him, or the hour’s at hand

When at His door denied you’ll stand.”

T. W. M.

Notes on the Book of Revelation.

(Chap. 12:6-17.)

THE woman whom we have just before noticed as invested with dignity and glory, and giving birth to a man child who was to rule all nations, is now seen fleeing into the wilderness. It is a remnant of the people of Israel under the oppression of Satan and the man of sin in the last half of the week. Their experience is often recorded in the psalms. (See Psalms 79 and 80) Israel was the nation whom the Spirit of Christ called “His own,” and one of its prophets had said,” Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder;” another prophet had declared that “Bethlehem Ephratah” should be the place from which should come forth Him that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been of old, from everlasting (Isaiah 9:6; Micah 5:2); and other prophets predicted the unparalleled tribulation, that the seed of Jacob will yet have to pass through; the period referred to, I believe, in this and the following chapter. Jeremiah says, “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it; it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.” (chapter 30:7.) Daniel also says, “There shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time: and at that time thy people (always, in Daniel, referring to Israel) shall be delivered, every one that is found written in the book.” (chapter 12:1.)

Before, however, “the woman” flees into the wilderness, the heavens must be cleared of Satan and his angels. Though in this chapter this is not the order of narration, yet we know that it is by his power that that master-piece of iniquity, “the man of sin,” and his attendant evils, are brought about. Satan is still the deceiver of the world, and also the accuser of the brethren; but he will yet fall, like lightning from heaven, and be cast down to earth. After his horrible purposes have been accomplished, he shall be bound with a chain, and cast into the bottomless pit for a season, and after a thousand years let loose for a time, before his eternal misery in the lake of fire. Satan seems to be aware of his doom; for the devils said to Jesus, “Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?”

The point, however, in Satan’s work referred to here, is his being cast down from the heavens as “the accuser of our brethren.” What are we to understand by this? Is it not true that “the Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,” has access into God’s presence to accuse us there? There can be no doubt of this. We see it in Job. “When the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, Satan came also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for naught? Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that be hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thy hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord.” (Job 1:6-12.) We find, also, that when Joshua, the high priest, is seen standing before the angel of the Lord, that Satan is also standing at his right hand. (Zechariah 3:1.) In Ephesians, also, we see Satan having access to the heavens, and our fight is described as against principalities and powers, against wicked spirits in heavenly places (see margin, 6:12); that is, that as Joshua and the men of Israel fought against those who hindered their full possession and enjoyment of the land that God had given them and brought them into, so our character of conflict is not down here with flesh and blood, but with Satan and his host in the heavenlies, who seek to hinder our enjoyment of that communion with God our Father, in the holiest of all, which we are brought into, through the riches of Divine grace, in Christ, and through His blood. As Satan cannot swallow us up, because our life is hid with Christ in God, he does all that he can to hinder our fellowship with God, and to cast us down from our high calling and standing in Christ― “They only consult to cast him down from his excellency.” If we are abiding in Christ, we are impregnable to the devices of Satan. As to his being the accuser of the brethren, our consolation is, that Christ is in heaven as our Advocate, to meet every accusation; so that we need not fear. By the power of angelic agency, Satan and his hosts must yet be cast down; and let us remember, that angels, principalities, and powers, are made subject unto Christ. We read that “Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels;” but Satan, who is always opposed to the Lord Jesus, will resist, though it will be in vain; ― “the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven.” The result will be, that Satan’s power then will be wholly concentrated on earth; and as I presume that this will occur in “the midst of the week” (see Daniel 9:27), the man of sin will be then developed as fully energized by Satanic power, the whole world will be so enveloped in delusion as to wonder after “the beast;” and “the woman,” representing those of Israel who stand out for the true God, will pass through the severest persecution. Hence we read, “The great red dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world, he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with, him... Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea; for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” These verses, from the seventh to the twelfth inclusive, are clearly parenthetic, and therefore the sixth verse is taken up again in the fourteenth. The parenthesis seems to me purposely introduced, to account for the persecution of the woman, and the full development of the abomination which maketh desolate, the third and most dreadful woe to the inhabiters of the earth. We must not overlook, however, in this parenthesis, a loud voice, (mark, not voices,) which John heard in heaven at this time. It was a voice saying, “Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ;” for clearing the heavens of Satan and his angels seems the first act of Christ in power, in relation to the kingdom. We notice that this voice is heard in heaven, and is accompanied with triumph at the casting down of Satan. Who it is that utters this voice we are not told; but the heavenly saints being at this time in heaven, like Abraham in the mount, who beheld the dreadful judgment and smoke of the doomed cities, but was not in them, so the saints in heaven will look down on the dreadful things coming upon the earth, and worship in the knowledge of the glory and power of Christ. By the expression, “Our brethren,” I understand the voice to refer to us who are now exposed to the accusing’s of Satan, but will then be around the throne of God in heaven, when it will be said, “The accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony: and they loved not their lives unto the death.” Three things characterized these overcomers of Satan―first, they made the blood of the Lamb their confidence and shelter; secondly, they used the sword of the Spirit, the written word of God—the word of their testimony; thirdly, they esteemed the love of Christ beyond the love of life; they could say, “Thy lovingkindness is better than life”― “They loved not their lives unto the death.” Surely these are the three elements of vital Christianity.

There is another very important thought added. It is this: “Therefore rejoice ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth.” Here we have two distinct classes, those dwelling in heaven called on to rejoice, and those dwelling on earth under an awful woe. Now, I ask, who are those dwelling in heaven, who are called on to rejoice at the casting down of the accuser of the brethren, but the heavenly saints? Again, besides the inhabiters of the earth generally, “the woman” who flies into the wilderness is especially the object of Satan’s wrath and hatred. Surely it could not be strictly said, that he is in wrath with those who obey him, and are deceived by him at this time; it is, therefore, particularly against “the woman” who brought forth the man child that his wrath is directed. Therefore we find her distinguished in this chapter, as well as the dwellers in heaven and the inhabiters of the earth. The saints in heaven had overcome by the blood of the Lamb; the woman who keeps the commandments of God is persecuted by Satan and his allies on earth. With regard to the woman’s flight, we are told in Matthew 24, that when the man of sin is developed, that is, when the abomination of desolation is set up, which Daniel prophesied of concerning his city and people, “Then,” said our Lord, “let them which be in Judea flee to the mountains; let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house, &c.... But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day.” However much the flight of many at the siege of Jerusalem was like this, the following verse, end also the fifteenth, show that it can only have its full accomplishment in the days of the man of sin, in Israel’s last or seventieth week, spoken of by Daniel. “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved.” (Matthew 24:21, 22.) Accordingly, as the result of the dragon’s hatred end persecution, “the woman” of our chapter is seen fleeing into the wilderness, but she is still the object of God’s care; for she is not only helped in her flight with “two wings of a great eagle,” but a place there is prepared of God for her, and she is nourished from the face of the serpent for a thousand two hundred and threescore days, or a time, times, and half a time. (Compare vv. 6 and 14.) Satan, however, still pursues her, and casts water out of his month as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. But as the prophet said, “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him” (Isaiah 59:19), so God, in his providential care over the persecuted remnant, will cause a wonderful deliverance, and shield her from the overflowing scourge of her nighty foe. We are told that “the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, end swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.” (verse 16.)

But though Satan is disappointed and confounded in his pursuit of those who flee into the wilderness, his wrath is not lessened, and it would seem as if giving up those of Judea, who had fled into the wilderness, he found “the remnant of her seed” elsewhere; it may be in the city of Jerusalem. These are characterized by being faithful to Moses’ law, and having the oracles of God―they “keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (verse 17). The malice of Satan against the godly is remarkably brought out in this chapter. Now his hatred and power is directed against the Church of God, because it is God’s present witness in the earth, she testifies of God’s perfect love, and the unsearchable riches of Christ, she glories in the Cross, waits for Christ from heaven, and knows the world to be deceitful and doomed. Now the manifold wisdom of God is known by the Church unto the principalities and powers in the heavenlies; but after the Church has been caught up, and God has another witness, then Satan’s wickedness and enmity will be directed against those. But they are objects of God’s care, beloved for the fathers’ sakes, and when they call upon God in the day of trouble, He will deliver them, and they shall glorify Him. They are on Jewish ground, keeping the commandments of God, the ten commandments, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ, that is, the Scriptures which testify of Christ, the prophetic word concerning the coming kingdom and glory of Messiah. Hence we are told that “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (chapter 19:10), and this prophetic book, the Revelation, is called “the testimony of Jesus Christ.” (chapter 1:2.) Their pleading, however, in the 79th and 80th Psalms, is very remarkable. After praying for “wrath” and “the revenging of blood” upon the heathen, and complaining of God’s beautiful vineyard which He had planted for Himself being cut down, &c., they say, “Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself. So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name. Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.”

Dublin Believers' Meeting.

Notes of an Address by Mr. Code.

LET us read, dear brethren, a portion of God’s word in the thirteenth chapter of the book of Exodus: “And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine,” etc. (read to end of verse 18.)

I have not many words to say; but if they be used by the Holy Spirit according to our prayer, they shall be pointed words. As we were singing the hymn, the thought that had already occupied my mind was strengthened by the words― “My God, I am thine;” and this thought also was in my heart, that when we are spiritually happy there is not one so happy in this assembly, not one so interested in our happiness, there is not such an interested listener to all that passes among us, as Jesus Himself. Blessed Jesus! It is not merely that we can say He is ours, but He says to us individually, “Thou art mine.”

With such an expression of grace and fatherly love, God asserts His right to the firstborn, telling Moses to sanctify them unto Him. “It is mine.” It is God’s claim; His possession. The great possessor of heaven and earth finds more to value in one redeemed one, than in His possessions of heaven and earth. And these firstborn ones were His. Why? They were His by purchase: He bought them. And what did He give? He gave His own Lamb, His own beloved Son. Beloved, precious, blood-bought brethren, God has given up, and bruised, and put to grief His own beloved for us! Oh, what a word is that in Malachi: “And I will spare them as a man spareth his own son which serveth him.” It is the law of God in the nature of a father to spare his own son; and especially and emphatically the son that serves him. But when Christ was intensely serving Him―His own Son―He bruised Him for us. And, therefore, God’s love to us has risen to a height inconceivably beyond the fatherly affection He hath planted in our hearts toward our own offspring. Shall I say, He overcame that feeling of one who spareth his own son that serveth him, that He might spare us who did not serve Him, and be able to say of you and of me, “It is mine.” Oh! we are His possession. What affection is there―not a cold doctrine! it is that which appeals to our hearts― “It is mine.” Blessed be God, that could speak thus! But then, it was the “first born” that became His; because when He smote Egypt’s firstborn, He spared Israel’s. He passed over them. I need not tell you that this is a type. But why did He spare the firstborn of Israel? Just simply for the sake of the blood of the typical lamb that was “without spot or blemish.” He commanded them to kill a lamb thus described, and merely to put the blood on the doorposts; and as the door was the way into the house, no judgment could enter into it, because the judgment had already passed on the lamb for them, and they became His. And the moment we believe in Jesus, the true Lamb, because God, who only knows the depth of His atoning work, commands us to do so the moment we give up our own thoughts, and our own shallow estimate of that work, and take God’s testimony of it, in faith, believing on Jesus, then we are His. It is not my seeing I am Christ’s that makes me Christ’s; but it is believing in the blood that makes me Christ’s. I can’t touch the blood without being Christ’s; and again I say, it is not because I see I am God’s or feel I am God’s, but because I believe in the blood, the precious blood which God has provided, that He might be able to say of you and of me, “It is mine.”

But the great point in my mind, beloved, in reading this chapter was to shew something about sanctification. Now God said, “Sanctify unto me all the firstborn.” Sanctify unto me; i.e., separate unto me from the rest this peculiar people, whom I have passed over as to judgment, and made mine own. Sanctify them to me. They were sanctified unto Him, because they were His. “For they are mine.” He has a right, has He not, to feed, to instruct, to order His own? What! any one prescribe to God how to nurture His own? What, any one dispute with God, and say, “This is not good, and that is not good.” God first says, “It is mine,” and then instructs us as to our education, and nutriment, and blessedness. Moses then speaks to the people, and tells them to remember the day in which they came out from Egypt, and tells them what they were to eat, and what they were not to eat. They were not to eat leavened bread. That is the food of Egypt, that is the food the carnal mind feeds on, that puffeth up. They were not to eat leavened bread, nor was leavened bread to be seen in their houses, nor even was leaven itself to be seen in all their quarters. These three things were not the same. God gives it out, and not without meaning, that they were not only not to eat “leavened bread,” but that there was no leavened bread to be seen in their houses, and more than this, even the thing of which the leavened bread was made, not even the principle which leavens it was to be seen. Nothing of Egypt was to be fed upon. The Lamb they were redeemed by and on which they fed, was “without blemish, and without spot.” Therefore we are to pass the time of our sojourning here in fear. And, let me remark, when speaking on this text, how frequently you find persons clipping this verse of its full proportions, and quoting only thus far: “For as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold,” and leaving out the great point― “from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers.” Paul also, in Ephesians, after shewing (chap. 4:11-16) what the Church is fed with, exhorts them that they henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, for there is substance in the nurture which God gives to His people. Ah, beloved of God, we have no reason to love this Egyptian world. It is not wise nor happy to do so; for “the world passeth away, and the lusts thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.”

What a difference may we have observed in our experience as regards this world when we have looked at it with the carnal, and when we have seen it with the spiritual mind! When with the mere natural mind, then we say, Ah me! how short is my time in this beautiful world; how soon I shall die―pass away, and be no more seen, while it remaineth; yea, the tree that I plant, or the house that I build, outlives me. But when I look at it in the Spirit, then the picture is reversed; then I see that the world passes away, while I remain even as Jesus, the Lord, who “in the beginning laid the foundations of the earth!”

There is another thing in this chapter. You will find, when God commanded the use of unleavened bread, and prohibited leavened bread, and commanded the commemoration of that remarkable day when He brought them out from Egypt, that the reason is given four times: first, in the 3rd verse, then in the 9th verse, in the 14th and 16th. The reason given in all these different places is, “For by strength of hand the Lord brought you out of Egypt.” What is the meaning of that? Have you ever considered that, dear brethren? The reason why they were not to eat leavened bread was, because God had brought them out “by strength of hand!” What is the meaning? Why because God and Egypt are so contrary there is such distinct moral contrariety between God and Egypt, i.e., between the Father and the world, as to His people, that for them to eat and feed on Egypt’s resources―for His people to be dependent on the world for their strength and good, or any blessing; yea, for His people to belong to it, politically or religiously, compromises the great and glorious truth of Christ and Belial, light and darkness, having no fellowship together. God’s having brought them out by strength speaks this language, ―It was not of your own will, it was not by any agreement with, or permission of Egypt, that you became my people, or that you came out of Egypt. No, said God, when forewarning Moses of that eventful night, “Against all the gods of Egypt will I execute judgment― I am the Lord” God, the true God, is in direct antagonism with the very heart, and soul, and strength, and source of Egypt, as a moral system. We should examine our ways, lest we be found confounding the things that differ, and that differ most essentially, involving the nature and character of God, in contrast to the present evil world. Its religion, and its power condemned and crucified Christ. There is―there can be―no sympathy, no fellowship, between Christ and the world. And mark you! if we want God to make us a blessing to the world, as He says, “I will bless thee, and make thee a blessing,” then He must take us thoroughly out of the world, as He did Abraham, to show plainly what the world is, and send us to it, and in proportion as we don’t come out from it, we are denying His testimony to it. The more we realize this separation from the world, the more we stand in the position of ministers of God’s mercy to those who are of it. Remember then, beloved brethren, that if we want to be used—if we want to be happy in the service of the Lord Jesus Christ, we must be separated: “Sanctify unto me the firstborn.”

Now, it is often objected, that when we press on our brethren separation from the world, we press on them a narrow and bigoted principle; and that if we obey such a call, we render ourselves incapable of being useful to our fellow-creatures. Our usefulness, say they, is in proportion to the measure in which we mix ourselves with the world. That is not a good principle. Remember that passage in the epistle of Paul (2 Corinthians 6:11), “Our mouth is opened unto you, our heart is enlarged.” That is, the apostle expressing Christ unto the saints, speaks as Christ’s mouthpiece; now that is the power, I think, of the apostle’s affectionate command. I see Christ speaking in it; He asks them for a responsive enlargement of their heart to Him, and to men. And what follows? “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers,” &e., i.e., separation from these is largeness of heart. Enlargement instead of narrowness! The more separate from complicity with them that are in evil, the more we are able to let our hearts go out to them in the bowels of Jesus Christ, and the more truthful will our testimony to men appear. For it seems a contradiction for me to be identified with a man in his evil, and then to try to preach and pray him out of it. If we want God to bless us, let us keep ourselves for Him.

There is another passage I would direct your attention to, it is in the 2nd epistle of Timothy the 2nd chapter and 20th verse, “But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and oi silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honor, and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.” Now, do we want to be used by Christ: Do we pray that He may use us? Then let us be vessels meet for the Master’s use. Will He use an unclean vessel? Then let us be clean, and be prepared unto every good work Satan, with false promises and with false principles, deludes the servants of the Lord Jesus Christ to compromise; and with the plea of doing people good, really to do them harm. If a man’s house is on fire, I shan’t persuade him by going into it, that it is unsafe; if I go to lodge in it, I am not likely to get him to come out of it. And is not this world under condemnation, and only waiting till the sentence be executed?

One thing more. We may press principles, and press precepts, and every exhortation upon our brethren, but if we don’t show and make it plain, that it is the appeal of God’s love, and God’s wisdom, we will not persuade them. But, O beloved, have we not found this, when we have considered it, to be an irresistible appeal to our hearts, the call upon us to be the friend of Christ―His friends! Oh, if you are His friends, you will not argue, or reason, or grudge to obey Him. And if you are His friends, your services, your honest services, are insured; and what a thing it is, Christ says. “Henceforth I call you not servants, but friends.” Shall we answer to this call? my friend! when the high Jesus exalted above all, into whose hands God has given everything, because He loved Him, when this blessed Jesus stands forth before us, and says, “friends!” shall we debate? Shall we hesitate? Oh, no. This will give us a clear ground, this will give us a clear conscience within. It is better, happier, to please Jesus as His friend, when He exalts me into such confidence, far better than to possess the whole world. I can’t, I know, persuade you to do it, unless you take up the idea as a friend of Jesus; but the moment you come forward and say, I will be a friend of Jesus, owning the position His love has put you into, then you will know the blessedness of being His true-hearted servant. Let us go forth into the world, not as the friends of the world, but as the friends of Jesus; “whoever is the friend of the world, is the enemy of God.” Will you talk about Him and His gospel, and yet be a friend of the world? Oh, let us cease from this, and be the friends of Jesus. “Let us go forth unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach; for here have we no continuing city.”

Notes of an Address by Mr. J. Townsend Trench.

THIS, dear friends, being an assembly of persons who intelligently profess to be Christians, the ground of our union with Christ is not a matter of question with us; for we each know that we are children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. But it is, therefore, highly important that we should consider how we should advance in Christian alignment.

There are three great elements essential to attainment; first, an object; secondly, a principle; and, thirdly, a power. We never see great attainment without these three.

Observe how in all God’s doings there is an object, a principle, and a power.

God had an object in creating the world; for otherwise He never would have made it at all. God had an object in forming man, as well as in giving His Son to atone for the sins of believers, and that object was the manifestation of His own glory in the salvation of sinners.

Now we, too, have an object in everything we do. But the question is, What is our object? Is it the same as God’s object? Is it the glory of God? How it simplifies a matter, if we can honestly ask ourselves, “Is this for the glory of God?” Alas! what a death-blow this gives to nine-tenths of our words and our doings. May the Lord enable each of us to have His glory more for our object in future.

But of what use is an object without a principle on which to attain it? Think you that if Columbus had started in search of America, without knowing the principles of navigation, that he would ever have got there? I have heard of a young midshipman placed in charge of a vessel bound for Jersey. Jersey was his object. He steered not by headlands or circumstances, but by the principles of navigation, by his chart, and by his compass. As he journeyed another vessel hailed him, and asked, “Where are you going?” “To Jersey,” he replied. “Why, man alive,” said the other, “you have passed it by.” The young midshipman was startled, but he went down to his cabin; he looked at his chart and examined his compass, and came on deck again, and shouted through his speaking trumpet, “If I have, I have sailed over it;” and soon on the horizon he saw the wished-for isle. Oh, the value of principles. My friends, we ought to know what we are doing, and why we do it. Now, God has laid down very broad and very clear principles in Scripture for our guidance both towards the world around us, and towards the Church of God; that is, the body of believers. May God’s principles be our principles, and not our imaginations as to, what we may be pleased to call expedient.

But, dear friends, we may have a definite object, and that object may be the glory of God; and we may have definite principles, and those principles may have emanated from the Word of God, and yet we need a power. Have you never seen a beautiful ship out at sea; the sails are all set, the chart is before the captain, the compass is at his side, and his band on the helm, but there is no power; the vessel is becalmed. How often do we see Christians thus becalmed! Christians are powerless without the acting power of the Holy Ghost within them. And think you that the Spirit of God will ever fail the Christian who walks in His power, whether in worship, in wisdom, in service, or in conflict with evil? We tremble to trust the power of God. But look at the examples of the power of God recorded in His blessed Book.

Look, in the first place, at God’s dealings with Noah. The power of God was with Noah. God commanded that man Noah to build a great ark.

I don’t know what resources he had, but God commanded him to build a vessel larger than the Great Eastern. He built it on dry ground; so was the Great Eastern built on dry ground, and when first they tried to float it they failed; but the Lord called down a flood, and caused His ark to float over the waters. Is that the God we have to do with?

We find, again, that God had to do with a man called Joseph, and we know that God revealed to this man the meaning of a dream that the King Pharaoh dreamed; and we see this man Joseph called out of the dungeon to stand before Pharaoh, and he tells him his dream, which none other could. “Behold there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt; and there shall arise after them seven years of famine,” &c. Mark, in passing, Joseph’s exercise of faith. This man Joseph, who was down in a dungeon, was called to the highest position in Egypt, and he staked his whole reputation and position for the truth of his God. He got a revelation from the Lord God Almighty, that God was going to do a great thing, and without further questioning he acted upon it for seven long years. They must have said, “This man is mad; look at his extravagance, and of what use is it all―filling the granaries, and making provision against a day that will never come. Was there ever such plenty as at the present? Wherefore is he turning Egypt upside down?” But Joseph held on by the truth of his God, till he accomplished the purpose of God; and then God put forth His almighty power, and brought a famine. Oh, what well placed trust in God on the part of Joseph! Is this the God we have to deal with?

We find God dealing with Moses and Joshua. Oh, the power God showed to Moses! Oh, the power He showed to Joshua! I often think what the power must have been to have caused those walls of Jericho to fall. How wondrous to see the walls of the city totter and crumble by the word of His power! and that is the God we have to do with!

Look at Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego! Is that story all a fable? This King Nebuchadnezzar cast them into a burning furnace, and presently he came and looked, to see what is in the midst of that furnace, that would have scorched your hand or mine? He sees four figures! Remember, this happened only the other day. Some 2,500 years ago! and He called them out, and out they came, and there was not the smell of fire upon them. And that is the God we have got to deal with!

We find the Lord dealing in power in later days, on the day of Pentecost. That was a strange occurrence: “When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place; and suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind.” Oh what a thrill it would send through us, if we heard a sound that we could recognize as coming “from heaven.” If you were ever out in a storm you would know something of a “mighty wind.” Listen: “And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like at of fire.” This happened only the other day “Cloven tongues!” From whence this power? But that is the God we have to deal with!

Look, then, at Revelation. Mark the description it gives us. “I turned to see the voice that spake with me; and being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and His hairs were white like wool and His eyes were as a flame of fire, and Hit feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace, and his voice as the sound of many waters.” Then, at the end of Revelation, we find a great white throne. “I saw a great white throne―(this is prophetic)―and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away,” &c. (down to end of chapter). What a prospect! And that is the same God whose Spirit dwells in us as the source of all heavenly power.

Ah, dear friends, if these things are so, have we been treating that God as He deserves? Have we? How guilty we must plead. Have we not rather been treating Him as if He were a God of straw? I say, an idolater that worship Juggernaut gives his god more honor than we give to the God of heaven. May God give us more to realize the God we have got to deal with! And oh, may He be, for the future, to us more a living power! God has not placed us down here, and brought us to the saving knowledge of Christ, for nothing; and depend upon it, the object God has set before us is the best we can choose. His principles are the wisest we can adopt, and His Spirit (which is in us, unless we be reprobates,) the only power whereby we can ever arrive at any attainment worthy of the name of Christian.

Words to Believers.

No. 2.

“Ye are complete in Him.”― Col. 2:10

To the true believer Christ is everything, and Christ is enough. The heart, when in communion with Him, finds perfect satisfaction―perfect rest. “Ye are complete in Him.” I do not give this as the primary sense of the passage, but I use it to express my thought. I have all that I need in Him. So many excellencies congregate in Him, that when I see Him―when I feel Him with me―when I hold communion with Him―I have all my heart can wish. My mind, my spirit, my affections,—all are satisfied in Christ. He is my “wisdom.” (1 Corinthians 1:30.) In myself I am a fool. The effort of my mind to search out God is vain. (Job 11:7.) So high, so infinite, so far past finding out is He in all His thoughts and ways (Romans 11:33), that I―a worm, a child of yesterday―can only ask Him for instruction, and not even this aright without His aid. But Jesus is my wisdom. Jesus keeps me near His feet. Though but a babe (Matthew 11:25), He condescends to teach me, unfolding by His Spirit, through His word, those precious things which He alone reveals, and only those who love Him care to know―those precious things which are connected with himself and all His wondrous paths in grace and glory. Little do I know indeed, but He is “wisdom” to me. He who “was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was” (Proverbs 8:23-31), is pleased to teach, and I am pleased to learn what He imparts—just so much and no more as He from day to day assigns me for my lesson. Slow and dull am I to learn, but He is patient, giving line upon line, and precept upon precept, here a little, and there a little, as He sees that I can bear it. (John 16:12.) Gentle, meek, and lowly, is His character (Matthew 11:29), and all His methods of instruction correspond with it. None teacheth like Him (Job 36:22)―none so kindly, so effectually. How blessed, then, the privilege of being taught of Him, in whom dwelleth all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3)―who is “pure and peaceable” (James 3:17), gentle and easy to be intreated (Luke 24:29), full of mercy and good fruits―who is ready to “teach sinners in the way” (Psalms 25:8), to make them “wise unto salvation” (2 Timothy 3:15) through faith which is in Him!

I am complete in Him for “righteousness;” for God has made Him “righteousness” to me, I have nothing of my own but sin. Lost and ruined in myself, I find in Him a perfectness which satisfies the eye of God, and in His grace He puts that perfectness on me―imputes it to me freely (Romans 4:22-25), without money and without price (Isaiah 55:1)―covers me from head to foot therewith (Isaiah 61:10), and makes me perfect in it. (Ezek. 16:14.) Thus of Him my righteousness is now provided. (Isaiah 54:17.) Thus, in this respect, I am “complete in Him.”

“Sanctification” also is He made to me of God. In Him I am “separated” from this present evil world. (Galatians 1:4.) Its principles, its maxima, and its ways are nothing now to me. I find no pleasure in them. The joy His presence gives has weaned me from the things of this world. Not by ascetic rules, or Pharisaic pride, am I apart, but by “His presence.” “Wherein shall it be known,” said one, “that I and thy people have found favor in thy sight? Is it not in that thou goest with us?” So shall we be separated. (Exodus 33:16.) Thus it was in olden time with Moses―thus is it with believers now. “His presence” separates from evil. He is sanctification. Companionship with Him is joy sufficient. We are “complete in Him.”

He too is our “redemption.” From the power of darkness―from the slavery of sin―from guilt and fear―from woe eternal, ―His precious death hath freed us. “In Him we have redemption through His blood, ―the forgiveness of sins.” (Ephesians 1:7.) His Cross has been our ransom―His resurrection is its proof. In spirit we are risen with Him, through the faith which He has given. We wait, indeed, for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body; wait for Him to change it and fashion it like unto His glorious body. This is our blessed hope. We wait for Him yet a little while. Conformity to the Son of God (Romans 8:29), to the image of the heavenly (1 Corinthians 15:49), is that we wish for. God will accomplish it in us. Through eternal ages the church of the firstborn shall be to the praise of His glory; and to each believer now, as to the saints collectively, it may be said, the glory of Jesus, the blessed Christ of God, being in view—ye, each and all of you, are complete in Him.

"Always Weary."

Jesus, I am always weary,

While within this house of clay;

Come, my Saviour! oh, come quickly!

Bear my longing soul away

To the mansions,

Where is everlasting day.

Always weary, though thou ever

Dost my fainting spirit cheer;

For Thy love my love doth sever

From all once I held so dear;

And hath made me

Bat a pilgrim wandering here.

Always weary, yet believing,

In the ceaseless love of God;

All my weariness relieving,

Pointing upward to my Lord,

Showering blessings,

Which this earth could never afford.

Always weary, like my Saviour,

As this weary world He trod;

Yet rejoicing in His favor,

Yet my feet with gladness shod.

Panting ever,

Soon to reach my home in God.

There for aye my spirit resting,

Never weary shall I be;

There the love of Jesus tasting,

Throughout all eternity.

Ceaseless praises

Will I ever raise to Thee.

There I’ll run, and never weary,

There I’ll walk, and never faint;

There no black cloud, dark and dreary,

Shall bedim Thy ransomed saint.

Clothed in raiment,

Spotless―without stain or taint.

Sweet the songs I then will bring thee,

Standing ‘mid the white-robed throng;

I’ll forget the days so weary,

Days of faith which seemed so long:

And unwearied,

Dwell Thy happy saints among.

Scripture Customs.

PROVERBS 27:22. The word “bray” signifies, to bruise, or break up into small pieces. The text is supposed to allude to the Eastern custom of bruising a criminal to death, in a large mortar, with a pestle.

Zechariah 2:5. The Eastern shepherds and travelers, protect themselves and their flocks at night, from the attacks of wild beasts, by making a fire all around them, which is kept burning till day-break.

Music, as well as wailing attends funerals, usually in the east; so we read, “When Jesus was come to the ruler’s house, and saw the minstrels making a noise.” (Matthew 9:23.) But the word here translated minstrels, is the same which in Revelation 18:22, is translated “pipers.”

One circumstance is very remarkable, that the cries of the women at funeral and marriage processions are so very similar in both cases, so shrill, and so loud, that an untutored ear cannot distinguish the one from the other, any more than he can distinguish the minstrel or pipers. This, in all probability, is what is referred to in 1 Corinthians 14:7. Even things without life giving sounds, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall a man know whether it be a mourning or a rejoicing procession, if the sounds be the same in both eases?

The Jews, in many parts, sing or chant the 49th Psalm, during their funeral processions

Many of the Jews went to comfort Martha and Mary, concerning their brother. (John 11:31, 33, 36, 45.) That is, to mourn with them; and this will explain how it was that so many were present at the raising of Lazarus. The same custom still exists.

In the East, the gates, and also the locks and keys are still made of wood; some of the keys are large, though probably not so large as formerly. See Isaiah 22:22, for instance; where the key of the house of David is represented as being put upon the Redeemer’s shoulder. And again, in Isa. 9:6, “And the government shall be upon His shoulder.” The key to open and shut at His pleasure, (Revelation 3:7,) and He having opened, no man can shut, and having shut, no man can open. Why? Because He, and He alone, has the key.

“My by the hole of the door.” (Song of Solomon 5:4.) Probably the key hole; and a most effective way it was for opening the heart of the sleepy Bride.

1 Thess. 4:16, 17.

“CAUGHT up! caught up!” no wing required;

Caught up to Him―by love inspired

To meet Him in the air!

Spurning the earth with upward bound,

Nor casting a single glance around,

Nor listing a single earthborn sound,

Caught up in the radiant air!

Panting, with rapture and surprise,

“Caught up,” our fond affections rise,

Our coming Lord to meet;

Hearing the trumpet’s glorious sound,

Soaring to join the rising crowd,

Gazing upon the parted cloud

Beneath His pierced feet!

O blessed, O thrice blessed word,

To be “forever with the Lord,”

In heavenly beauty fair!

Up! up! we long to hear the cry;

Up! up! our absent Head draws nigh;

Yes, “in the twinkling of an eye,”

“To meet Him in the air!”

L. T.

Readings for the Young.

Christ, or the World?

I LATELY read the following interesting and affecting anecdote: ― “Not long since, a young lady was urged by a minister to choose between Christ and the world, because she could not have both. She said she was determined to have both; she loved the gaieties of the world, and was resolved to have them; and yet she wished to be saved, and therefore she would have Christ too. She was told it was impossible; she must choose one to have the chief place in her heart. Then, she said, I choose the world. If that be your choice, said the minister, take all the pleasure out of it you can; for you will have no other enjoyment to all eternity. She did so; plunged into all sorts of gaiety, and tried to find happiness in the passing hour.

One evening, in a large company, she was singing a beautiful song. It was about the parable of the foolish virgins, in the 25th chapter of Matthew; how they came to the door when it was shut, and could not get in. She was singing the last lines of the song―

“Have we not heard the Bridegroom is so sweet?

O let us in, though late, to kiss His feet!

No, no; too late? ye cannot enter now.”

when the thought burst into her mind, That is just my case, ―it will be true of me! She rushed out of the room, and spent the night in tears and prayer. Five days and nights she was in great distress, till at last that text came to her mind, “Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.” It brought her peace and joy in believing. She went back to the minister, who had heard something of what was going on, and who asked her what was now her choice. Her answer was―

“My heart is fixed, eternal God,

fixed on Thee;

And my immortal choice is made,

Christ for Me!”

Be you thankful to God, dear friends, that the one only door to real happiness is open, and open to you. But, oh, take care, lest you come―TOO LATE.

Extract From an Address by Richard Weaver, on "The Rest of Heaven."

I WAS sitting in my room, in a certain town, when a carriage rolled up. The coachman came and inquired if Richard Weaver was lodging there. I came down, and the man said to me, “My master is waiting in the carriage, and wants to speak to you.” I went out to him. He said, “I have come on a visit to you, and I want to make a request.” I inquired, “What’s that?”

He replied, “I have a dear daughter, and nothing would satisfy her but seeing you, and getting you to come and pray with her, before she died.” He covered his face with his hands, and said, “Lord, help me to bear this.”

I went into his carriage; and when I got to his house, I shall never forget the scene. There was a little boy about twelve years of age, sitting on a chair. A nurse was watching the dying girl. The doctor was just going out of the room, and as I entered in, the young girl put out her nice thin hand, a white ladylike hand, and said, “Oh, dear Mr. Weaver, I shall be a star in your crown when you get to heaven.” I had never seen her before, that I know of.

She said, “Bless the Lord, I am going to be with Jesus. Will you sing to me?” I said, “What shall I sing?” and she answered,”

“Come, sing to me of heaven,

When I’m about to die;

Sing songs of holy ecstasy,

To waft my soul on high,

There’ll be no more sorrow there.

In heaven above, where all is love,

There’ll be no more sorrow there.”

I sang it, and looking at her, saw a tear stealing from her eyes. I said, what are you weeping for?” She said, “I am wondering whether I shall ever see papa and mamma. I wish you would kneel down and pray for them, that they may meet me in heaven.” I said, “I will.” I knelt down, the poor papa knelt by me, and I could hear him sob, “Lord, have mercy on me! Lord, have mercy upon me.” After we had done praying, the poor girl held up her hands, and with her eyes raised towards the ceiling said, “O Lord! I wonder whether I shall see papa and mamma in heaven. Lord, bless my papa; Lord, save my mamma.” I got up from my knees, and she said to her mamma; “I should like to see you in heaven.” “I wonder whether I shall?” The weeping mother dropped her head upon the bosom of her, daughter, and she said “By the help of a dying Jesus, I will meet thee my child.” And then she looked at her father and said, “Oh, dear papa, do tell me — my feet are so cold―shall I see you in heaven?” He turned round to me, and said, “Oh, what must I do to be saved?” I said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But answer your child, she wants to see you in heaven.” And he said, “By the help of God, I will meet you there.” Then she looked at her little brother, and said, “Won’t you come?” And he said, “Oh, sister! oh sister! I will―I know Jesus pardons all my sins, and I will meet you in heaven.” Then she said, “Thank God.” We sang sweet hymns with her, and stopped with her for an hour, an just as she was passing out of time into eternity she began to beckon. I said, “What are you beckoning for?” She said, “I am beckoning to Jesus: Come Jesus! Come, Jesus! come Jesus!”

My Child Born Again.

I REMEMBER the new and strange emotions which trembled in my breast, when as an infant he was first folded to my heart—my firstborn child; the thrill of that moment still lingers. But now that he was “born again,” clasped in my arms a “new creature in Christ Jesus,” my spiritual child―my son in the gospel―pardoned, justified, adopted, saved, forever saved! Oh, it was the very depth of joy―joy unspeakable! My child was a child of God! The prayers which preceded his birth―which cradled his infancy―which girdled his youth, were answered; my son was Christ’s. The weary watchings―the yearning desires―the trembling hope of years, were at rest. Our first-born son was avowedly the Lord’s. ― “Hidden Life.”

A Gospel Hymn.

SALVATION for having, and life for a look,

And Christ for receiving (who ne’er us forsook);

And heaven before us, and judgment behind,

And all for the taking—as free as the wind;

For still stands the promise. The Good Shepherd saith―

“Who rests on my saying shall never see death.”

Now who are invited? To whom says He “Come”?

What kind of poor sinners will Jesus take home?

Not those whose deservings are urged as a plea;

The self-righteous sinner to Christ may not flee;

For only the “weary,” “without any strength,”

Can taste of His love in its “breadth and its length.”

The sinner that’s ruined, who knows he’s undone,

Is welcome and dear to the “Crucified One;”

No self-preparation, no robe must he wear,

To cover his heart till his Saviour is there;

For love, or amendment, or sorrow for sin,

Must spring from a sense of forgiveness within.

Then take now the offer; to you it is made;

Your sins were all punished in Him who has said—

“The crimson-dyed sinner may wash and be clean,

In blood that can ne’er leave behind it a stain;

For, true to His mission He came from above

To cleanse you from guilt, and to clothe you with love.”

Isa 45:22 John 1:12. John 8:51. Matthew 11:28. Rom. 5:6. Isaiah 1:18.

"Is Not This a Brand Plucked Out of the Fire?"

Zechariah 3:2.

WITHOUT attempting to discuss the original design of this vision in its prophetic aspect, we may take the above question and apply it to every sinner saved by sovereign grace. We have read of a poor Hindoo who had been brought to a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, and who was tauntingly asked by an European unbeliever, what Jesus had done for him. The converted Hindoo took a worm, and putting it inside a circle of dried leaves and grass, set fire to them. When the fire approached the worm, he bared his arm, and, snatching it from the flame, placed it in his bosom. “That,” he exclaimed, “is what Jesus has done for me. I was once exposed to the vengeance of eternal fire. The flames had even touched me, and I was as a scorched and blackened ‘brand,’ when Christ Jesus, in His matchless grace, ‘plucked’ me forth. Glory forever to His name! May I never forget what He has done for me, and what I owe to Him!” And every saved sinner may say the same. When a scoffing world inquires, “What has Jesus done for you?” let us, with the energy of grateful love, exclaim, “He has snatched me as ‘a brand’ from the burning ‘fire’ of endless perdition!”

“He freely redeem’d, with His blood,

My soul from the borders of hell,

To five in the smile of my God,

And in His sweet presence to dwell;

To shine in bright glory and light,

Where God and the Lamb are adored;

To view with eternal delight

My Saviour, my Jesus, and Lord.”

All sinners before they are saved by Jesus are in GREAT DANGER; they are like to “a brand” in the “fire.” See that piece of charred, black toed wood lying there in the fire. In a few moments it will ignite, and be utterly consumed. That “brand” is a type of all unconverted men and women; they lie exposed to the eternal “fire” of God’s burning indignation. They are all “children of wrath.” (Ephesians 2:3.) This is God’s estimation of all who are not believers it Jesus Christ. They are “by nature the children of wrath.” Because they are sinners, therefore are they in danger of “the wrath of the Lamb.” All who now reject the righteousness of God all who now refuse to look unto Jesus for salvation, all who are unbelieving and impenitent, all who are “children of disobedience,” are under the curse of God. O ye careless, Christless, unbelieving readers, think of the great danger you are in, and now believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that you may be saved.

Look again at that “brand” as it lies there in “the fire,” and note its UTTER WORTHLESSNESS. It is only fit to be consumed. Just so is it with unconverted sinners. They are utterly worthless; only fit to be fuel for hell-fire. They may pride themselves upon their righteousness; but they “are all as an unclean thing, and all” their “righteousnesses are as filthy rags;” and they “all do fade as a leaf:” and their “iniquities, like the wind, have taken” them away. (Ise. 64:6.) Unconverted man, at his best state, is “abominable and filthy;” he drinketh iniquity like water. (Job 15:16) “The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand. They are all gone aside, they are altogether become stinking. (Heb.) There is none that death good, no, not one.” (Psalms 14:2, 3.) This is God’s estimate of all men in their natural state; they are utterly worthless. If they continue in this state, and will not come unto Christ, that they may have life, soon God will say concerning them, “He that is unjust, let him he unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still.” (Revelation 22:11.) Oh! sinner, see your wretched condition. Utterly worthless though you are, Jesus is willing to give you His free salvation. Cast from you your useless begging cloth, as did poor blind Bartimeus (Mark 10:50), and come just as you are to Jesus.

Once more, that “brand” lying in the “fire” suggests to me the thought of COMPLETE HELPLESSNESS. It cannot pluck itself out of the fire. ‘Tis just so with the convinced sinner; in and of himself he is entirely helpless. If the salvation of the sinner depended upon himself, even in the least degree, he could not be saved. Oh! ‘tis a grand lesson to learn―our complete helplessness. How many are vainly endeavoring to help themselves, to make themselves better before they come to Jesus. It is all useless toil. As soon shall that charred and blackened “brand” pluck itself out of the “fire,” as the sinner do anything which shall assist Jesus in the matter of salvation. “What must I no to be saved?” is the anxious, heart-agonizing cry of thousands. You can do nothing. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” who has done everything, “and thou shalt be saved.” (Acts 16:30, 31.) Faith in the Lord Jesus is all you need, and the very instant you have faith in Him, you are saved. Salvation is freely presented to you in Jesus. That salvation you may have, if you simply turn your eye off yourself, and on to Christ. Jesus knows your complete helplessness, therefore He has done all for you, and asks you simply to trust in Him.

“Cast your deadly ‘doing’ down,

Down at Jesus’s feet;

Stand in Him, in that ALONE,

Gloriously complete!”

The “brand plucked out of the fire” suggests another thought, that of Divine SOVEREIGNTY. I may, or I may not, pluck that half-burned piece of wood from the fire, just as it pleases me. There is no necessity laid upon me with regard to it. So God might have allowed the whole human race to remain under the curse and condemnation which all had merited, if He had seen fit to do so. There was no necessity laid upon Him to save any. Every saved sinner is a monument of the sovereign favor of God. He is “a brand plucked out of the fire.” There are many other brands still in the fire; God has left them there that they might be consumed; but he is saved: he is a miracle of grace. It is a great thing to learn that we are absolutely in the hand of God; that He can do as He pleases with us; that He has a right to do with us as He sees fit; that He can create, or destroy. He doeth as He pleases among the armies of heaven, and the sons of earth, and none dare say unto Him, “What doest thou?” If God, with a besom of destruction, had swept us all into the gulf of hell, He had been just. He need not have saved any of us. We all deserved death, and eternal damnation. But God has saved me I am “a brand plucked out of the fire!” Herein He has displayed divine sovereignty.

Yet one thought more, and we have done. The expression, “Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?” suggests the idea of PERILOUS CONTACT. We can best illustrate this idea by means of the following anecdote: ―A poor countryman who had been brought to a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, by means of a sermon from the above words, was solicited by a former companion to accompany him to a certain place, where he would be brought into temptation. “Nay, nay,” said the poor man, “I cannot go there: for I am a brand plucked out of the fire.” His old companion, not knowing what he meant, asked him for an explanation. “Look ye,” said the countryman, “there is a great difference between ‘a brand’ and a green stick. If a spark flies upon ‘a brand’ that has been partly burnt, it will soon catch fire again; but it is not so with a green stick, that resists the fire. I tell you, ‘I am a brand plucked out of the fire,’ and I dare not venture in the way of temptation, lest I be set on fire again.” This is what we mean by perilous contact. It will be perilous to the saved sinner, if he again approach the way of sin. He must ever “walk circumspectly,” and “watch unto prayer,” lest he fall in temptation. As children of the light, let believers ever remember, that they must have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. They must make the Word of God their strict rule, and ever strive in their walk and conversation not to deviate therefrom, no, not even by so much as a hair’s breadth. They must never forget that hell is beneath them, and snares and destructions are everywhere around them, in this present evil world. Their only safety is in looking unto Jesus, as they set their faces heavenward. In a land of danger, we must always walk with measured steps, if we would walk safely. We must always be ready to follow wherever our heavenly Father leads. We are in the path of folly the moment we begin to walk at our own discretion. We need to be kept near to Jesus in the spirit of our minds. T. W. M.

Religiousness Not Faith.

An Extract.

IT is sad to see how many are the victims of religiousness. There are thousands whose ideas of Christianity are so low and erroneous, that they think the Church, with all its various appurtenances, to be an institution equipped with machinery for making goods to be hawked about for sale. Most people seem to have no realization of the great leading truth of Christianity, that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners;” their conduct seems to indicate that they have imbibed the notion that Christ came not “to seek and to save that which was lost,” but to put the stamp of His approval upon such as were using their best endeavors to improve themselves; for religiousness, which is the only gospel known to the generality of professors, evidently proceeds upon this understanding.

The religious “man thinks that the worship makes the worshipper, and therefore we must set diligently about worship, in order to get ourselves accepted. The main idea that man has in connection with worship (such as prayer, and praise, and service) is, that it is the means of securing acceptance, and effecting reconciliation with God. He brings His gifts as the bribes or payments of the criminal, not as the thank-offerings of the forgiven. He worships in order to pacify God, and persuade Him to extend His favor towards him. But God cannot own a religion whose aim is to buy His love, to persuade Him to be gracious, and to accept the person of the worshipper on account of the multitude or excellence of his services.” (Romans 4:4-8.)

How different from all this is the doing of Jesus! He says, “Man, thy sins be forgiven thee,” and never breathes a whisper about any service the man had rendered for it, nor did He lay him under any obligation to serve Him for the future. He left him free, and seat him to his house, well knowing that from gratitude he would consider himself “free to serve, but not to sin.” Jesus drawing near, and freely dispensing his grace to sinners of every sort, cuts up religiousness by the roots.

It is sad, indeed, when men are taught to regard God with a merely natural veneration as “the great and dreadful God,” who dwells “in the thick darkness,” far removed from the perishing needy sinner, waiting, with cold and scornful reserve, to receive the homage of a fearing and bandaged people. This is not the God of the Gospel; for Jesus, who is God-man, is really as near to man, as condescending, and as ready to supply all his need as ever He was. “Who hath required this at your hands?” is, I am assured in my soul, the voice of the Son of God, to those who thus withdraw Him from the nearest and most assured approach of the poor sinner. But, alas! how very generally it is done. The Lord Jesus is kept at a distance, religious observances are brought near, and tens of thousands like the feelings that come from all that which is acted before them. Their minds are pleased with the matrons worship, and they mistake sentimentalism for spiritual devoutness. Their eye and ear are engaged, their feelings are charmed, a certain sense of God is awakened; but the precious, immediate confidence of the heart and conscience is refused. Jesus is not felt to be near, forgiving their sins. They have religiousness, but no faith; the ceremonies and observances of “a worldly sanctuary,” but not “the simplicity that is in Christ,” in which a purified mind ever delights to walk. Religiousness gives the soul many a serious thought about itself, and many a devout thought about God; but faith gives the soul Jesus, and the words and works of Jesus, and teaches it to have done with fleshly religiousness. (Philippians 3:3.)

And it is faith, and faith only―not religiousness and faith combined―that secures any end that is valued of God. Faith “works by love;” faith “overcomes the world;” faith “purifies the heart;” by faith “the elders obtained a good report.” Not so of religiousness. It ever works by fear, not by love. It does not “overcome the world,” but oft-times takes it away into some recess or hiding-place. It does not “purify the heart” by giving it an object, a divine object, to detach it from self, but keeps self, in a religious attire, ever before it, and leaves the conscience unpurged. And in God’s record it gets no “good report;” on the contrary, we find that religious people, the devout observers of carnal ceremonies, those who would not “defile themselves” with a judgment hall, were the most cruel and strenuous resisters of the truth. But it is the men of faith, the lovers of the truth, the poor broken-hearted sinners, who have found their relief in Jesus “forgiving sins,” who have stood, and labored, and conquered and have their happy memorial with Him, and in the records of Him whom they trusted, and in whom, by faith, they found their eternal life, and sure and full salvation. Anxious one, Jesus has power on earth to forgive sins. “ONLY BELIEVE.”

Just as thou art, without one trace

Of love, or joy, or inward grace,

Or meetness for the heavenly place,

O anxious sinner, come!

Familiar Letters From a Father to His Children, On "The Times of the Gentiles."

No. 7.

MY DEAR CHILDREN, — As soon as Cyrus was dead, Cambyses his son took the crown, and spent most of his not long, but cruel reign, in the conquest, and specially in the destruction of the idols of Egypt. He had put to death his brother Smerdis out of jealousy; but the Persians not being sure of the fact, and Cambyses being so long absent, the occasion was taken by a man named Gomates to give himself out as the real Smerdis, and to seize the crown. Rarely in the East is a revolt attempted, still less does it succeed, unless with the pretext that the intruder is the lineal successor of some former king. The inscriptions of Darius abundantly witness to this; as thus― “Says Darius the king, A man named Phraortes, a Mede, he rose up. To the state of Media thus he said, I am Xathrites, of the race of Cyaxares. Then the Median troops who were at home revolted from me.” The less enlightened the people are, the more do they cleave to the prestige which belongs to an ancient line of kings. Instances are not wanting in this country―as late as the reign of Henry VII., when Perkin Warbeck, by calling himself a son of Edward IV., caused so much bloodshed. The usurper in Persia maintained himself about eight months; for, meanwhile, Cambyses had died by a wound from his own sword. Suspicion, however, arose in the minds of some of the great Persian nobles, from their never being sent for to the palace, and from the seclusion in which Gomates kept himself. One of these great noblemen at last discovered that the usurper had no ears, and was, in fact, a man who for a crime had been punished by Cyrus with the loss of them. It was not long before seven conspirators entered the palace, and slew him, having before agreed (there being no lineal heir to the throne) that the crown should come to one of them. Through the stratagem of his groom, it fell to Darius, a young man, the son of Hystaspes, himself a sort of king. The other six secured the special privilege for themselves of having always access to the king. Perhaps there is allusion to this in Esther 1:14, Ezra 7:14. I told you in my last letter, that whilst there are difficulties in making out the religion of these earlier Persians, they certainly were not idolaters, in the sense of being idol worshippers. Not one of their names is compounded with any god’s name, as Nebuchadnezzar was with Nebo, and Belshazzar with Bel; and it is a fact, that the moment Cyrus took Babylon, no more provision of lands was allowed for the worship in the great temple of that city; so that when Alexander came there, whose policy was to support all the deities of the countries which he conquered, he restored these lands to the priests, in order that their worship might be conducted in its former splendor. You will like to hear something of the manner in which these immense countries, subject to the Persian rule, were governed. It was as follows: ―The king appointed satraps or governors over each of them. The name is compounded of two Persian words, and signifies, “upholders of the crown.” He looked to them for a certain yearly tribute or subsidy, otherwise they, had almost regal power. The main object with the monarch was, that these governors should have a direct interest in its affairs, by their connection with the Persian crown; so they were often his brothers, or more or less related to him. He checked this otherwise great authority of the satrap by placing the command of the troops and of the fortresses in other hands, as well as by a government secretary, appointed directly by the crown. There were also occasional visitations of inquiry into the whole condition of the satrapies, by which the crown was kept cognizant of their general state. With all this, so great was the power of the satraps, that it was not an unusual thing for them to attempt, though not always with success, their independence, especially when signs of decay in the central administration began to manifest themselves. Besides a yearly tribute to the national treasury, each satrapy had to support all the Persian troops quartered within its territory. But contingents of native troops were also expected when great expeditions―as, for instance, that to Greece, under Xerxes―were projected. Otherwise, the laws and prejudices of these subjected countries were but little interfered with. Much, of course, depended on the personal character of the satrap; but in general, provided the rights of Persia were attended to, there was no unnecessary interference with local government. In fact, the system was much such as the Turkish government employs with its outlying provinces to this day. They commit them to the rule of a Pacha, who sends a certain sum of money yearly to Constantinople, which he frequently collects by communicating only with the recognized native heads of the people over whom he rules.

Perhaps the original institution of these great officers appears in Daniel 6:1, 2: “It pleased Darius (that is, the Mede) to set over the kingdom an hundred and twenty princes, who should be over the whole kingdom.” Babylon had been the last city to dispute the Medo Persian sway, and this was followed by the governmental and political arrangement of the whole empire, which to the north was bounded by the Black Sea, the Caucasian range, and the Caspian; to the northeast it touched lake Aral and the river Araxes, along parts ‘of which river it came down in a straight line to the Indus, which was its eastern boundary; thence, to the south, it embraced all the countries washed by the Persian Gulf, from the head of which it went by a straight line across Arabia to the Red Sea. Its western and southwestern boundary was Asia Minor, Phœnicia, and Egypt, which latter was a troublesome acquisition, demanding a large army to keep it in subjection. The satrapies were, according to Herodotus, originally twenty; but after the conquest of Egypt by Cambyses they appear as twenty-two, as inscribed upon the great rock at Behistun, in the fifth year of the reign of Darius (B.C. 516); and eventually they reached up to thirty, according to another inscription. In Esther 9:30, we find the kingdom contained 127. provinces; but a satrapy might embrace several.

In the latter times of the monarchy, when it became unwieldy, it was the Persian policy to rule upon the system of “divide and conquer.” In this way, even in its decadence, it exercised an avowed influence all over Greece and Macedonia, by taking parts with the strongest in all the intestine quarrels of this turbulent people, although it never conquered, and therefore never maintained troops in Greece proper. In like manner some outlying provinces paid tribute, thus owning their fealty to the great king, without Persia having anything to do with their internal government, or having any troops in them. To give you an idea of the size of these satrapies, I mention that four appear to have been included in the region of Asia Minor; but this region was very populous. Egypt was another, and Phœnicia, including Palestine and Cyprus, another. To the far east was Bactria, and again the satrapy of the Indians; but we are not to suppose by this that their territory ever reached beyond the Indus. It was Darius who fixed the annual tribute to be paid into the royal treasury by each satrapy: before his time the provinces had brought gifts voluntarily. He was, on this account, called by the Persians a huckster; but we should notice that this order and arrangement, which he introduced into the finances, and by which he became so powerful, is corroborated by the Scripture account of the riches of his son― “The fourth (Xerxes) shall be far richer than they all.” I will take an instance at random from Herodotus of the tribute paid yearly by one of these satrapies, and then tell you, according to modern computation, how much flowed yearly into his treasury, all external expenses being paid, ―in short, what we should call in modern times the amount of his “civil list.” Thus: “The Men ne gave three hundred and sixty white horses, one for each day in the year (the year, like the prophetic ones in Scripture, consisted of 360 days), and five hundred talents of silver. Of this sum one hundred and forty talents went to pay the cavalry which guarded the country while the remaining three hundred and sixty were received by Darius.” The yearly revenue paid by these satrapies into the royal treasury has been calculated at about three million and a half sterling, the principal part of which was melted down into ingots, and turned into coin when wanted. His whole revenue is said to have been about eighteen millions; probably much under the mark. There are still to be seen in various museums his golden daric, with the king’s head on one side and an archer with a pointed cap on the other, of about the size of one of our sovereigns, and said to be the oldest authenticated coin in existence. Its value, according to some, is as low as 15s., whilst, according to others, it was as high as £1 2S. It has been said, so rich at all times was the crown, that if a tenth part of what was laid up in the treasuries had been spent in bribing the Greeks, the invasion of Persia never could have taken place; for Alexander the Great found at Susa 50,000 talents of silver, besides large quantities at Persepolis and other cities. A talent of silver is worth about £341 of our money.

Darius, having quelled a revolt of the Babylonians, determined to march against the Scythians, in about the tenth year of his reign. This appears to have been the first time that Europe was visited by the Persian arms. These Scythians inhabited the country north of the Danube, in those parts now occupied by the Turks and Russians. The expedition was in revenge for a former attack of these people on the Median empire, which had retarded for thirty years the Median conquest of Nineveh by the ancestors of Darius. The expedition is said to have numbered 700,000 men, with a fleet of 600 large ships. He built a bridge of boats across the Bosphorus, somewhere near Constantinople, and crossed his army upon it into Europe, and marched for the Danube then called the Deer, which he passed by means of a bridge of boats also, leaving a guard of Asiatic Greeks over it, whom he desired to keep it for sixty days only. By this act we suppose that his intention was to march into Asia across the Caucasus. He now entered Scythia, and, proceeding still northward, crossed the several rivers―the Don, then called the Tacnais, in particular―in pursuit of the retiring Scythians, until, as some say, he came to the great lake Mœotis, and even as far (which we may doubt, because the expedition, from the time he left the Danube, hardly lasted more than eighty days) as the Volga. Whatever may have been the northern limits of his march, it is certain that he returned with disgrace, never having been able to draw the Scythians into battle. With great difficulty he reached the Danube, on his return, having been obliged to abandon all the weak and sickly in his army; for it was well-nigh famished. He found the bridge of boats, which he had left under the care of Histiæus and Ionian, still standing, and was fortunate enough to get back to Sardis, leaving 80,000 men in Thrace to subdue that country. This expedition into Scythia was probably scarcely a less disaster than that which subsequently happened to Xerxes, although, from the small political importance of the Scythians, it had no lasting result. He rested a few years before the breaking out of the Greek war, and the whole of his dominions enjoyed a period of repose like that which in nature sometimes precedes a storm; but I must reserve the account of the battle of Marathon, the death of Darius, and the accession of Xerxes, until the next letter. Your affectionate Father, ―.

The Closed Door.

“The door was shut.” ―Matthew 14:10.

WE know not a more solemn thought than that the open door, which now admits into the sheepfold of Christ all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, will soon be closed; and that, when it is too late, many will be distressed to enter in, but shall not be able. It will be too late. How dark and terrible the prospect of those must be, having knocked in vain fix admission, shall hear the Master address then from within, “I never knew you, depart from me all ye workers of iniquity.” A little while before He invited them in, saying, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” How affectionate the appeal! How desirable the rest! How gracious ark universal the invitation! How mad, how foolish how inconsistent, then, to slight such an offer Man was then within the grasp of faith, angels waited but for the decision; but the only Saviour was rejected. Hell triumphed. Jesus will come while they are still undecided, and then in vain they seek the pardon which was once so earnestly and constantly pressed upon them. Could these unhappy people but enjoy for one short moment the privileges the reader of this paper at present enjoys, how incalculably precious would it be to them. Not all the gold of Ophir would buy it not all the glory of Solomon secure it. Now pardon can be obtained, admittance granted and that awful foretaste of hell, with its burning flames, suffocating smoke, eternal darkness, tormenting devils, upbraiding conscience, parching tongue, would then be averted; but then it will be too late; they must go into everlasting punishment, into an ever-burning hell, which they were again and again exhorted to avoid, by flying to Him, who pledged His word, saying, “him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out;” but they never came, and therefore never obtained the blessing.

O that my reader would take warning, and at once flee to Him, who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” “Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.” Or, on a dying bed he may exclaim, in unutterable agony, the harvest is past, the summer is ended, and I am not saved. God grant it may be otherwise, that, “On a Father’s love relying, Trusting to the Saviour’s dying, He may sleep in Jesus, crying Heaven is mine.”

No Partings Yonder.

NO shadows yonder! all light and song,

Each day I wander, and say, how long

Shall time me sunder from that dear throng.

No weeping yonder! all fled away,

While I wander each weary day,

And sigh, as I ponder my long, long stay.

No partings yonder! time and space never

Again sunder, hearts cannot sever,

Dearer and fonder, hands clasp forever.

None wanting yonder, bought by the Lamb,

All gathered under the ever green palm,

Loud as night’s thunder ascends the glad psalm.

Words for Believers.

No. 3.

MY mind has been directed to the passages in the Word which relate to the valley of Achor, and I have drawn, through the Lord’s mercy, some comfort from them. The valley of “trouble” would scarcely be the place to expect comfort, but He that turns the shadow of death into the morning (Amos 5:8) for His weeping people, knows how to make the darkest passages of their history yield profit to their souls, and His abounding grace is nowhere seen more brightly than in connecting words of promise with a scene where sin had called out judgment―judgment even of death. For it was a dark day in Israel when that valley came upon their view. (Joshua 7:24, 26.) The holiness of God had been insulted, the anger of the Lord provoked and what could Israel do in such a case? Humble themselves they must, and judge themselves they must, and put the accursed thing away from them. “If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.” (1 Corinthians 11:31, 32.) Holiness, then, is the first lesson which the valley teaches—holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Judgment beginning with the house is surely told out there. But this is not all. The valley of Achor must become a door of hope. (Hosea 2:15.) Israel is not cast off forever. Unworthy as she is, and wanderer as she has been, there is mercy for her even yet―mercy secured in the blood-shedding of her Lord, who has borne her judgment on the accursed tree. Thus only could the place of judgment be a door of hope. But thus it is. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love eternal and immovable that fills His heart, has found a way for itself into the place of judgment―the hell which our iniquity deserved. His sufferings and death are the full answer to eternal justice which called for vengeance on our sins: and more than this. The atoning work completed on the Cross brings in a tide of blessing upon the ages to come which never can be measured or exhausted. “I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her vineyards, from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.” Then there is a promise of restoration―light arising in the darkness. Here is the second lesson of the valley; hope through the faithfulness of God, when Israel has lost all by bet iniquity. Thus does this marvelous love shine out, thus does this unvarying grace display itself.

Sinners, ruined and undone by their own folly called again to look and live; called to sing it the day of the Lord of everlasting betrothal it righteousness and in judgment, in lovingkindness, in mercies, and in faithfulness. A covenant of grace and love, of life, and joy, and peace. A covenant, not of works upon man’s part, but of grace on Jehovah’s part, ordered in all thing and sure, all the salvation and all the desire of those who put their trust in Him.

But if holiness, and truth, and grace; if hope and life, and peace, are fruits gathered in the valley of Achor; if the soul-trouble of Jesus have secured us these; surely there is a third lesson connected with the place which may well call out our adoration and our praise. For then is rest to be enjoyed there, abiding, everlasting rest. “Thus saith the Lord, as the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants’ sakes, that I may not destroy them all. And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, am out of Judah―an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there. And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that hast sought me.” The new wine shall be found it the kingdom. (Matt. 26:29.) The Lord Himself will drink it with us, with the cluster that is found around Him. And surely that gathering shall never be destroyed; for He, the Blesser and the blessing, shall be in it, its center to eternal days. Inheritor of all things, He will establish His elect in their inheritance joint heirs with Him forever. The flocks shall fine their fold, and He, the Lamb once slain, shall feed them. Every little one shall have its place its gladness and its joy, there. None shall be missing, none shall be ever lost. The herds too shall lie down and take their rest. Those stronger ones, that knew the toil and travail of the desert road, shall find the place that once was market by trouble, ―then again, by hope, the seat of rest and peace, and undisturbed enjoyment. The that have sought the Lord shall thus be blest. Sweet and most sure promise. May it cheer out hearts until the day break, and the shadows dis appear forever!

Service.

SOME people say, that to speak of being a servant savors of bondage. I feel, if it is it is a blessed bondage. How could it be bondage to serve Jesus? or to follow in His steps who became a servant. A yoke that is easy, and a burthen declared light by our Master, cannot be bondage. He was both Son and servant, and so are we, and we are blessed in both, and have blessings attached to both relationships. There is a great difference, to my mind, between these two people I am going to mention. A person, now dead, took a poor orphan child and reared her for a few years, until she got strength to work, and then said to her one day, “Now, Jane, I’m going to ask you a question. Will you be my little servant?” “Servant, ma’am?” Jane replied; “Is it for payment?” “Yes,” said her mistress, “and I will give you your board, and lodging, and clothes, but no wages, until I prove your faithfulness.” [Her mistress kept a small shop.] “Oh! ma’am,” said little Jane, putting her arms round her mistress’s neck, “I’ll serve you while I live, but I’ll never take payment. I would have been lost but for you.”

Jane became a servant in the place of trust. Her mistress hired a servant (one she had also taken pity on), and said, “As long as you serve me faithfully, I will retain and pay you wages; when you are unfaithful, I will discharge you.” She had six such servants while I knew her, but Jane became unto her as her own child, and, though she never received any wages, she inherited all her mistress’s wealth. Now, is not Jane a very correct picture of a redeemed slave, desiring to be spent in the service of the Redeemer, rejecting the idea of serving for wages or earning an inheritance, but glad to be clad, fed, and housed-all wants supplied by one she knew was a friend, and would be her friend for life? How different was the service rendered by the others. They did not feel redeemed from anything; they labored as slaves, and sought no inheritance, except their wages―a selfish servitude.

What Is the Gospel?

WHAT is the Gospel? ‘Tis just what is needed;

See all of your sins on the Crucified laid;

Look only to Jesus (whose merits are pleaded),

And take His own word, that your debt is all paid.

For your sins He died, and the free gift receiving,

Of life everlasting, will make your heart melt;

You cannot repent, without also believing―

Believing will prove that you truly repent.

Yes; this is the Gospel — that “he that believeth

Hath life everlasting,” is free from the curse;

No longer condemned, he “a kingdom receiveth

Which cannot be moved,” were his case even worse.

It says each believer has present salvation,

“Is passed e’en already from death unto life,”

And “never shall come unto sin’s condemnation,”

That coming to Jesus has ended the strife.

Thus ransomed we serve Him, and faster and faster

We run after Jesus, and love Him the more;

The slave that’s set free by a kind trusting master,

Will die for the friend that he hated before.

John 5:24. John 11:25, 26. Heb. 12:28.

1 Peter 1:3-5. 1 Peter 2:24. 1 John 5:10-13.

Always Triumphing in Christ.

2 Corinthians 2:10.

PAUL was pre-eminently a Eucharistic man. His own word to us, “In everything give thanks,” was his own motto. All his epistles, with the exception of that to the Galatians, begin with thanksgiving. He had no heart to thank God for those who had given up the gospel of the grace of God for another, or rather no gospel at all.

But Paul blended triumph with thanksgiving, and that in a very remarkable manner. And these bursts of triumphant thanksgiving are found in closest connection with the deepest sense of sinfulness, helplessness, and overwhelming power of circumstances, because his triumph was always in Christ. In the seventh chapter of his Epistle to the Romans, where he has sounded as fully as man can sound the depths of sin (for it is the prerogative of Omniscience to search the heart and try the reins) (Jeremiah 17:9, 10,) when be had bared himself to the searching power of God’s holy, just, and good law, which we know to be spiritual: it is when he it brought to the cry, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” that the triumphant cry of deliverance is uttered, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Or to take another instance, it is with sin death, and the law, staring him in the face as dread realities that he bursts forth in triumphant thanksgiving, “Thanks be unto God which giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ.” But the triumph in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the instances above noticed, will probably be fount less difficult than such a triumph as the apostle celebrates in 2 Corinthians 2:10. There is perhaps no writing of the apostle which opens out to us so fully his inmost soul as the first half of this second epistle to the Corinthians. It throws some light on that remarkable expression in Colossians 1:24: “Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, am fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body’s sake, which is the Church, whereof I (Paul) am made a minister.” Such trials, both outward and inward, the apostle could only have, because he never lost sight of being a member of that body, the head of which is Christ in heaven, and that he was minister of that body. Hence the trials he describes are more peculiarly ministerial trials. The apostle begins with that burst of adoring praise which almost takes the form of doxology. He had experimentally proved the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ to be the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. That God had comforted him in all his affections. But the apostle had been brought so low as to “have the sentence of death in himself, that he should not trust in himself, but in God, which raiseth the dead.” Death and resurrection must be learned experimentally by the apostle in his ministry to Christ’s body, the Church. Hard, but necessary, schooling; and only to be learned even in the feeblest manner, when we have learned our place as members of Christ’s body, and of one another. In the eleventh chapter of this epistle the apostle sets, above all his outward trials, the daily pressure which came upon him, in caring for “all the churches.” And, in connection with the passage before us, we read, “Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ’s gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother.” This man, so bold in the face of all outward danger, was hindered from entering in at the door opened to him of the Lord at Troas, by his deep inward trial. He goes to Macedonia. “Without were fightings, within were fears. Nevertheless, God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus.” (2 Corinthians 7:5, 6.) This was the reason of the burst of exulting triumph in 2 Corinthians 2:14. The very abruptness of this burst, without any reason assigned for it, gives us an insight into the very heart of the apostle, big with the thought of what God was doing for him in Christ, that it requires four or five chapters of the pouring out of his heart, in telling out the glorious ministry with which he was entrusted, ere he resumed the narrative of his journey to Macedonia, his comfort at meeting Titus and bearing from him of their “earnest desire, their mourning, and their fervent mind toward him, so that he rejoiced the more.”

In his deep soul-trial, in his fears for the Corinthians, in the bitter disappointment be was feeling about their ways, whom he had regarded as his best letters of recommendation, God was still leading him about, or causing him to triumph in Christ. The sweet savor of Christ unto God was brought out by the very circumstances which were pressing him above measure, beyond strength. The apostle acted in Christ and for Christ, and God made him to triumph in Christ. It is the pressing and crushing trial of circumstances in the Church of God which is the real wear and tear of the Christian; and if he is not walking in Christ and acting in Christ, he will sink under it, or give up all as hopeless. If we in our measure are acting in Christ, whatever trouble and depression it may bring us into, still, if simply and perseveringly going on in Christ, God will always cause us to triumph in Christ. One great end will be answered, we ourselves hid, and Christ manifested. This is the great thing. God’s object is Christ, and oh, that He too may be our object, and that we may have a single eye to Him as our single object!

The apostle had only to go to Corinth, and put his authority in exercise against the gainsayers, and order and decorum would have been the result; but he had another and higher object, and that was, to get the souls of the Corinthians occupied with that which occupied his own soul, even “Jesus Christ and Him crucified;” yea, risen and glorified, and “his Lord and theirs.” They may charge him with fickleness, they may ridicule his bodily presence they may defame him; but he goes on acting towards them in Christ, and God causes him to triumph. Only let us own Christ as Lord, and be Christ-like in our ways, and God will make us also to triumph in Him; and triumphing in Him is triumphing over self. Oh, for grace to follow Paul as he followed Christ. J. L. H.

Notes From a Scrap Book.

WHENEVER engaged in prayer, we should try and bear in mind, that for aught we know to the contrary, the prayer upon which we are engaged may be our last.

“From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.” (Luke 11:51.)

Many godly people have interested themselves to discover the history of this event; but to my mind, we should take the matter simply as a sure and certain token that our Lord notes everything regarding His people―calamity and good fortune―(and that too with the utmost minutiae) though He may not at the time indicate as much. There was a very short space between the temple and the altar, yet the Lord marked down the spot from the distance of heaven!

When reading the Old Testament, one cannot help being struck with the secondary position “the nations” held in the Divine counsels, as contrasted with that occupied by Israel. It would seem as if the affairs of the Gentiles only interested our Lord so far as they affected His chosen people; for it is only when they come in contact with these latter, that the former appear upon the field of Scripture at all. I cannot help thinking the case to be the same, even now, in this present dispensation, namely, that our Lord only concerns himself with the affairs of the world at large, to the extent that they concern us; that He does not so much rule (John 14:30; Hebrews 10:13; and Revelation 11:15) as over-rule; and this with respect to the plans and intentions He has designed on our behalf.

Jeremiah 21:9, and various other places. “ ... ...his life shall be unto him for a prey.” This is a bad choice of synonyms made by the translators. “Boon” would have been a better word. “ ... ... his life shall be unto him as a boon.” That is, “he shall be very fortunate to escape with his bare life,” or similarly, as the context may be.

(The Hebrew word is the same as the Arabic, from which latter the Hindustani term is derived, and this idiom is very common in India.)

1 Peter 3:19 and 4:6.

The apparent difficulty in both these verses will vanish, if we mentally interpolate the word “now” before “in prison” in the former, and “dead” in the latter. In the same way as when speaking of any particular person in prison, or dead, we mean (unless distinctly stated otherwise) at the time we are talking of him.

And another thing, it does not say, “He goes and preaches unto the spirits now in prison,” nor is the gospel preached also to them “that are dead,” but “went and preached,” and “was the gospel preached;” so that in no way can a Papist establish his doctrine of “Purgatory” from these two texts, as I have known it to be attempted. Ιχθυς.

The Martyrdom of John Huss.

“ON the day of his death, July 6th, his sentence was read to him in the Cathedral of Constance, in the presence of the Emperor and Council. He immediately knelt down, and prayed God to forgive his enemies. Being again urged to recant, he replied, ‘I now stand before the face of God, and can never do what you require without a violation of His honor and my own conscience.’ Before he was led to the place of execution, he was solemnly presented to the whole Council in his priestly habit, with the chalice in his hand, that he might be disgraced with infamy. Being stripped of his habit amidst dreadful imprecations, and the chalice snatched from his hand, he was pronounced an accursed Judas. He replied, ‘I place my trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and know that He will never take from me the cup of life; yea, I firmly believe that He will give it unto me this day in His kingdom.’ A paper miter, on which devils were painted, being placed upon his head, he comforted himself with the reflection, that Jesus had been in mockery crowned with thorns. He was then delivered to the magistrates, with these words: ‘We deliver your body to the secular power, and your soul to the devil.’ Upon which he exclaimed, ‘O Lord Jesus, I commend my soul unto thee, for thou hast redeemed it.’ Or the road to the stake, he sang psalms and hymn, with such cheerfulness and firmness, that hi, enemies said he went to his death as if he were going to a wedding feast.”

Notes on the Book of Revelation.

(Chap. 13:1-10.)

THE unparalleled manifestation of diabolical and human blasphemy is seen in this chapter Satan now finds one to accept at his hands the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them which Jesus refused. He who was a liar and murderer from the beginning has been most successful in his deceiving’s by being an imitator of God. You often see this in Scripture, and especially in the Revelation. God has wise virgins; Satan has virgins also―false. Christ bows good seed―wheat; Satan sows seed too―tares. God has a vine― “the true vine;” Satan has a vine also― “the vine of the earth.” Christ has a bride; Satan has a harlot. God has a city―the new Jerusalem; Satan also has a city―Babylon. But none of his imitations seem so vile as in this chapter, none so perfect in blasphemy against God. For instance, God had a man, His dear Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, to bear witness for Him in the earth. Satan will have a man also―the man of sin. God did “miracles, and wonders, and signs,” by Jesus of Nazareth; Satan’s servant will come too, “with all power, and signs, and lying wonders” (compare Acts 2:22 with 2 Thessalonians 2:9); God will have all worship Jesus, and bow the knee to Him, for He is worthy; so Satan will have all that dwell upon the earth to worship “the beast,” whose names are not written in the book of life. The saints of God shall have His name “in their foreheads;” so the worshippers of “the beast” “shall receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads.” But worse than all this is the direct blasphemy against God. The gospel of the grace of God now gives testimony to the love, and wisdom, and power of the triune God―Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; so we see in this chapter that Satan has a trio also―the beast, false prophet, and the image that doth speak―all energized by one lying spirit, all united in blaspheming God and deceiving men. This infernal outrage, venting itself in direct antagonism to Christ seems to fill up the measure of iniquity, and bring speedy vengeance from heaven by the glorious appearing of the Son of man in great power and glory, who will consume this wicked one with the Spirit of His mouth, and destroy with the brightness of His coming. Both the beast and the false prophet are cast alive at once into “the lake of fire burning with brimstone.” (2 Thessalonians 2:8; Revelation 19:20.) Happy for us who believe, that when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, we also shall appear with Him in glory. (Colossians 3:4.)

Satan having been cast out of heaven into the earth, as recorded in the previous chapter, we are not surprised at finding this chapter commencing with the development of the beast. The apostle says: “I saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the names of blasphemy.” (verse 1.) He rises up out of the sea; which teaches us that he had been hid from the eye of man, though known to God and Satan. It was the same with the great Gentile powers which Daniel saw― “They came up from the sea.” There were four great beasts. The first like a lion, the second like a bear, the third like a leopard, and the fourth beast dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it; and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and behold there came up among them another little horn, and in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things. I beheld till the Ancient of days came, &c. (Daniel 7:3-8.) This was Daniel’s vision of the great Gentile powers. The beast which John saw seems to include the whole of these great beasts; for he says: “The beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth was as the mouth of a lion.... and had a mouth speaking great things.” (verses 2, 5.) The times of the Gentiles will be then still running on in the fourth or Roman empire―the legs of the image with its ten toes; or, as we have just seen, the ten-horned beast with its ten crowns―all, it seems to me, personified in the first beast of the Apocalypse, or the little horn of Daniel, with man’s eyes and mouth, speaking great things. He is one under direct Satanic inspiration and power, he ascends out of the bottomless pit; and we are further told that Satan gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. Deniers little horn intimates that he issues from the Roman earth. From the statement, “He will not regard the God of his fathers” (Daniel 11:37), we may expect he will be a Jew; but, though emanating from the Roman earth, he will enter the glorious land, that is, Palestine, and plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain, that is, Mount Zion. (Daniel 11:41, 45.) He will have the iron teeth and dreadful and terrible strength of the fourth monarchy; for it will be said, “Who is able to make war with him?”

We must remember, that although the development of the beast will not take place till the hindering power―the Church, indwelt by the Holy Ghost―is removed, and Satan is cast our into the earth, yet that “the mystery of iniquity” was working in Paul’s day, and is still going on (2 Thessalonians 2:7.) John saw it also, and said: “Even now are there many antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time.” (1 John 2:18). The anti-Christian principle is working all around us, and growing rapidly; and we need grace and spiritual power from God to discern the evil, and flee from it. Sight and sense are not enough for there is power with Satan’s work, and he imitates God as far as he can, so as to be more effectual in deceiving. The soul taught by the Holy Ghost, and in subjection to the written Word, thus walking by faith and not by sight trusting to the living God, and not leaning to its own understanding, is alone able to stand with God, or walk with God. Seeing that self-soil and self-exaltation will characterize the man of sin, let us watch against these two evils, which are in every one of our hearts by nature, and seek to be conformed to our blessed Jesus, who was meek and lowly in heart, and who humbler Himself and became obedient unto death, ever the death of the Cross!

With our present measure of light, perhaps it is difficult to say what we are to understand by “one of his heads as it were wounded to death and his deadly wound was healed,” further than it seems to be some check given to the beasts success after he is manifested; but it is only for a time; for he is restored again, and comes forth under the flattery of a world-wide admiration: “all the world wondered after the beast.” (verse 3.)

It is to be observed, that this, period will be characterized by devil-worship; for “the dragon,” that is, the devil and Satan (chapter 12:9), who gave power unto the beast, will be “worshipped.” (verse 4.) The beast, too, will be worshipped; for “all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain.” (verse 8.) Those who have been watching the moral changes and course of events for many years, must have noticed the rapid increase of irreverence for the things of God the steady advance of infidelity, and the earnestness with which very many have fallen in with spirit-rapping and consulting with familial spirits; and we can easily understand how gradually the great deceiver is by such things paving the way for the development of his purposes which are so soon to end in open infidelity an blasphemy. The well-instructed child of God cannot but observe the occurrence of remarkable events, especially of late, and see that the day of the Lord is approaching with great rapidity. Saints are expected to see this, and are therefore taught to assemble themselves together, and to exhort one another; and so much the more as they see the day approaching. (Hebrews 10:25.) The day of the Lord is not set before us, strictly speaking, as our hope; but the Lord Himself. He is “the one hope of our calling,” and we are to serve God, and wait for His Son from heaven. (1 Thessalonians 1:10.) He says to us: “Surely, I come quickly!” and our response should be, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” But while thus in a waiting posture for Christ, many events may and do occur which shew us that the day is approaching; the day when Christ will be manifested in glory with His saints, the day of the world’s judgment and of Israel’s restoration and blessing. But the calling, standing, and hope of the Church is heavenly. “Our citizenship is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 3:20.) In fact, prophecy relates for the most part to the earth; but, as members of Christ’s body, while taking heed to the sure word of prophecy, and learning much of God in tracing His dealings in the earth, we are instructed to look for the Lord Himself, who shall descend from heaven with a shout, when all who are alive and remain, and all the dead in Christ, shall be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air, and so be forever with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17.)

To return to our chapter: we find that this time of pride and blasphemy is limited. It will “continue forty and two months.” (verse 6.) Daniel also speaks of power given to him for a time, times, and the dividing of time. Regarding “time” as being equivalent to a year, as the marginal reading of chapter 11:13, “times, even years,” would seem to warrant, both these periods would be exactly three years and a half; the period of the half of the last week of Daniel, during which the beast will continue in open manifestation, after having caused the sacrifice and oblation to cease. (Daniel 9:27.) The beast will not only speak great things, but will open his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle or dwelling, and them that dwell in heaven. (verse 6.) It is remarkable that we get the dwellers in heaven noticed again here, as we observed in the previous chapter (verse 12); and the more so because we find “saints” under the oppression of the beast in the next verse. Now, if we understand the dwellers in heaven to be the heavenly saints, who, ere this period, have been caught up to meet the Lord in the air, who are the “saints” brought before us here? It may be well to notice, that “saint” is not a title peculiar to the New Testament. Daniel repeatedly speaks of the saints, and as on the earth too during the time of the antichrist. But Daniel speaks nothing of the Church; his prophecies are concerning his city and people. He says “He shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High.” He also says: “The horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them....and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.” (Daniel 7:21, 22, 25.) There is no mention here of resurrection or rapture, and therefore they cannot be the Church. He also intimates that some will be brought through this great tribulation; for he tells us, “At that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that is written in the book.” (Daniel 12:1; Revelation 13:7, 8.) The prophet Daniel thus speaks of saints, evidently Jewish, and not of the Church, who are brought through the fire into their own promised blessing in the earth. Jeremiah calls it the time of Jacob’s trouble. Our Lord also says, that “for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” If they were not shortened, the oppression of the beast would go on to exterminate all who do not worship him; so that “except those days should be shortened there would no flesh be saved.” Israel is called repeatedly in Scripture God’s “elect.” On comparing Matthew 24:31 with Isaiah 27:12, 13, it will be clearly seen that the “elect” there mentioned are not the Church, but the seed of Jacob. Isaiah 54:4, Leviticus 9:22 also shew us that Israel is called God’s “elect.” Another prophet says, that in all the land two parts shall be cut off and die, and that God will bring a third part of them through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: “they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people; and they shall say, The Lord is my God.” (Zechariah 13:8, 9.) All, these are clearly people suffering great tribulation on the earth, and brought through it into blessing. Like Noah and his family, carried through the tribulation, and brought into the purged earth. With these prophecies our chapter agrees. We are told, “It was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them. .... He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.” (verses 7-10.) This shows us that many are cut off, and some are brought through: ― they overcome, not by carnal weapons, but by faith and patience. This is the Divine rule, That no flesh shall glory in God’s presence. The saints, in the great tribulation, will have to learn, that “by strength shall no man prevail.” They will not overcome by their own sword or power; for “he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword,” &c. God will then be glorified, as He is now, by patient faith; hence it is added, “Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.” They will be fully delivered by the personal return of the Messiah in glory, and be brought into the millennial blessing. Those who are faithful unto death, and lose their earthly inheritance, will have a place in the first resurrection (as we learn from chapter 20:4), and reign with Christ. The time of Nebuchadnezzar is remarkably typical of the period we have been contemplating. The king, in self-will and pride, set up a golden image, and commanded all on pain of death to bow down to it. All obeyed. A very, very few were the exceptions. They refused to worship the image, and were faithful to the living and true God; they suffered and overcame, not by sword, but by faith and patience. They were cast into the fiery furnace. God was with them in it, and delivered them out of it. They were brought into greater honor and blessing in the earth than they had ever known before. The infidel king was abased, and their oppressors consumed. So will it be in the days of the beast.

Happy those whose citizenship is in heaven, who are partakers of the heavenly calling, and members of the body of Christ; for as is the heavenly such are they also who are heavenly; and as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. In a little while He that shall come will come, and will not tarry.

The Power of the Cross.

YES, I was living to myself―was dead;

Self, with its hopes and dreams, was all I had;

But soon the Lord fulfilled my prayer to know

The power of His Cross:—’twas death below.

I asked contrition, and He sent me pain;

For purity, but anguish came again;

I asked I might be meek―He broke my heart!

I asked―I knew not what―the better part;

I asked to know what death was to the world,

And quickly all my living hopes were spoiled;

I asked to be like Him, His image bear,

He placed me in a furnace, sitting there

Like one refining silver, till He see

The reflex of His image bright in me;

I asked that I the daily cross might bear―

It lacerated me―the wounds I wear;

I blindly prayed, not knowing how, nor what,

He took me at my word, ―it mattered not;

Then I began to shrink from following near,

And well-nigh prayed Him to depart, through fear:

To suffer was not pleasing to the flesh;

I feared to pray, lest suffering come afresh.

But I had gone too far. On I must go―

The virtues of His Cross had pierced me through.

In me His promise now fulfilled must be,

“I, lifted up, will draw all men to me.”

Ah! I had only heard of love; but now

I feel it―oh, I feel its living glow!

He fastened on me such a look of love,

Withering to self, tender, all words above!

Follow I must, whatever may betide;

I love the Cross, I shelter in His side―

That riven side, from which the glory beams,

Whence life and healing flow in living streams.

Only by gazing I become like Him―

His name shines out through me―He dwells within.

My calling is to live with Him alone,

Unlike all others, lacking what they own;

Content to be by all the world despised,

Knowing that I by Him am loved and prized;

Content to be like Him, and call Him mine,

In fellowship ineffable, divine;

Happy to lose the brighter portion here

That I may gain the weight of glory there;

Happy, that when I well-nigh turned away,

His hand was on me, would not let me stray;

Happy to know that He does all in love, ―

To bear the Cross below, the crown above;

Happy that not my will, but His, be done;

Happy, in prospect of the rest of home.

―J. W. T.

Readings for the Young.

Narrative of the Conversion and Death of Emma F., written by her Mother a few days after she “fell asleep.”

IN December, 1263, little Emma F. became deeply convinced of her need of a Saviour, and, although living at a distance from the Merrion Hail, she attended the Lord’s Day and other services. At one of the Tuesday meetings a Christian young lady spoke to her for a considerable three touching the sinfulness of her nature, and the completeness of the sacrifice of Christ for sin; in this instance there was a lasting impression made, and she became awakened to a sense of her state as a sinner.

A few weeks afterward, as Mr. S. was showing how Jesus took our sins on Himself, paid the debt we owed, and thereby satisfied God, he took his Bible, held it up, and, laying his hymn-book down on it, said, “Here is Jesus, there are your sins, see how He bears them away from you.” This simple illustration of the great transaction came home to the heart of our dear child; she knew she was a sinner, and now she saw her sins laid on Jesus, and that she had only to believe this and be saved. On her return home, she said, “Mamma, I never thought of Jesus loving us when we are bad, but Mr. S. says He does, and now I understand bow He took our sins and our place. I never could know what other preachers said, but I understood Mr. S. today, when he laid his hymn-book on his Bible, and showed how Jesus took all our sins on Himself, but still I don’t feel myself saved.”

Shortly after this, another young lady spoke to her, urging her to believe for herself on the Lord Jesus, and pointing her to that text, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out;” and, with a view to make it more personal, it was changed to “Her that cometh,” &c. On that day she complained of being ill, and was confined to her bed for some days. During this time I observed her to be much in prayer, and on Friday she sang, with her hands clasped and her eyes looking up to heaven―

“Dearest Saviour, go not from me,

Let Thy presence still abide;

Look in tenderest love upon me,

I am sheltering at Thy side.”

Soon afterward, she said, “Mamma, I have good news to tell you; I think I am saved.” I mid, “Dear Emma, are you not sure you are saved?” She thought a moment, then said, “Yes, I am saved through the blood of the Lamb. I was praying all day for the light of the Holy Spirit, that I might know I was saved. Her that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out. I believe, for Thou halt said. And oh, Mamma, I am saved through the blood of the Lamb. If I die tonight, I know I have eternal life.”

These were sweet assurances of a Saviour’s love to poor perishing sinners, and our dear child had now given unmistakable evidence that she had been with Jesus, that He had revealed Himself unto her, and had shined into her young heart, by His Spirit bearing witness with hers, that she was a child of God, an heir of heaven, and a young follower of the Lord.

Our dear child’s earthly prospects were poor indeed; but this was the second the Lord had adopted into His family, and we knew that our daughters had an inheritance “incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away,” and this we knew no changes of this present life could deprive them of. Then with thankful hearts we united in singing.

Glory, honor, praise, and power

Be unto the Lamb forever.”

Ah, no doubt there was joy that moment in the presence of the angels. The joy of her soul overcame her weakness of body. Prayer was now turned into praise, and she continued to sing

“Happy day,

When Jesus washed my sins away.”

It is now more than three months, and she never lost her hold on Jesus. There are those that can testify of her anxious desire to sit with the Lord’s people at His table, as His acknowledged disciple, and she had that happy privilege afforded her. Who would pass by one of the youngest lambs of the fold? This was the first and last time she partook of the Lord’s Supper, but she is now exalted high above all earthly privileges and enjoyments, sitting in the midst of the circle of loved ones, gone up before her forever with Jesus. She was very much attached to the hymns, “Times of Refreshing,” particularly those commencing―

“Jesus, I am never weary.”

“My God, we are stones in Thy temple divine.”

Sometimes she appeared to be gaining strength, and on Easter Monday last she sat in the gallery behind the platform. During the service she joined in the singing, and solemnly sang that sweet hymn―

“Death with his arrows may soon lay us low,

Safe in our Saviour we fear not the blow.”

Little did we think our dear one would so soon fall pierced by that arrow.

On April 3rd she attended the Merrion Hall for the last time. The hymns sung were―

“In the Christian’s home in glory,”

and

“Lord Jesus, we pray, soon give Thy glad day,”

which she sang so fervently, that I asked her Did she really wish the Lord would come? She answered, “Indeed I do, mamma; I wish He would come tonight.”

Shortly before this she had given way to some little petulance towards one of her brothers; he had been troublesome to her, and, for the first time since her conversion, she had lost he; temper, and made use of a hasty expression. When alone with her, I took occasion to speak on the unseemliness of the disciple of the meek and lowly Jesus being led by any spirit but that of love, as well as the effect which such hasty words might have on her unconverted brother. She was deeply affected, shedding tears for having grieved the Spirit of God. Shortly after this she was heard to sing―

“I thought that I was strong, Lord,

And did not need Thine arm;”

and again, the verse―

“Oh, Thou host given me sight, Lord,” &c.,

continuing, with great earnestness, ―

“But I know that I am Thine, Lord,

And that none can pluck away,

The feeblest babe that ever yet

Didst make Thine arm its stay.”

This was a favorite hymn from that time forth with her. About this time a friend called on us when I was telling him, amongst other things of how the Lord had revealed Himself to two of our children. He seemed glad to hear it but, in speaking to Emma, laid great stress or guarding against mistakes about conversion. She had not many words for grown persons, but, on his leaving, she said, “Mamma, I fear Mr. D. thinks I am not saved; what he said would not encourage me a bit; but no matter what anyone thinks, when Jesus knows I believe, then I know I am saved.”

There is one trait in her Christian character which I am loath to pass over: her associating all she loved, as well as many little passing events of daily life, with the coming glory; indeed, she lived constantly in the sense of it, frequently remarking, “Well, we shan’t want this or that in the glory.”

Once, when looking at a Christian lady whom she loved with great affection, she said, in her simple’ manner, “Oh, mamma, won’t she look grand in the glory.” At another time, she said, “Mr. S. looked pale today, but he’ll not look so in the GLORY.” When some regretted the loss of her hair, she said, “I don’t care about my old hair, I shan’t want it in the glory.”

How sweetly she realized these blessed truths, and how soon was she called to be with Jesus, and how graciously the Lord prepared her young mind for the change that was so shortly to come.

Sweet, dear Emma, she was of a most loving and affectionate disposition, and dearly loved the sound of Mr. S.’s name; and, while he was away for some time in London and Paris, she said one day, “Mamma, I did not think I cared so much for Mr. S., but I feel so lonely since he went away: I am counting the days until he comes back.” Her mother said, “Emma, dear, you have the Lord, and if you were with Him you would not want Mr. S. to direct you.” She said, “Oh, mamma, you know what I mean: he did not die for me, but still I know he will be in the glory, and dear Mrs. T. too; oh, I hope we shall be near each other, quite close to Jesus, saying, ‘Thou art worthy.’”

During the last week she was in health, she constantly read “Pilgrim’s Progress,” and one day, showing the plate to a younger sister, she said, “I should not mind crossing the river if I could see Jesus and the shining ones on the other side.” And then, as though the Lord was preparing her for the strife, she was led to sing the last three verses of the hymn before mentioned, ending with those lines—

“Ready to go to Thee, Lord,

When Thou shalt call away.”

On the following day (13th May) she complained of her head being affected. On Saturday and Sunday she was unable to sit up and on Monday the doctor pronounced her to be in gastric fever. She was quite sensible, and said, “Mamma, I wish I was with Jesus, for I have had a dream.” Just then her father entered the room, and she said, “I dreamed I saw the Lord Jesus: He came to me surrounded with crowns, and golden and purple stars, bright and beautiful. He said to me, ‘Emma, I want you to come to Me,’ and I answered, ‘Even so, Lord Jesus, I come quickly!’ I also saw grandmamma, and dear little Shaddy (a younger sister gone before), and they both held out their hands to me as if they wished to bring me with them.” On her father leaving the room, she sent for him to come to her, and said, “Papa, I don’t think I am good enough to die, but I do know I have believed on the Lord Jesus.” He told her to “believe still, to believe on to the end, and not fear; all would yet be well.” She seemed to have gained fresh assurance, and said, “I do believe; I know the Lord Jesus died for me.” She then sang―

“Jesus, I am never weary,” &c.

And, on seeing an orange on the table, continued―

“Dear ones, bring me fruit and flowers,” &e.

Soon after, she raised her eyes, as if her faith would pierce the skies, and sang―

“All my sins were laid upon Thee,

“to the end, and repeated―

“Dearest Saviour!

Now I know that I am blest.”

She was constantly in prayer, and seemed to have much sweet communion, always ending with, “Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.”

On Tuesday night she was in great pain, but I sang a verse in a low tone, when she smiled and fell into a doze, and each time she awoke it pain I sang a verse, which never failed to soothe her. At one time she tried to sing―

“Jesus, the same I love so wall,” &c.

After this she asked, “Was it right?” and on being told it was, said, “Sing―

“Sun of my soul, my Saviour dear,

It is not night if Thou art near.”

After this her speech rapidly failed her. She was still quite sensible, and knew us up to almost the last moment, holding our hands and kissing us with the utmost affection. When he speech had nearly failed, we asked her, if she knew us, to press our hands once; she did so; and if she knew Jesus, to press twice; this shy lid, and continued to do until the morning of the day before her departure.

As a last resource, the doctors blistered her head, and she suffered much pain, but with great patience and resignation. Still another day and night she suffered and lingered, till Saturday afternoon, the 21st May, when she gently and peacefully fell asleep in the arms of Jesus, aged eleven years.

To Young Men.

YOUNG men don’t much like reading tracts―they don’t care to be bored about religion― don’t want to be sermonized. They think that religion has only to do with the heaven and the hell of the future. They live for the present, Ind say, “We want to be happy here―we want to be free―to enjoy life―to be manly.” Have you not often such thoughts as these?

I know what young men are; and it is because the very things you want are to be found in Jesus Christ, and in Him alone, that I long for you to know Him as your Saviour, and rejoice in His favor and friendship―even now, while in this world. The gospel has not to do with the future alone, it has to do with the living present. The word of God teaches us that it is not only a thing to die by, but a thing to live by as well. The believer in Jesus, it is true, is safe from hell― “shall not come into condemnation,” and is sure of heaven― “is passed from death unto life.” But that is not all; he has present blessings―the very things your inmost heart can desire. (John 5:24.)

YOU WANT TO BE HAPPY! There is true joy in trusting to Jesus. Through faith in Him is proclaimed full pardon and complete justification, and, “being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Many young men, seeking pleasure in the world, have told me that they believe true Christians to be happier than they are: and as a young man, one of yourselves, I tell you I never knew what true joy was, till I rested upon Jesus as my Saviour.

YOU WANT TO BE FREE! Not to be trammeled with the fetters of religion, as you think them. But you are utterly wrong. The worlding is fettered, bound hand and foot, a slave, while the Christian alone is a free man. God’s word describes both; the unconverted as “in the snare of the devil, and taken captive by him at his will;” the child of God as “free.” “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” (John 8:36.)

YOU WANT LIFE! God says, “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life,” but is “dead in trespasses and sins;” nay, more, “He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.” You cannot know what true life is till you know Jesus, and are united to Him by faith.

YOU WANT TO BE MANLY! You don’t like the namby-pambies of religion, as you call it―good enough for old women, but you want to be a man. Isn’t that it? Not so fast, my good fellow. It is Christ you have to do with. Was He namby-pamby? Have you read His life in the days of His flesh, and marked His character, and dare you say that He was not a man, while God, still perfect man―the great mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh―a noble man, a manly man? If you would be a true man, you must be made like Jesus. You must be saved through His blood, have His Spirit dwelling in you, be made a “new creature” in Him.

Now don’t you see that the very things you want―true joy, true liberty, true life, true manliness―are all to be found in Jesus, and they are to be found in Him alone. Have you ever come to Him for them? Oh, don’t turn away from Him whom God in His rich, free love, offers to you in the gospel. See, here is the whole matter in the very words of the living God: “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” “Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.” “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” “Neither is there salvation in any other.” “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but be that believeth not shall be damned.”

I write this as one young man writing to another, and in true friendship. “I know whom I have believed,” and I long that you should share the blessings of God’s great salvation.

W. P. L.

Rest for the Guilty.

“Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28.)

OH, go to Jesus, weary one,

In Him thou shalt have rest;

Go and ley down thy weary head

Forever on his breast.

Thou now art black and sin defiled,

A guilty rebel found;

Thy heart, which once thou thought’st so pure,

Is traitorous and unsound.

There is no help for thee in man,

Thyself thou canst not save,

Nor couldst thou wash thy sins away,

If thou, thy lifeblood gave.

Thou hast not kept the holy law

Of Him who is thy God;

Thou hast Him hated, scorned, despised,

Who shed for Thee His blood.

Oh, go to Him! He loves thee still,

He wants thee for His child;

In Him whom thou hast crucified,

Thou mayst be reconciled.

Oh, wondrous love! a love unknown!

A love that passes thought!

Tis only there that thou wilt find

The peace thou long hast sought.

Oh, go to Him without delay!

Only believe, and live;

Instead of endless death, He doth

A life eternal give.

Eternal―for, when once ‘tis thine,

It ne’er can pass away,

But goeth on, from step to step,

Unto eternal day.

Then wilt thou never wander more,

Nor condemnation know,

But, led by Jesus’ loving hand,

By living waters do.

"Will You Meet Me in Heaven?"

An Extract.

IT was a bright and beautiful day in the month of August, 18―. The summer sun poured down his genial rays upon the earth, and the perfume of flowers filled the air with fragrant sweetness. The fragile form of a little girl was stretched upon a bed of sickness―soon to become the bed of death. For many long months had she suffered, yet without murmuring. Friends had hoped that she would recover; but on that day the quivering lip and starting tear told that hope had fled. Her parents were about moving to the far west. She had anticipated great joy in the journey, and desired very much to see the broad prairies of Illinois, and to gather the pretty flowers that grew upon them. But now she must give up all these bright hopes. She was told she must die. She called her only brother to her bedside. He was a wayward boy of twelve years. She took his hand, and, in a faint whisper, said, “Brother, I shall soon die, but I do not fear death, because my Saviour has died. I have put my trust in Him, and, though my body shall lie in the cold ground, my spirit shall be with Him. In His bosom I shall be happy; I shall be free from suffering there. There I shall sing praises. Brother, will you meet me in heaven?” Gently as the summer’s breeze she passed away, and now a plain white stone in the churchyard of S―, with the inscription of “S. M., aged 10 years,” tells where she lies. Years rolled away; but wherever that brother went, whether wandering over the wide prairies of Illinois, the deep groves of North Carolina, or the rugged hills of Vermont, those words, “Will you meet me in heaven?” have sounded in his ears until he has been brought, like her, to trust in the Saviour, and to hope that, through Him, he may at last meet her in that happy place. And at midnight, when the noise of rolling wheels is hushed, and the little songsters have gone to rest, and the stars look out from their hiding-places, he can almost imagine that he hears little Sarah’s voice lisping in gentle accents, “Will you meet me in heaven?”

"It Is Not for Me."

SOME time since, I was asked to see a lady in the town of L―, who was dying of consumption. The friend who asked me to see her said, I am afraid you will have some difficulty in seeing her, so as to have a conversation with her about her soul’s welfare; for she is a member of one of the most fashionable dissenting congregations in this town; and she cannot hear of seeing any other minister, but her own minister. And yet, she added, I know she is in a very miserable state of mind, not at all fit to die. I took down her address, and called the day following. When she came into the parlor, into which I was previously shown, her countenance was indeed an index to her troubled heart; it spoke of sorrow and despair. “You have the advantage of me, sir, for I do not know you,” she said. “I heard you were sick, and I called to see you; but I hope ‘this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God.’ It is a most blessed truth, that Jesus died that we might live forever. ‘He became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich.’ He laid aside His crown of glory, and came to earth to wear our crown of thorns and shame; so that we through faith in Him might ascend to heaven, and wear His crown of righteousness. He went into the dust of death, in weakness, that you and I may live in resurrection power. He took the place of condemned sinners on earth, that they might take their place with Him upon His throne. He lowered himself to the very depths of misery, so that we might ascend to the heights of glory. “Was ever love like this?” “It is not for me,” she said, with tears in her eyes, “I have slighted His love, I have done despite to the Spirit of grace. I have dishonored himself and His love, for the last seven years of my life. I have been sitting at the Lord’s table as a member of a Christian congregation for the last seven years. I knew all through I was not a saved sinner, and therefore had no right to come to it. But, as a matter of fashion, I wished it; and in this way have I come to His table for seven years to mock Him. God is a loving God, but His love and grace are clean gone from me forever.” While she said these words, her countenance became the very picture of sorrow and despair.

“It is a hard case, truly, but not too hard for Jesus, for there is nothing too hard for Him. You are a great sinner; but not too great for Jesus to save. He is only the Saviour of great sinners like you. He never saves little sinners, because they are nowhere to be found. All are lost till saved by Him. The unbelieving heart in one man or woman, acts in one way, and in another quite a different way; nevertheless, the unbelieving heart is the fountain from which flow all the wickedness and sin in their many different forms. One mocks God publicly; you did it secretly. One dishonors God to His shame, and yet he glories in it; you did it for the sake of fashion and respectability; but there is no difference between the one and the other, before God’s all-searching eye. That eye which searches the hearts, and tries the reins of all men. (Jeremiah 17:10.) He looketh not on the outward appearance as man looks; but He looks on the heart. That must be right with Him, or all must be wrong. (1 Samuel 16:7.) Can you be worse than lost?” “No,” she said: “Jesus came to seek and to save you, because you are lost; He is now seeking you, He is now speaking to you through me; He sends you a full and flee pardon for all sin which you ever committed; He tells you that He has borne your curse and condemnation; the wrath of His Father, which was due to you, He has borne in His own body on the tree. All your sins and iniquities were laid upon Him when He hung on the accursed tree. He says to you, ‘It is finished,’ your tremendous debt of sin is paid, and the price was no less than His life. These are the glad tidings which He now sends to you. If you believe it, you shall be saved; you are saved, and have passed from death unto life. The very thing you are called upon to believe assures you that you are saved. Go into all the world, said Jesus to His apostles, and preach the glad tidings to every creature. He that believes it and is baptized shall be saved; and he that believes it not, no matter what else he may believe, shall be damned. (Mark 16:16.) He sends these most blessed tidings to you this day. Will you believe it?” Her countenance, which was so contracted with sorrow and despair, now brightened up. The light of heaven shone upon her countenance, because of the peace of God within. “Oh,” she said, “I do believe that sweet and cheering news, which I believe God has sent me this day through you. Oh, it has given my troubled and anxious heart such peace and comfort, as I cannot express.” After I had read a portion of that blessed Book, which contains these glad tidings, and prayed with her, a lady, a friend of hers, came in. No sooner did she see her than she exclaimed, “Oh, Jane, I have peace in my soul! I feel the peace of God in my heart; I am at rest in Jesus. Mr. G― has brought me that cheering and comforting news, from Him who loved me.” Here she wept freely: her next words were, “Loved me. Yes; He loved me, even me! I am now saved by His love and grace. Jane,” she said, “Do you know that you are saved? that you have passed from death unto life?” “Well,” said Jane, “I hope I shall be saved.” “It will not do, Jane, for Jesus says, that he who hears His word, and believes on Him that sent Him, has eternal life on the spot; and more still, he shall never come into judgment, for he is already passed from death unto life. (John 5:24.) This Mr. G― has told me just now; and also, what made it still plainer to me, that the very thing I am called upon to believe, tells me that I am saved with an everlasting salvation. I believe it in my heart, and it has made me glad. This sort of belief, which only hopes for salvation at some future, but far distant time, is that which led me to sit at the Lord’s table an unsaved soul, am consequently mocking the Lord; and it is that which causes tens of thousands to sit at the Lord’s table, and become members of so-called Christian churches, while they are unsaved, and consequently mocking the Lord, as I have been. This Mr. G― has fully explained, to me, which I never heard before.” This was blessed testimony for the Lord Jesus, and the truthfulness of His word. It was, as I told her, something similar to that glorious testimony which the apostle Paul bore, when writing to Timothy, it his first letter, (chapter 1:15,) where he says “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners: of whom I am chief.” Paul evidently refers to the words of Jesus in Luke 19:10, where He says, “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” How could Paul testify before the world that these words of Jesus were true, if he had only a hope to be saved when he died? Impossible; neither can any preacher of the gospel witness for Jesus, and the truthfulness of His word, unless he has first believed that which tells him he is saved, and shall never perish. Paul did believe this, which is, indeed, in every way calculated to fill the heart and soul with “great joy” am peace; and therefore he was able to say, in thy hearing of scoffing men, and scoffing devils, “It is a faithful saying, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, even the chief; for I was the chief of sinners, and I am now saved by Jesus. I am, in my own person, a living witness that Jesus is the Saviour of sinners, even the chief.” Mrs. W― lived three months after this first interview, very happy, enjoying present and eternal salvation. Her last words were, (calling the nurse,) “Mary, I am now going to Jesus; it is glory, glory;” and died.

She is not dead, she lives, for Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and he that liveth and believeth in me, shall never die.” (John 11:26.) She believed, and therefore now lives in glory.

Dear reader, are you in sorrow and despair about your soul’s everlasting salvation, as Mrs. W― was? Jesus says to you just now, “Be not afraid, only believe.” “Be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid.” (Mark 5:36; Matthew 14:27.) Only believe the glad tidings which Mrs. W― believed, and you too shall have joy and peace in your soul, flowing from a knowledge of pardoned sin, and acceptance with God, through Jesus; and then testify for Jesus, and the truthfulness of His word, to all around you, as Mrs. W― did. The reader may be one who feels not the burden of sin; who fears not death, and the judgment after death; whose conscience is lulled to rest by thinking it will be all right at last. Jesus says to you, “that if you believe not the glad tidings, you shall be damned.” I therefore affectionately, but solemnly warn you of the wrath of an offended God, which may fall heavily upon you this very night. Believe two things, or else you are lost forever; namely, that you are a lost sinner, and that Jesus is your Saviour; as a lost sinner, He will save you. The reader may be one who simply believes that there is no such thing as the knowledge of salvation this side of the grave; that none can say he is saved; only hope on to the end; do all the good he can, and do as little evil as he can, and then there is of course a fair prospect of being happy in the next world; and with this belief he can sit at the Lord’s table, take all the promises in scripture to himself: and in prayer, plead the name of Jesus; that name which has not, as yet, soothed his sorrows, nor healed his wounds, nor driven away his fears, because he never had any. I say to you, dear friend, if this is your state of mind, that the time will soon come when you will be fully undeceived. But then it will be too late. Hear now what the Lord Jesus says to you by His own lips, and by His Holy Spirit: “He that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36.) “He that believeth on the Son of God, hath the witness in himself; he that believeth not God, hath made Him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son, He that hath the Son hath life; but he that hath not the Son of God, hath not life.” (1 John 5:10-12.) Beware, then, lest you die the death which never dies; but seek the Lord of life, while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Believe the glad tidings now declared to you, and you are saved from endless ages. The gospel tells you that you are saved. Then, if you believe it, you know you are saved, and have passed from death unto life. Then, as a living, saved soul, testify for Him who saved you by His grace, and crown Him Lord of all.

P. J. G.

The Blood Shedding of Jesus.

“Thou hast redeemed us with Thy blood.”

DEAR Reader, ―Let me engage thine attention a short time, while I address thee on the Blood-shedding of Jesus. Look upon Him, as He hangs upon the cross―His body torn and bleeding. He hangs between the heavens and the earth, a spectacle to each, as if He were not fit for either. He has a crown on His head; but it is such an one as none will covet, as few will touch, as none will take from him—a cruel crown of thorns! His hair is clotted with His own blood; His face is clouded with bruises; He is pitifully mangled, outwards, inwards, body and soul. His hands are nailed; His feet are rent; His side is pierced. What has that Prince of sufferers done, that He should groan, bleed, agonize, die like that? He hath done nothing deserving of death; He is perfectly innocent, undefiled, holy, and separate from sinners. He dies thus, that He might be the Saviour of His enemies, ―the Redeemer of rebels. His love is deeper than hell, higher than heaven; therefore does He thus die, to make an atonement for the lost, that sinners may be reconciled unto God. The brightest seraphim’s that burn in love, are but as dim sparks in comparison with that mighty sun of love which flames in the heart of the Lord Jesus.

Jesus shed His blood, and died on the cross, as the Substitute of all His people, as it is written, “Thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins.” The shame and pain, the curse and bitterness, of the cross, were all caused by reason of the transgressions of His people. (Isaiah 53) His scourged sides, His furrowed back, His pierced temples, His bleeding veins, His opened side, His nailed hands, His torn feet, and sorrowful soul, were all caused by the sins of those for whom He became Surety. Their sins plowed His back in deep furrows; their sins laid the cross on that bleeding back; their sins arrayed Him in the purple robe,—mocked Him,—plucked the hair from His cheeks, and spit in His face; their sins crowned Him with thorns; their sins drove the nails through His hands, and made the deep wounds in His feet; their sins plunged the spear into His side; their sins caused Him to cry out, amid the blackness of nature, and the horrors of soul desertion, “My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?” To the spiritual eye, there was none other engine to torment Christ, none other judge to condemn Him, and none other executioner to crucify Him, than the iniquities of His people.

The end of the blood-shedding and death of Jesus, was the glory of God, and the salvation of lost and ruined sinners. As Moses in the wilderness lifted up the brazen serpent, that the serpent-bitten might look and live, even so has Jesus, the Son of God, been lifted up at Calvary; that whosoever believeth in Him, might not perish, but have everlasting life. Jesus was lifted up on the cross, that He might draw sinners unto Himself. Jesus was hanged on the accursed tree, that He might bear away the sins of all who believe on His name. Jesus, by the shedding of His precious blood, hath REDEEMED all believers from the curse of the broken law. He has redeemed them from the curse; for He was made a curse for them. Believers are now not under law, but under grace. Jesus is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. By this blood-shedding, Jesus has made an ATONEMENT for the sins of His people; for “without shedding of blood there is no remission.” We may offer the sacrifice of our prayers, tears, our duties, our mortifications; but these could never remove sin. The blood of Jesus, and that alone, has power to atone for sins.

Believers in the Lord Jesus may say with confidence, “By the blood-shedding of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, we are CLEANSED from all sin;” for His blood cleanses away the defilement and pollution of sin. Sin is a fearfully defiling and polluting thing. The uncleansed sinner is the most hideous and loathsome creature in God’s sight. But the very instant the sinner believes in the Lord Jesus, though before his sins had been as scarlet, and red like crimson, he is made white as the virgin snow. The blood-shedding of Jesus removes stains of abundant iniquity, and makes us whiter than snow in the sight of God.

As Israel was preserved in Egypt, because the blood was sprinkled upon their houses, so believers are PRESERVED in Jesus, because His precious blood has flowed for them. God sees Christ’s blood, and the destroying angel passes them over. None can ever perish for whom the blood of Jesus hath been shed. God sees the blood for them, and that is sufficient. It is not necessary for our safety that we should see the blood. God says, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” A sight of Jesu’s blood will give us PEACE; but it is God who sees it for our salvation. The undimmed eye of the Omniscient Jehovah rests on the blood of the Incarnate sacrifice, and, therefore, believers are safe.

When we draw nigh to God in prayer, the blood-shedding of Jesus is our only PREVAILING plea. We knock at the door of mercy “for Christ’s sake,” and instantly the door flies open, and our Father says unto us, “What is your petition, and what is your request? for it shall be granted unto you.” Whatsoever we ask the Father, in the name of Jesus, we receive.

The blood-shedding of Jesus is an UNIVERSAL SOLVENT for the rocky heart. As the poet sings,

“Law and terrors do but harden

All the while they work alone;

But a sense of blood-bought pardon

Soon dissolves a heart of stone.”

In preaching the terrors of the law, we often make the hard heart harder; but when we preach the blood of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit applies the message, the hardest heart soon melts. The blood-shedding of Jesus gives PEACE to the wounded conscience. Many souls are anxious on account of sin. They can’t find peace, though they try to pray, to repent, to reform, and to believe. They never will find peace, until they give over their tryings altogether, and trust to the blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus is our only ground of peace with God. Nothing else will do. All beside is unavailing. The only foundation for peace is Christ. Behold the Lamb of God; look on Him who was pierced on Calvary’s cross for your sins; so shall you “have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” (Ephesians 1:7.) The blood on the lintel secured peace to Israel, and the blood of Jesus is sufficient to secure peace to you. All you have to do is, just to give up your doing altogether, and to rest on the testimony of God, as contained in the Scripture, concerning the blood-shedding of His Son Jesus. “Christ, having shed His blood as a perfect atonement for sin, has taken it into the presence of God and sprinkled it there; and God’s testimony assures the believer that everything is settled on his behalf. All the claims of justice have been fully answered, sin has been perfectly put away, so that the full tide of redeeming love may flow down from the heart of God, along the channel which the sacrifice of Christ has opened for it.” The blood-shedding of Jesus gives peace to the troubled soul when all things else have failed.

By the blood-shedding of Jesus, believers are SANCTIFIED. We can never have sanctification apart from the blood of the cross. The blood justifies the ungodly by removing sin, and sanctifies the believer by purging his conscience from dead works, to serve the living God. The blood-shedding of Jesus GIVES US AN ENTRANCE INTO THE PRESENCE OF GOD. By it we draw nigh, and are made bold in holy and sacred fellowship. Through the blood of Jesus we gain access to the very heart of God. By it, and by it alone, we have access unto the Father, and hold sweet communion. The blood-shedding of Jesus CONFIRMS the new covenant, so that the promises of grace, being yea and amen in Christ, are sure to all believers. The blood-shedding of Jesus, day by day, GIVES NEW LIFE to the believer. The blood of Christ is drink indeed; ― “Superior drink! transcendent drink! strengthening drink!―such drink as angels never taste, though they drink before the eternal throne!” ‘Tis through the blood-shedding of Jesus that believers get their FINAL VICTORY. They overcome through the blood-shedding of God’s atoning Lamb.

Now, freed from sin, we walk at large:

Our Jesus’ blood’s our full discharge;

At Christ’s dear feet our souls well lay; ―

We’re sinners saved―well homage pay.

The blood of Jesus has been shed―the heart of God is satisfied―hell has been defeated―all sin is forever removed―all danger has forever vanished―all death is forever destroyed―and the gate of heaven is wide opened.

Not only is the blood-shedding of Jesus full of all precious virtue, but it is FREE to every soul that believeth. Whosoever trusteth thereto is now saved. Away from your works, your ways, your feelings, your doubts, your prayers your fears, your everything; away to the blood-shedding of Jesus.

THE SURE FOUNDATION OF MY HOPE IS IN MY SAVIOUR’S BLOOD.”

This was the dying testimony of an aged believer, who fell asleep in Jesus in the eighty-fifth year of his natural life. My dear reader, you are a sinner, and need a Saviour. The Saviour you need is revealed to you in the Gospel. His name is Jesus. He shed His precious blood for lost, ruined, guilty, undone, hell-deserving sinners. Make His precious blood the sure foundation of your hope, and you are saved.

Look to Jesus, sinner, look:

He our griefs and sorrows took;

He, to bring us near to God,

Shed His own most precious blood.

Look then, sinner, as thou art, —

He can heal thy deepest smart;

Jesus died, and lives to give

Peace and pardon. Loos AND LIVE.

The precious blood of Christ, the Lamb of God, cleanseth all who believe from all sin. To believe in the Lord Jesus Christ is simply to trust in Him as your Saviour, on the warrant of God’s Word.

T. W. M.

The First Commandment.

Mark 12:30.

ALL natural religion is based upon the assumption, that there is strength and sufficiency in the creature to meet the claims of God. Man, in the pride of his heart, either prescribes to himself a set of rules for his own guidance, the observance of which is to constitute his perfection in the eyes of his Maker, or he takes the commandments of God, and seeks, by a literal obedience to them, eked out perhaps by a round of religious ceremonies and a profusion of what is called charitable works, to raise a righteousness which shall give him approval before God. Now both these ways are the result of ignorance, ignorance of God and of himself. It is perfectly true that man is under obligations to his Maker, obligations which he cannot evade―he is bound to do the will of God. This is the proper condition of his being, the great element of his happiness. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy mind, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength,” is not merely a precept, but also the expression of what man was when formed at first by the hand of God. He loved his Maker, and had pleasure in doing His will. Here was his happiness. But this we know was lost. As long as the will remained in subjection to the declared will of God (and this was very simple and definite) all was well: obedience was perfect, and therefore bliss was perfect too. “God saw all things that He had made, and, behold, it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31.)

But the tempter came. He challenged the right of the Creator to rule in the creature’s heart. What Satan aimed at was the producing a will in man opposed to the will of God, a contempt of God’s authority, which would uproot the foundations of order. In this he succeeded. Man was under one prohibition, and the enemy urged him to break through it. Once yielding, misery broke in like a flood. All confidence in God was gone, and the creature became a total wreck. Whereas, before all was light and joy within, because the eye was single, now that that eye was darkened by transgression not a ray of true comfort remained. One sin had effaced the image of Him who is love, and purity, and truth, and brought the soul under the dominion of the father of lies, whose subtle and malignant character it now too readily imbibed. (John 8:44.) Thus fell our first father, and all his posterity in him. (Romans 5:12-19.) Thus are we born heirs of wrath (Ephesians 2:3), because inheriting a sin-defiled and ruined nature—a nature in which God can take no pleasure, because its every thought is enmity against Him. (Romans 8:7, 8.) And yet so blinded are we to our true condition, that the “many inventions” which prevail in the world in the shape of religious systems, assume, in a greater or less degree, that man has the power of rendering acceptable worship to God; and the very last ground he is willing to take is that which Scripture assigns him, as a sinner, lost, ruined, vile, powerless to rescue or help himself, exposed to God’s righteous indignation, curse, and eternal judgment, on account not only of what he does, but of what he is in himself. Nay, more, that his very religiousness is only an insult to the blessed God, who has declared that “by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight” (Romans 3:20), and whose truth is denied and contradicted by every effort of the creature to build up a righteousness before Him. It is the crafty suggestions of the great adversary, seeking to perpetuate the ruin he has wrought, which puts the sinner upon the attempt, lulling him to sleep in self-complacency while the wrath of God abideth on him. (John 3:36.) Thus it is with multitudes now, even of those who are called Christians. From education, or in virtue of some accredited ordinance, they have taken up the name and profession; but they are strangers to the life of God, and this because they know not Him who is the life, even Jesus. They have never entered into the “secret” of God, or understood the nature of His covenant. (Psalms 25:14.) If they had, they would “cease from their own works,” and desire only to “meditate on His work, and talk of His doings.” The Person of the Saviour, God manifest in the flesh; His amazing sacrifice for the redemption of His people; and the wonderful results of that sacrifice in their present peace and future glory, are themes which would occupy their minds, and be found frequently upon their tongues; for the true believer is jealous for the glory of the Lord. He knows that salvation is by Christ alone, and desires that Christ shall have all the honor of it. He feels that, except for the voluntary suretyship of the Son of God, he must have remained in his lost estate forever. He traces with delight, in the word of inspiration, the design of eternal love for his redemption. He sees the Second Person of the Eternal Trinity becoming incarnate to carry out the wondrous plan. “A body thou hast fitted me.” (Heb. 10:5, margin.) A perfect, pure, and true humanity, in which the Godhead might and did dwell. (John 14:9; Colossians 2:9.) A marvelous Person manifested to achieve a marvelous work. A glorious Surety under covenant responsibilities, freely and generously undertaken for a people dead in trespasses and sins. “Lo, I come, to do thy will, O God.” And this He accomplished perfectly. In His life we see a faultless obedience rendered to the holy law of God, and in this death a full atonement made for all His people’s sins. His resurrection from the grave, and ascension to the throne of God, prove that His mighty work is done, and that by Him all that believe are justified from all things. There is now no condemnation to those that trust in Him. His work has perfected them forever―His work alone. This is what we are exhorted to keep in memory; for our hearts are prone to forget it, and so lose the comfort it conveys. This is the fight of faith,― to preserve in our souls the living sense of this most blessed truth, that we are “complete in Him.” To this the Divine Comforter, the Holy Ghost witnesses, from day to day, the glory of the person, and the all-sufficiency of the work of Jesus. This is our stay in temptation―our hope amid the ruin and confusion of all things here. Everything else may fail us, but this never can. He changes not; His blood has an eternal efficacy to cleanse our souls from guilt, and give us access with freedom to His Father and our Father, His God and our God. Here we learn what our relationships are to Him and His, and here we obtain power for the enjoyment of these relationships. Here, above all, we learn Himself, though now it be but through a glass darkly, and the provision He has made for our eternal blessing. We see that this depends not upon ourselves, but upon His promise. faithfulness, and truth. All, and more than all, we lost in Adam, we find secured to us in Christ. He restores us that which He took not away. We are made partakers of the Divine nature by means of His exceeding great and precious promises (2 Peter 1:11); for thus runs the covenant, “I will put my laws into their minds, and write them in their hearts;” and thus we may read that blessed word, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength,” not as a legal demand, but as a promise to be made good in power, in that happy world where all is perfectness, and all is peace.

Jesus is the name given to our Lord―1st, before birth; 2nd, at circumcision; 3rd, when received up on high.

An Anchor to the Soul.

IN a gale off the coast, a vessel was driven ashore. Her anchors were gone, and she refused to obey the helm. A few moments more, and she would strike. If any were saved, they must be tossed by the waves on the beach. In the midst of the general consternation that prevailed, there was one man calm. He had done all that man could do to prepare for the worst when the wreck was inevitable; and now that death was apparently near, he was quietly awaiting the event. A friend of his demanded the occasion of his calmness in the midst of danger so imminent. “Do you not know that the anchor is gone, and we are drifting upon the coast?”

“Certainly I do, but I have an anchor to the soul.”

On this was his trust. It entered into that within the veil. It was the ground of his confidence in the storm, and enabled him to ride securely, in view of an instant and awful death.

This anchor every man should have. Life is a sea: it is often stormy. The soul needs an anchor in the hour of danger. Reader, have you the anchor of hope? Can you say, “Christ is mine, I am His?”

"Thy Sins Are All Forgiven."

An account of some visits lately pall to one who sought, found, and departed to be with Jesus.

ON visiting a widow (who had recently been brought to seek Jesus as her Saviour), she begged me with great earnestness to visit her sick neighbor, who occupied an upper room in the same house: for, said her anxious friend, I promised to ask anyone who came to see me to go and see her; for she begins to fear all is not right with her.

I lost no time in seeing her, and found she was suffering from an internal complaint, which would finally prove fatal. I was welcomed with great joy, as she earnestly desired salvation. But there was a great and painful lesson for this dear woman to learn. It was to come, as a poor lost sinner (having nothing of her own to trust in), to the finished and complete work of Jesus on the cross. “I have led such a good life: I have attended church two or three times a day, and I have never done any one any harm; won’t the Lord have mercy upon me?” Such were her constant pleas. For a long time she seemed unable to cast herself, as a hell-deserving sinner, upon the Lord, without adding her own righteousness, so that my visits at this time appeared unpleasant to her.

But the Lord graciously revealed to her, by the mighty power of His Spirit, that she was an utterly lost, ruined sinner in herself. Then her cry was not, I have done this, or that, but, “All I want is Jesus.” “You need not tell me I am a sinner now,” she would say; “but tell me about that Jesus who died for sinners-yes, even His enemies.” And the blessed Lord Jesus heard and answered her cries, according to the truth of those words, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Having left her one day weeping bitterly under the crushing load of her sins, great was my joy on the following day to find her countenance beaming with delight, and to hear her express herself as follows—slowly and distinctly, as if fearful of losing the blessing: “This morning, at five or six o’clock, Jesus spoke to me—and, oh, those blessed words!― ‘Thy sins are all forgiven; thou art washed as white as snow.’ The blessed voice seemed to come from behind my pillow, and I cried, ‘Here am I, Lord Jesus!’ and Jesus answered, ‘Thou art mine!’” She then looked at me earnestly, and said, “It is no mistake; my joy has been so great ever since I heard those words, and my peace is all in Jesus.”

With the full assurance of sin pardoned, and put away through the sacrifice of Jesus, she soon after fell asleep, which was to her, “absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” Almost her last words were, “I have no more fear of death than of this bed.” The voice of Jesus heard and responded to by the soul was never to be forgotten by her. Again and again, through the remainder of her illness, she would repeat them, always adding, “My blessed Jesus! My heavenly Father!”

A Christian brother, who repeatedly visited her, says, “On visiting her with Mr. F―, she spoke much of her former life, God’s goodness and mercy to her, and that now she had left all and did ‘stick to Christ.’”

On a visit one week day evening with Mrs. C―, after prayer, and on being about to quit the room, we sang over her bed, “Forever with the Lord,” with the chorus, “Nearer home.” She was filled with joy and gladness, and we heard her, as we were leaving the room, saying, “Nearer home, nearer home.”

The Sunday afternoon before her death, in company with our Br. F―, I called again to see her. We found her very weak, and nearly gone. We desired her not to speak to us. After reading the Word, speaking about the home above, and commending her to the Lord, we made toward the door to leave the room, when her daughter, who was in attendance, said, “Mr. C―, mother has been continually talking about you ever since you were here last; she was singing that hymn all night, and ever since she breaks out occasion ally with those words, “Nearer home, nearer home,” and now she desires that you would sing it again. It was a solemn time, the life fast ebbing out of the dying woman, yet she joined in the singing, as well as she could, while we sung over her dying bed, “Forever with the Lord. A day’s march nearer home.” We left her full of joy and gladness, saying, “Nearer home, nearer home.” It was a time not to be easily forgotten, for we never saw her more; she fell asleep three afterwards.”

God Commendeth His Love.

“God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”― Romans 5:8

THE objection which a sinner, thinking of what he is and what he has done, will naturally, necessarily, and indeed very reasonably raise against any belief that God has love toward him, is, that he is a sinner. He will say, and neither man nor angel can find out the least shadow of a reason why he should say otherwise, “While I am a sinner, can. God possibly have any love towards me? Were I no sinner, I could easily believe it. It were no wonder that He should love a creature that was dutiful and obedient to Him. This is consistent with the goodness of His nature; but to conceive that He should have any love towards sinners, nay, that WHILE we are sinners, He should have love towards us, how can this be?” Thus reason speaks, concluding positively against any possibility that God should have love towards sinners. But now, what saith the Scripture? Oh, how far are God’s thoughts above our thoughts! “While we were yet sinners,” God loved us. It is not said, when we repented and turned from our sins, then He conceived love towards us; but when we were YET sinners; neither righteous nor good, but sinful and unprofitable, then He loved us. Here has the peculiarity of God’s love towards us; He loves us being sinners; He does not love us BECAUSE we are sinners, but THOUGH we be so He loves us: when we could expect nothing but that He should hate and abhor us, just at that very time He loved us. Our sins did not stop the course of His love towards us, but rather gave Him occasion of exerting it in the most glorious, and otherwise inconceivable, depths of it. God “first loved us,” saith John. When? Why when we were sinners, and did not love but hate Him. Otherwise His love had not been first. But He first loved us, lying in our sins, and then we, knowing His love towards us in our vile and sinful condition, are wrought upon thereby to love Him again. This is a point above all other things to be attended to; for comfort and holiness grow out of it. See to it, therefore. You are a sinner; you know yourself to be so; you are ashamed to think what a sinner you are. Well now, but do you believe that God hath love towards you while you are thug a sinner? Here lies the point. If you raise an argument from your sins against God’s loving you, you destroy the peculiarity of His love turn His truth into a lie, measure His thoughts by your own, and put an absolute stop to a possibility of your putting confidence in Him returning to Him, or loving Him. But if sensible that you are a sinner, and ashamed at the thoughts of yourself for being so, you do yet believe that He loves you, you will find this so astonishing a thing as shall utterly overcome you, and constrain you, in the most forcible, yet freest manner, to love and rejoice in Him. Here we must all come as we mean to be Christians. We must not preposterously seek a reason I’m God’s loving us in ourselves, which is indeed impossible, since we are sinners. We must see the whole cause of God’s loving us IN GOD, and not suffer our sinfulness to lie as an objection to His love towards us, since here lies the verb glory, eminence, and peculiarity of God’s love: and so doing, we shall find our souls filled with peace, love, and thankfulness. (1 John 2:2; 3:16; 4:9, 10; 2 Corinthians 5:18-21; Luke 7:42; Rom. 15:13.) S. W.

Looking Back.

JAMES Brainard Taylor says in his journal, that we may regard it a bad sign when we find ourselves looking back to past Christian experience for evidences of piety. Truly it is one of Satan’s most effectual devices.

In the early ardor of a Christian hope, in the full energy and enthusiasm of youth, we may seem to accomplish much in the service of Christ. But when that youthful ardor has abated, and enthusiasm has become tamed by defeat, when worldliness has crept over the soul, slumbering on some lap of ease, and has shorn its strength, we awake to take up the lamentation, ―

“Where is the blessedness I knew

When first I saw the Lord?”

Then the danger is that we shall not return at once to our first love and devotedness to the service of Christ, but shall be content with an indolent purpose to do so, which day after day remains unfulfilled. Then self-examination becomes a dark task from which we shrink. We avoid such present and personal questions as, “Have I today prayed as much and earnestly as I ought? Have I today set a holy example before my family and the world? Have I today tried to lead any soul to Christ?” How must easier for such a one to think and speak of what he has done, or means to do, than of what he did today!

I have heard people tell what they were enabled to do for Christ twenty-five years ago, till their hearts seemed to grow warm in the recital; but they spoke no word of what they had done for Christ that day.

O there is no more fearful crisis in the soul’s history than that in which it stands while it can only look back for evidence of a living faith in Christ.

The Chief Corner Stone.

“The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Rev. 13:8.

CAN foundation deeper be,

Than the Lamb has laid for me:

When His “precious blood” was spilled,

When accurs’d and charged with guilt,

When He bare the wrathful load,

That condemned my soul from God?

All was laid on Him alone―

Tried and precious Corner-Stone!

Can foundation richer be

Than Jehovah’s treasury

Precious thoughts, and priceless grace,

Fill that chosen resting place.

Laid in love’s eternal lines —

There the victim’s glory shines;

Laid and founded in the Lamb,

Holy, just, and true I AM!

Can foundation dearer be

Than a brother’s sympathy?

Gone within the holy-place,

Tender there in priestly grace.

Touched with pity, next of kin,

On His breast He bears me in;

Shows His hands and side to me,

Oh! what matchless ministry.

Can foundation surer be,

Steadfast as eternity?

Not the whirlwind’s ceaseless roar―

Beating on that boundless shore;

Nor the raging water-flood,

Mars the plea of Jesu’s blood;

Sooner oath and promise fail,

Than the gates of hell prevail.

Can foundation greater be

Heights and depths of victory?

Great in Jean’s dateless love,

Laid in depths that cannot move.

Great on Salem when He fell,

When He rose and conquered hell.

Great in heaven, there alone

God beholds His Corner-Stone.

C. F. C.

"I Am Vile."

ONE cheering word, sinner, poor lost sinner, for thee. You think you must not come to God because you are vile. Now let me tell you that there is not a saint in this place but is vile too. If Job, and Isaiah, and Paul, were all obliged to say, “I am vile,” oh, poor sinner, wilt thou be ashamed to join the confession, and say, “I am vile,” too? If I come to God this night in prayer, when I am on my knees by my bedside, I shall have to come to God as a sinner, vile, and full of sin. My brother sinner, dost thou want to have any better confession than that? Thou wantest to be better, dost thou? Why, saints in themselves are no better. Divine grace does not eradicate all sin in the believer, how dog thou hope to do it thyself? And if God loves His people while they are yet vile, dost thou think thy vileness will prevent His loving thee? Nay, vile sinner, come to Jesus! vilest of the vile! Believe on Jesus, thou offcast of the world’s society! I bid thee come to Christ. Christ bids thee believe on Him.

“Not the righteous, not the righteous:

Sinners Jesus came to save.”

Come now. Say, “Lord, I am vile: give me faith. Christ died for sinners: I am a sinner, Lord Jesus, sprinkle thy blood on me.” I tell thee, sinner, from God, if thou wilt confess thy sin thou shalt find pardon. If now with all thy heart thou wilt say, “I am vile; wash me,” thou shalt be washed now. If the Holy Spirit shall enable thee to say with thine heart now, “Lord, I am sinful”: ―

‘Just as I am―without one plea,

But that thy blood was shed for me,

And that thou bidet me come to thee―

O Lamb of God, I come, I come!’”

thou shalt go out of this place with all thy sins pardoned; and though thou earnest in here with every sin that man hath ever committed on thy head, thou shalt go out as innocent, yea, more innocent than the new-born babe. Though thou earnest in here all over sin, thou shalt go out with a robe of righteousness, white as angels are, as pure as God himself, so far as justification is concerned. For “now”―mark it― “now is the accepted time,” if thou “believest on Him who justifieth the ungodly.” Oh, may the Holy Spirit give thee faith, that thou mayest he saved now: for then thou wilt be saved forever! ―

C. H. Spurgeon.

Notes on the Book of Revelation.

Chap. 13:11-18.

THE second beast, or false prophet, is no brought before us. So apostate is the earth that it gives forth this false Messiah. This mar end the first beast are both spoken of in the 19th chapter as persons, and receive specie judgment from Christ at His coming. (Daniel 7:11; Rev. 19:20.) The first beast, as we saw seems identified with the Roman Empire, and is characterized by power and blasphemy. The second beast, though coming in his own name and pretending to be the Messiah, comes up out of the earth, instead of from heaven as Christ. He will have some outward semblance of the Lamb of God―the meek and lowly Jesus; but in his heart he is devilish, and “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” “He had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.” (verse 11.) How unlike that blessed One who spake as never man spake, and concerning whom the people “wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth.” He was able to speak a word in season to him that was weary, bind up the broken heart, heal every sin-sick soul, comfort the mourner, invite all the weary and heavy-laden to His own bosom for rest, and cast out none that came to Him. He pleased not himself. His heart of matchless love was set upon doing good, no case was sunk too low for His arm of mercy to reach; no one was too vile for His love to minister unto. In short, the Cross of Calvary was the only way in which His sinner-loving heart could fully manifest itself, and then He fully accomplished the work of eternal redemption for the foulest, blackest sinner, that takes refuge in His precious blood. Surely He was full of grace and truth.

“On such love my soul shall ponder―

Love so vast, so full, so free.

Say, while lost in holy wonder,

Why, O Lord! such love to me?

Hallelujah!

Grace shall reign eternally.”

How different then was He who came in His Father’s name, to him who will come in his own name. (John 5:43.) The false prophet, we are informed, exerciseth all the power of the first beast, and that, too, in his presence. The two are clearly one in heart, mind, and power. It is unity, but diabolical. The power is from beneath. He bows almost all hearts to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. He works miracles, and they are mighty to deceive all those who walk by sight and sense. How solemn to think that those things are shortly about to come to pass. How busily the powers of darkness are engaged to bring about this crisis; and how needful that believers should believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God, and test everything by the written word.

Christ wrought miracles, and so will the false Christ; for, as we have previously noticed, Satan deceives by imitating. The counterfeit of true Christianity is all around us now, and rapidly going into infidelity. In days of old, God’s power was manifested in fire coming down from heaven to consume the burnt-offering and the fat. (Leviticus 9:24.) Again, there went out fire from the Lord in devouring judgment on those who sinned in His service. (Leviticus 10:2.) When Solomon finished the building of the temple, the presence and power of God were manifested by fire coming down from heaven and consuming the burnt offering and sacrifices. (2 Chronicles 7:3.) We also find that when Elijah testified for the living and true God before the apostate Israelites, God answered his servant by sending down fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice. (1 Kings 18) Afterward, the prophet brought fire down from heaven and consumed the captains and fifties which the king sent for him. (2 Kings 1.) And so Satan, in the Apocalyptic period, will energize the false Christ to deceive, by making fire to come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. We read that “he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire to come down from heaven in the sight of men. And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by means of these miracles, which he had power to do in the sight of the beast.” (verses 13,14.) This is the time of the “strong delusion,” which Paul referred to, when he said, “For this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie; that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2 Thessalonians 2:11, 12.)

Our chapter still further unfolds the deluding power of the false prophet. He commands men “to make an image to the beast” ... ... “and he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should speak.” (verses 14, 15.) How terrible is this miraculous power of the wicked one―to give life and speech to a dead, corruptible image of man’s fashioning! How can these possibly escape the snare who pride themselves on their intellectual power, and boast of the light of reason and the potency of scientific research? What can philosophy say to this? Where can the reasoner hide himself? What will the freethinkers’ argument avail now? The unhesitating reply is, that all but those whose trust is in God, and whose eye is on His revealed word, will be willingly enveloped in this thick cloud of strong delusion, and worship the beast. They will be like the luxurious Babylonians and all the surrounding nations, languages, and tongues, who fell down to worship the image that Nebuchadnezzar set up, at the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music. This sure word of prophetic testimony shines like a bright light upon the believer’s path. It strews us where the present workings are tending, and what a fearful crisis is at hand. We dare not shut our eyes to the elements that are abounding on every side, so calculated to exalt man, set aside truth, dishonor God, and bring in the flood of infidelity, that makes ready for the strong delusion. Happy, happy indeed are those who are born again of the Spirit, and whose only standing now before the Lord is on the worth of the precious blood of Christ! Such have peace with God, are delivered from the power of darkness, translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son, are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, and are commanded by the Holy Ghost to rejoice in the Lord always, and to give thanks to the Father for having made them meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. Jesus is precious to such, and their song is―

“Oh, I am my Beloved’s,

And my Beloved is mine!

He brings a poor, vile sinner

Into His house of wine:

I stand upon His merit,

I know no other stand,

Not e’en where glory dwelleth

In Immanuel’s land.”

There will be no room in the days of “the beast” for neutrality, or for men to content themselves, as many do now, by making no profession at all. Men must then be for God or for Satan. Then the words of Jesus, so slurred over now, will be fully proved― “He that is not with me is against me.” It really is so now, only it is not manifested. There will be the sentence of death then passed on all who will not worship the beast. Those who do so will receive a mark, in order that those who do not bow down to the beast may be distinguished, and known as men that none should either buy or sell with. There will be no exception—neither riches, age, influence, or rank will avail anything. Shall God or Satan, Christ or Antichrist, be obeyed and worshipped? is the only question. We are told that he had power to “cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” (verses 15-17.)

How injurious to souls, and destructive to the spread of the truth of God, is the mistaken thought which some have, that the millennium is to be brought in by the gradual spread of the Gospel. Alas! what awaits the poor doomed world! Who can say but that many around us may be taken in this snare which is coming on the face of the whole earth, and led on by Satan to this time of “strong delusion”? How earnest it should make us in seeking to win souls for Christ! and how responsible we are, not to help on the spirit of worldliness, which is infidelity, and thus aid Satan in deceiving, instead of our being lights in the world!

With regard to the number of the beast, many have been the conjectures. It is better, however, to confess our ignorance where we have not cleat light. Daniel tells us, that “the wise shall understand;” so, when it is necessary, we may be assured that there will be no difficulty. We are informed that it is the “number of a man, and his number is 666.” This shows us at least that there is no rest or perfection in connection with the beast; for the number 7 speaks to us both of perfection and rest. We have repeatedly called attention to the former point in our previous meditations. With regard to the latter, we are told that God rested on the seventh day. It is a Sabbatic number. But with all the popularity, unity, power, and miracles of the beast, his number is that of a man―fallen, apostate man, in league with Satan, and has no element of perfection or rest in its constitution. Perfection and rest, I need scarcely say, are the two special elements of the faith of the Gospel. The perfection of the person of Jesus the Son of God, of whom the Father could say, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased;” and the finished work of redemption He accomplished on the Cross, which was a savor of rest to God, and gives the sinner that believes rest also.

“Jesus, I rest in thee;

Myself in thee I hide;

Laden with guilt and misery,

Where could I rest beside?

‘Tis on thy meek and lowly breast

My weary soul alone can rest.

“Thou holy One of God,

The Father rests in thee!

And in the savor of that blood,

Which speaks to Him for me,

The curse is gone; through thee I’m blest;

God rests in thee, in thee I rest.”

The acting’s of the beast are repeatedly referred to in the following chapters of the Revelation; for his course is contemplated until the Lon Himself returns with His saints, as seen in the nineteenth chapter; so that we shall have again to notice his wisps. May we be so able to brief the light of the future on our present path at to have practical power on our hearts and ways.

Workhouse Visits.

No. 6.

“FEAR not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour.... Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee.... Fear not: for I am with thee.” (Isa. 53:1-5.)

So speaks Jehovah, the God that cannot lie, and He that changeth not, to His poor and afflicted people, that at all times they might trust (oh, precious word!) on the name, promise, and oath, of God, and rest their all on Jesus, God’s well beloved Son. How lovely, how condescending, of God to speak thus to us, that we may know where our great strength lies, and in the time of Satan’s greatest conflict with our souls, to be able to “overcome him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of testimony.” May we, dear reader, know the help of Jehovah at such times, and rest on “the Rock that is higher than I.”

Mrs. A― was a person once of respectable walk and circumstances in the world, and being of a thoughtful mind, she read much, but without any saving knowledge of Christ. In her declining years, like many others, she became an inmate of the Workhouse, where her behavior and address at once commended her to all who saw her, or with whom she was associated; but she was without Christ. By an accident she broke her arm, and God seems to have used it to break her heart. She never saw her salvation in a clear light by resting on God’s Word, but was like Bunyan’s Little Faith, poor, and ofttimes in want to the end of her journey. She was most cruelly used by Satan, and he seemed to make sport of her, like the Philistines did over Samson, until she was brought into a state of mental derangement, which made her day and night cry out most piteously and incessantly, I am lost! I am lost! pray for me, pray for me, I am lost! I know not what I am saying, but I cannot help myself; I must say it,” &c., &c. This was the state she was in one Lord’s day afternoon when the visitor called to see her. She tried to stop talking by holding her tongue in her hand, but nothing would stop it, it was most painful to hear her, and ended by her being removed to a lunatic asylum, where she remained a few months, and then returned to her place in the Workhouse, terribly shaken, her body very weak, her mind quieted, but not comforted. Such was her state when through sickness she was laid on what proved her death-bed.

Another inmate in the same ward was Mrs. B―, an old woman, very much bent through age and infirmity, but of a happy mind, for she could tell of the love of Christ, and rejoice in. God her Saviour. God had given her much peace. She would say to the visitor,

“‘Payment God will not twice demand,

First at my bleeding Surety’s hand,

And then again at mine.’”

No, no; Jesus paid my debt long ago on the cross; He shed His precious blood for me; though my sins were as scarlet, I am as white as snow, and though red like crimson, they are like wool, all cleansed, all finished: therefore I rest for all in the precious blood of Christ. I am full of thankfulness for the blessings of the Gospel: what I say is from the heart―all in Christ―no self―all Christ.” Such was this dear saint of God, and happy indeed have been the times spent in her company. She, too, and at the same time, was taken in her last illness.

One Lord’s day afternoon, when I visited this infirm ward, in which these dear creatures were located, I found them both in bed very ill, and much cast down: no hope, no hope, all dark, all black, was the only reply that this dear old saint could make to any remark about her salvation, or the love of Christ. The enemy was permitted to sift and harass her for awhile. Mrs. A― was in a very desponding state of mind, without any hope, and could only request that she might be prayed for. I was much exercised in soul about this matter having found them both in such a distressed state; the Lord helped me to open my mouth and speak the simple gospel of God’s love and grace, as was shown to the thief on the cross, who was a reviler, a great sinner, yet in his last moments he looked, spoke to, and trusted in Jesus, and found mercy and salvation through the blood-shedding of Jesus Christ, his Substitute, and Saviour. Before leaving the ward, after speaking, I found dear Mrs. B― in a happy state indeed, her face glowing with joy, and her hands clasped together over her breast, she repeated, “All joy―no cloud now, the cloud is all gone; the blood of Jesus cleanseth from all sin-all bright,” &e., and in that happy state, thank God, she remained for several weeks, until nature was entirely exhausted, and she sweetly slept in Jesus. A few days before she died, she said to the nurse, “Precious Jesus, precious Jesus.” The nurse said, she never spoke after that; with her dear hands clasped together, which she never unclosed, she looked so happy. Such was the nurse’s testimony to the death of this dear saint. “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me.” (Psalms 23:4.)

Mrs. A― was in a more quiet state of mind than when I first came into the ward, but could only say, “I hope God will have mercy upon me, and save me; do pray for me.” I left her after commending her to the Lord, and on my next visit found her much weaker in body, and could only say, “I do hope God will save me; do pray for me;” and in that state she remained, yet quiet, and calmly hoping on, until God took her away. She died, too, about the same time as the other inmate.

Dearly beloved ones, who visit the death-beds of the poor, you feel yourselves much cast on the Lord for strength, grace, wisdom, and power for work like this, feeling that we are still in the flesh, yet these things bring their own reward; for those that water and comfort others, are also watered and comforted themselves. The great enemy of souls is constantly at work, and is such a hater of the blood of Jesus Christ, which is the only subject, thank God, that we can present to any poor sinner, especially the dying, that he uses all the artifices he can to bear on the Lord’s little ones laboring in this sweet employ, and if not kept and led by God himself, we should fail. What, then, we need is, almighty strength and power to overcome, grace to persevere, knowing that the battle is not ours, but the Lord’s. We want wisdom to put Christ and His precious blood before the sinner, in such love and manner, as shall commend the cross and Him that died thereon, and in the power of the Holy Ghost, that God may be glorified, and sinners saved to His praise and glory. But “who is sufficient for these things?” May God be pleased to lay it on the hearts of His dear people to pray for those who labor in the Lord’s vineyard, and also that He would send more laborers forth; “for the harvest is plenty,” and fully ripe, although the laborers are few.

And now, poor sinner, whoever you are, should God call you away from this world, what hope have you? without Christ you are lost, without the blood of Jesus sprinkled on your conscience and heart, you will perish; may you fly to Jesus and be saved, before it is too late, before the door is shut.

Familiar Letters From a Father to His Children, on "The Times of the Gentiles."

No. 8.

MY DEAR CHILDREN, ―My last letter broke off with the calm of a few years which succeeded the fruitless expedition of Darius into Scythia. It was now that the Greeks came upon the scene, not of history―for the great poem of Homer had been written nearly four hundred years before, and they were themselves in a high state of civilization―but upon that scene or platform which brought them under the recognition of Jehovah, as having to do with His own people; for history with God ever has the Jew as its center. “When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.”(Deuteronomy 32:8.) In reality, when the third empire was set up, the glory of Greece, in the eye of the philosopher and poet, had passed away, and even its “notable horn,” Alexander, would not, by the country from whence he came, have been allowed the name, ― Macedonia not being in Greece proper. But I must not anticipate, but rather trace, very rapidly for you, the previous history of these people, and how they came into collision with Darius, and how thus the baffle of Marathon was brought on, with the subsequent defeat and humiliation of Xerxes.

Peloponnesus, now called the Mores, was the seat of the early Greek cities mostly under kingly rule, but never claiming authority over more than the surrounding district. They resembled in some sort the chiefs or kings which Joshua slew, of which thirty-one are numbered in the small country of Canaan. (Joshua 12:24.) They were races or tribes claiming common descent from a fictitious person, Hellen, thence called, even till now, Hellenes. A temporary or more permanent supremacy over other parts of the country followed, according to the character of the ruling chief. But they were tied together in the general by a community of language, and by great annual games and religious ceremonies, in which every Hellene had a right to take part. The year 776 B.C., called the first. Olympiad, is their first authenticated historical date. From this time the art of writing perpetuated facts, and it was then that Lycurgus, one of those kingly chiefs, gave a great weight and preponderance to Sparta, by the wisdom of his laws, and the weight of his arm; and for 150 years or more she ruled the whole of the Peloponnesus. Nor could any power north of the Isthmus of Corinth dispute her prowess, until Athens arose, a beautiful city situated in the fertile plain of Attica, where to this day are to be found the remains of her renowned temples and statuary. It was to the philosopher Solon that she owed, B.C. 594, her laws and her greatness. Greece was long disturbed by intestine commotions, owing to the rivalry of these two powers, until the Persian war, which first shewed them the necessity of combining for mutual support and protection. Meanwhile, the arts and sciences, such as architecture, music, painting, philosophy, and poetry, flourished, leaving us those models, both in poetry and sculpture, which, if equaled, have never been excelled.

But it was not with the main land of Greece that the Persians came first into collision. Greek colonies, whether Doric, Æolic, or Ionian (for these were the three principal dialects), from the eighth century, at least, had possessed the whole coast of Asia Minor, and had built large cities. Homer himself is allowed to have been an Asiatic Greek. Cyrus, as I told you, first became acquainted with them when he conquered Lydia. Those settled near that monarchy went by the general name of Ionians, and had previously yielded to the mild rule of Crcœsus; but finding that without assistance from the mother country they must inevitably fall under the Persian conqueror’s much harder terms, they requested assistance from Sparta, who, whilst refusing troops, sent some citizens to report on the state of affairs. One of their number warned Cyrus not to injure any Greek city, for the Lacedemonians would not permit it. His reply was, “I was never yet afraid of men who have a place set apart in the middle of their city (meaning the market place), where they meet to cheat one another.” These Ionian cities, with the adjacent islands, submitted eventually to his general, Harpagus, still retaining a measure of self-government, whilst his own conquests were going on in upper Asia.

When Darius, after the Scythian expedition, quitted Sardis for Susa, Miletus, a large Ionian city near the coast (Acts 20:17), had for its governor Aristagoras, son-in-law of that Histiæus who had kept the bridge across the Danube for Darius during the Scythian campaign. The great king, jealous of Histiæus, who had also been governor of Miletus, carried him off to Susa, under pretense of friendship. Meanwhile there was a change of government at Naxos, a large island independent of Persia, lying midway between Asia Minor and Greece. The help of Aristagoras was asked, in order to restore the defeated party. He persuaded Artaphernes, satrap of Lydia, to help him with a fleet, affirming that it would greatly improve the position, and add to the power of the Persians, to have a hand in the affairs of Naxos, and might lead to dominion over the adjoining large island of Eubœa, lying over against the main-land of Attica. But the expedition entirely failed, and Aristagoras found himself distrusted by the Persians, and his only hope was in exciting a revolt among the Ionian cities of Asia Minor against the Persian power. To this he was also instigated by Histiæus, and assisted in it by twenty ships from Athena. “These ships,” says Herodotus, “were the beginning of mischiefs between the Greeks and barbarians.” These vessels arriving (B.C. 500) at Ephesus, an expedition was forthwith planned against Sardis, the capital of Lydia which so far succeeded that it was taken and burnt; but eventually the Ionians and Athenians retreated, pursued by a Persian force, and the Athenians hastening on board their ships, returned home.

The burning of the capital of Lydia incensed Darius in the highest degree. It was against the strangers from Greece that he gave vent to his wrath. “The Athenians,” he exclaimed, “who are they?” and he charged one of his attendants to remind him thrice every day at dinner― “Sirs, remember the Athenians.” It took him eight years (B.C. 492) completely to subjugate the Ionians, when he sent his son-in-law, Mardonius, with a large army to subdue Thrace and Macedonia. This expedition had only a partial success; meanwhile Darius was preparing another for Greece, to take both Eretria in Eubœa, and Athens. In the spring of B.C. 490 a vast army was assembled it Cilicia (that is, in the region of Asia Minor opposite the island of Crete), with a large fleet and transports for horses. Datis and Artaphernes, the commanders, the former a Mede, having embarked their troops, sailed for Samos, ant thence, subduing all the Greek islands on the way, they landed in Eubœa (now called Negropont), and, after a gallant defense, took Eretria (which had sent a few ships to assist the Athenians against Sardis), and after a few days’ rest sailed for Marathon, 22 miles from Athens where the expedition landed.

Of course it is not my object to describe battles. I am merely tracing very rapidly the growth of the hostility between Europe and Asia together with the decadence of the second great empire, and the rise of the third. I shall only therefore, say, that on September 28th 490 B.C. 110,000 Persians and Medes (according to the Greeks,) were met and defeated by 10,000 Athenians and 1000 Platœans, with a loss to the Persians of 6400 men, whilst of the Athenian there fell only 192. Except, perhaps, the achievement of William fell, in freeing Switzerland from the yoke of Austria, no event in the history of man has been such a fruitful them for the poet, from Æschylus who was himself it the fight down to Byron. It has served throughout the world to encourage the hope of many a patriot suffering under oppression, and to nerve many an arm in the actual struggle for the freedom of his country. But however, my dear children, it has been the theme of the patriot and the poet, and however an unavoidable thrill may run through us at the reading of such achievements, yet there is no association akin to Christianity in such feelings. Our Lord Jesus effected His victory over the devil by being buffeted, scourged, and crucified. And His follower (Paul) says: “God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” I write thus because a habit has grown up of connecting illustrious deeds such as these with the virtues enforced by the Christian religion; but neither patriotism nor manliness are godliness. We are allowed, in tracing the history of nations, to point out the causes of their rise or of their fall, and in quite a subordinate sense to applaud the one and to condemn the other; but the Cross on which “the princes of this world” crucified the Lord of glory shews, in clear outlines, the antagonism between the glory of God and the glory of man.

“He is the freedman whom the truth makes free,

And all are slaves beside.”

“If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” The troops re-embarked with difficulty, and after a feeble parade before Athens, sailed back to Asia.

The disastrous result of this first attempt upon Greece did not discourage Darius, but served only to increase his resentment and whet his appetite for revenge. He determined henceforth to lead his army himself. The most extensive preparations were made throughout his immense territories for the space of three years, during which Egypt revolted, and before he could quell the rebellion death surprised him (B.C. 485), after a long but unquiet reign of thirty-seven years. He was certainly, when compared with the later kings, an able ruler; but he loses immensely in character when compared with Cyrus; and it is to be feared that a great deal of the luxury and effeminacy which characterized the Persian court crept in during his reign. In his later years Atossa, the queen, had the whole power within the palace, and it was through this influence that her son Xerxes―handsome in person, but feeble in mind, and brought up among slaves―was preferred rather than his elder brothers to the crown, under the pretense that he was the eldest-born after Darius came to the throne. I must wait until my next letter to give you an account of him. By this faint outline of the events of the reign of Darius, you are able to distinguish between the gold and the silver. Here was a great monarchy already in its early days sheaving signs of decrepitude. Its dominion was successfully disputed in open battle by a nation animated by a love of liberty, but which could only meet Persia in the field by less than a tenth part of her forces. There were luxury and corruption at court, and revolts in provinces. Yet still her monarch was called “the great king the king of kings,” and she bore rule over all the earth.

What a glorious day will dawn upon this downtrodden earth when He comes who is emphatically “King of kings and Lord of lords;” when “the vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful;” when “He shall deliver the needy when he crieth, the poor also, and him that hath no helper.”

“He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God: and he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds.” Nebuchadnezzar and Darius, and, still worse, David and Solomon, failed in the trust committed to them; but when Christ takes the kingdoms of this world, it will be to maintain them in trust for His Father, who gives them to Him, and deliver them up, having subdued all enemies under His feet. (1 Cor. 15) May the Lord hasten it in His time. ―Your affectionate Father.

A Poor Rich Man.

AN aged man was found sitting before the embers of a fire in an almshouse. He was very deaf, and every limb shook with palsy. Other afflictions as well as deep poverty pressed heavily upon him. “What are you doing?” asked a friend who had called upon him. “Waiting, sir.” “And for what?” said the visitor. “For the coming of my Lord.” “What makes you wait for His coming?” “Because, sir, I expect great things then: He has promised that when He shall appear, He will give a crown of righteousness to all that love Him.” “On what foundation do you rest for such a glorious hope?” inquired the friend. The old man slowly put on his glasses, and opening his well-worn Bible, pointed to the words, “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” (Romans 5:1, 2.) Happy old man! poor in this world’s riches, but rich in faith.

To Winners of Souls.

An Extract.

LOVE is the best gift of the evangelist―love to the Saviour, love to the sinner. But when that love rises into a passion, there must be true, burning eloquence. Never, never, O my soul! be content with less than this. Love to the Saviour―love for souls is good, but the evangelist needs more; seek that thy love may rise into a fervent flame. The work demands it. Art thou an evangelist? Let everything that would hinder thy work be consumed on the altar of entire consecration. Preaching is not teaching, remember; neither is teaching preaching. Appeal to souls, plead with them, lay hold on them, agonize for them. It is a matter of life or death―of ineffable, eternal blessedness, or unutterable, eternal woe. Realize the future in the present and raise a cry to the God of all grace, that not one soul may go away unimpressed, unblessed, unsaved. More temperate hearts, and wiser too it may be, in many things, may say, “There it much of nature in such zeal, and not a little unbelief; remember, the work is the Lord’s.”

Fully admit thine own failure, and that the work is God’s from first to last; but let nothing slacken thy zeal, or damp thine energy. May the flame of thy love be unquenchable! Oh! be in earnest; heaven is in earnest, hell is in earnest, and be thou in deep, deep earnest. The Master wept over a city; thou hast a world to weep over. Love with His love, and let His tears flow through thine eyes.

Oh! speak of Jesus―of that love,

Passing all bounds of human thought,

Which made Him quit His throne above,

With God like deep compassion fraught,

To save from death our ruined race―

Our guilt to purge, our path to trace.

Oh! speak of Jesus―of His death;

For sinners such as me He died:

“‘Tis finished,” with His latest breath,

The Lord Jehovah, Jesus cried;

That death of shame and agony

Opened the way of life to me.

Fragments.

THE people crucified Jesus, and kept their own religion. There are no persons who so live below their income as the children of God.

A writer says. ―

“Since the Saviour I have known,

My rules are all comprised in one;

To keep my risen Lord in view;

This strength imparts and motive too.”

There is no middle place between being in the flesh and in our sins, and being in Christ and as He is.

The flesh and spirit are always antagonistically opposed to each other, and are never altered.

There are two things which should never be separated, the work of Christ for us, and the work of the Spirit in us.

There are a plenty of miserable Christians, who look at self instead of Christ. Dwelling on God’s love to us in Christ will enable us to rejoice all the day long.

The man who lives after the flesh has all his objects bounded by time and sense.

The Holy Ghost dwells in the Church, therefore the resurrection of the Church is entirely different to the resurrection of the wicked.

The Church is the dearest thing to Christ, hence the Heir of all things will take that first.

God gave the best thing in heaven―His beloved Son―for the worst thing on earth―sinners.

I know no yesterday but the Cross, no today but the full enjoyment of the love of God, no tomorrow but a home in glory.

Never let even the service of God hinder our communion.

The Jungle Boy.

An Extract.

ONE bright morning, many years ago, a lady who lived in Burmah, was sitting in the verandah of her house. Lying before her, on the table, was a long palm-leaf book, covered with a number of round looking scratches: she was trying to make out the curious words, but it dazzled her eyes very much, and, no doubt, it was a relief to her to look off from her book now and then, and see some of the pretty things which were near the house.

There was a Cape jessamine growing close by, which filled the air with its sweet smell. Upon one of its rich white blossoms a beautiful beetle, with wings of green and gold, was balancing himself; while a gay plumed bird, with a kind of feathery crown upon its head, was busy among the grass beyond.

Not far from the verandah was a high hedge, and, on the other side of it, a school-house; but a different one from yours. It was made of poles, with nothing more than a bamboo roof at the top. From this place there came a sound of mingled voices―very cheerful, very earnest. The lady was pleased to find that her native schoolmaster was doing his duty, and that the tawny little ones were getting on with their “talk.”

As the lady once more bent over her book, all smeared with oil to make the curious letters appear, and was trying, though growing tired, to make out the round scratches, a strange looking figure made its way through an opening in the hedge, which served as a gate-way to the school. It was a little rough-haired boy, with a dirty cotton plaid thrown over him. “Does Jesus live here?” said he, scarcely stopping to draw breath; and at the same time, without being asked, he ran up the steps of the house, and threw himself at the lady’s feet.

“What do you want with Jesus Christ?” said the lady.

“I want to see Him; I want to confess to Him,” said the poor boy.

“Why, what have you been doing that you want to confess to Him?”

“Does He live here?” asked the boy very anxiously; and then added, “Doing? why I tell lies, I steal, I do everything bad, I am afraid of going to hell, and I want to see Jesus Christ; for I hear a man say, that Jesus Christ can save us from hell. Oh, tell me where I can find Him!”

“But He does not save people from hell if they continue to do wickedly,” said the lady; for she wished him to know that he must not only confess his sins, but forsake them.

“I want to stop doing wickedly,” replied the boy, “but I cannot stop: but not know how to stop. The evil thoughts are in me, and the bad deeds come out of evil thoughts. What shall I do?”

“You cannot see Jesus Christ now,” said the lady, and the boy began to cry, “but,” added she, “I am His humble friend and follower, and He has sent me to teach those who wish to escape from hell, how they may do so.”

The boy’s face brightened up, and he seemed very glad. “Tell me, oh! tell me,” said he.

“Only ask your Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, to save me, and I will be your servant―your slave for life. Do not be angry! do not send me away! I want to be saved―saved from hell.”

The lady, you may be sure, was not likely to be angry, nor take him to be a slave. She freely told him what he wished to know. The next day this wild heathen boy was seated in the bamboo school, listening to the pious instructions of a kind teacher.

Years rolled away, and the lady could not be found in the Burmese house, for she had gone to dwell in one of the many mansions which Jesus had prepared for them that love Him. But there was a dark brown man in Burmah, lying upon a couch, in a high fever. He was turning from side to side in great pain. He was lying. Suddenly his face began to look cheerful, his eyes were bright, but then as suddenly became dim, and he, too, was gone to live with Christ in glory. It was the jungle boy. He had found Christ, confessed and forsaken his sins, and he died trusting in what He had done to save him from hell.

“Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.” (Ecclesiastes 12:1.)

Influence.

IT was a sight one does not get every day―no, nor once in many―a little child―I had almost said an infant, though that would not have been strictly correct. She was lying in bed, in a room where there was little furniture―little of what men would call comfort―a calm, pale face, surrounded by a close, simple cap. Dark circles round the eyes seemed to tell of approaching dissolution to the frame; but such a stillness, such an expression of repose, I have seldom, if ever, witnessed. It did one good to be there to breathe the atmosphere of such a presence; for there was deep, solid peace in that young heart―no cloud, as far as one could discern. She had been singing, as I had heard previously from her mother―singing more than once, out of the fullness of her happiness. That poor, bowed down mother, tried by the sickness of three of her children at the same time, surely this was to her a cup of mercy in the midst of her affliction, could she have seen it clearly.

But how often is it that the richest mercies strike the heart but faintly under circumstances of heavy trial. We see not, it may be, the hand that holds the cup, or we forget, or fail to appreciate, the love of the heart that guides the hand. Faith in the blessed Saviour of poor lost sinners of the human family, is a precious gift of God, and this poor mother had it, question less, underneath all her sorrow; but how simple, how pure, how effortless it shone in the little one I sat by the side of the bed in silence for a moment, looking at the interesting face―a comely face it had been, evidently, in its brief day―almost fearing to disturb that tranquil mind by even a word. When I spoke, it was to ask, ― “Is Jesus precious to you?”

“Yes” (simply and at once); I do not wish to get better, sir.”

“How long have you been happy?”

“About five months.”

A leaf of “The Silent Comforter” was unfolded just where her eye could take in the large letter texts, at the foot of her bed. She directed my attention to it in words that showed her enjoyment of the passages she had been reading.

I asked her if she suffered pain.

“Yes” (as though she was suffering then). “There is no pain in heaven.”

I think it was Revelation 21:4 that occurred to me on saying this. She assented, and I afterward repeated another text from the same wondrous book, 7:17: “The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them to living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”

“You will soon see that blessed Saviour whose brow was crowned with thorns, whose blood was shed for you.”

“Yes.

“The Lord bless you, dear child.”

It was a brief interview, but who shall tell its value? I mean, to me. We talk of influence; and surely it is a subject of immense importance. What a book could be written on it if one had the ability. I thought and said something of this kind, many years ago, to one who had long been in the school of Christ; and more than once lately has this thought occurred to me of penning what I could concerning it. Not that one can hope to do more than touch the margin of so wide a theme. One Mind alone, the Infinite, can fully measure it; but if permitted to glean a little in His field-and surely the universe belongs to Him — who would not like to be a learner, aye, and a laborer too?

The highest kind of influence is that which the blessed God diffuses by His Spirit through His word. The soul, subject to this, becomes as a watered garden, the very dwelling-place of Divine love and peace. And if we would know how this is realized, we may look at what the Lord says in the 8th chapter of the gospel by John, verse 45: “It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God.” See here the condescending grace of the Father in heaven, that He teaches His children Himself, not putting them under the harsh yoke of the schoolmaster, but giving them home-tuition under the Spirit, the Comforter, who forms children’s hearts― children’s affections. And the way He does this is by revealing Jesus. It is quite true, that naturally they are afar off, anything but children or childlike, but then they have to be brought to Jesus. And this is the effect of God’s teaching: “Every man, therefore, that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.” And I am bound to say, that there is not an emanation of beauty in the universe, whether it be of mind or form, that is not the work of Him who is the Christ, the beloved of the Father. He is the original, the Head of creation, the pattern to which all things true, and beautiful, and blessed, are to be assimilated. Nay, they must take their coloring and form from Him before they can be either true, or beautiful, or blessed. A poor wretched sinner―for that is what man is, since the fall―is attracted to One who is perfect Love, ―One who in nature is infinitely above all sin; and the meeting-place is the one above all others most dreadful to man, ―the place of death and judgment. The love that could anticipate this for the sinner must be infinite, and so it is; and when this love is tasted, the heart is won, and then comes the education. Christ is the Alpha and the Omega of this; for God has but one object to present to us: yet is that object so blessed, so attractive, that we may forget ourselves entirely in the contemplation of it. But this is not all; for if the Father reveals the Son, the Son reveals the Father: and I not only get Christ for myself, but Christ in myself. I love Him―I love His image; and that image is formed in me while am occupied with Him. He attracts me, and I put Him on; then His objects become my objects―His joys my joys―His interests my interests, and these are heavenly and eternal. Now here is an influence, the highest, the most powerful, ―the influence of God Himself upon the heart, producing happiness by revealing the Source of happiness—the beauty of holiness; in other words, the Christ Himself. For Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; that very Jesus who was crucified in ignominy on Calvary, more than eighteen hundred years ago; that very Jesus who is now in heaven, at God’s right hand; who knows how to link Himself with men on earth―that is, whose bodies are on earth; who knows how to plead their cause both Godward and man-ward, as sustaining them in heaven and defending them on earth. And all this comes out in the Word; yea, much more; but I would only say here, to every soul that values its eternal interests, “Don’t neglect this simple truth―this Divine promise of Divine teaching. Read the Scriptures; read them prayerfully. Depend upon God the Holy Spirit to teach you. Don’t be discouraged if you get knocks and drawbacks Search the Scriptures daily. God is a bounteous Giver, a patient Instructor. Wait upon Him alone in the most quiet corner you can find. Whatever other influence you may be subject to be sure you place yourself under this, the influence of God in Christ, by His Holy Spirit, through the word of truth, the word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance incorruptible, unfading, undefiled, in company with all that are blessed and secured in the Lord forever.”

The Widow's Son.

“I REMEMBER,” says Richard Weaver, “a poor mother asked me to pray for her unconverted son. I did not know where he was, nor did she. He was her only son, and the poor widow was left by him to support herself and daughter by needlework. I prayed to God to bless her son, that he might be convinced of sin, of eternity, of a judgment to come. Three or four months passed, and I again went near that dwelling to preach. When I had done preaching, I invited them to come into the vestry. Up came a man, his constitution evidently blighted and blasted by habits of dissipation. I looked at him, and he said, “Sir, you invited any one to come tonight and be saved; you do not know what a character I have been. I said, I do not want to know what a character you have been, but I want to tell thee what Christ can do for thee.” “But,” said he, “do you think, sir, that Christ can save me?” The poor man was miserably clothed. You could see under his coat; he had no shirt on; his toes were through his shoes. But I thought he had a soul to save, and I said, “Well, brother, look to Jesus; he can save thee, and that to the very uttermost.” “Do you think He will save me? Oh, what a wretch and a fool I have been! what a wicked young man! Do you think He will save me?” He began to pray, and said, “Lord, have mercy upon me!” and for about twenty minutes he was crying upon his knees, and saying, “Lord, save me.” A good sister said to him, “Jesus has done the work, and do thou rest upon it.” And after awhile he clapped his hands together, and said,

“Oh, happy day, that fixed my choice

On thee, my Saviour and my God,

That made this stony heart rejoice,

And tell its raptures all abroad.

Oh, happy day,

When Jesus washed my sins away.”

I said to him, “Where did you learn that verse?” “Oh,” he said, “I learned it when I was a boy.” Just as he said that, the dear sister flew at him and said, “Oh, John, my brother! it is only today my mother has been praying for God to bless you.” They were locked in each other’s arms for some time. She had not seen her brother for seven years. She did not look at his ragged dress, ―nothing of the sort; she said, “Thou art my brother.” He says, “Bless God, Elizabeth, the Lord has pardoned my sins; oh, won’t my mother be glad as she says, ‘Now John, to know that thou art saved will make me happy all my life!’ it is only today my poor mother has been praying for me. “But,” said he, “do you think my mother will take me in?” “Oh yes; she said today she would give a world to see thee.” I went home with them, and the daughter went first and said to her mother, “We have had a blessed meeting tonight. Oh, mother, when you hear tell of this meeting you will say that it is the best meeting that ever you heard of; there have been many people converted tonight, and one among them whom you love above everybody.” “Oh,” said the old woman, “who is that?” “Oh, you will be glad to learn that it is your only son John.” “My son converted? nothing of the sort; it is a delusion.” “No, no, mother, it is not. John is at the door waiting for you.” The poor mother flew to the door, and as her son walked in she caught hold of him round the neck, and said, “This my son was dead, and is alive again; was lost, and is found.” About three or four weeks after that day, John departed this life, and as he departed he cried, “Victory, victory, through the blood of the Lamb!” Oh, bless God, you that have lived in iniquity and sin, you can this moment look to Jesus and get pardoned. Oh, may the Lord help you to look now! For “now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, even the righteousness of God, by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe.”

"Deep Calleth Unto Deep."

“DEAR Reader, ―Have you ever stood upon the sea-shore, and gazed on the great ocean lashed by a furious storm? Have you observed the billows heaving, and the white foam curling on their crests? Have you listened to the howling of the wind, and looked at the thick, dark, massive clouds rolling through the heavens? Have you seen the forked lightning flashing across the sky, and heard the thunder pealing with terrific roar? Have you seen the proud oak, which had withstood the storms of half-a-century, torn from its bed, and laid prostrate on the ground and the lofty pine, which reared its head above the surrounding forest, swept from its place, and fall with a heavy crash beneath the terrible fury of the maddened elements? What were your feelings in such a scene? Did you look on calmly, or were you filled with awe? The deep, then, called unto the deep―the mighty elements were aroused from their slumber―the winds called unto the waters and unto the clouds, and the clouds awoke the sleeping thunder and sent forth the forked lightning.

Under the immediate guidance of the Holy Spirit, David uttered these words, “Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts” (Psalms 42:7); and they had special reference to David’s King the Lord Jesus Christ. Like Isaiah, David saw, through the vista of centuries, the terrible sufferings of our adorable Lord, when deep called unto deep at the noise of God’s waterspouts, when God, and man, and Satan bruised and wounded the holy Son of God. But why those deep unutterable sorrows? Why that shame and spitting? Why did He drink that bitter cup? Why was He forsaken of His God? Why was He brought into the dust of death?

Beloved reader, listen while I tell you; for your interest is at stake. That suffering the most dreadful ever endured on this earth, was for sinners; and you are a sinner—a child of Adam. Adam was made subject to God, and this subjection should be maintained by obedience. God gave him a command―he disobeyed that command, and hence the sentence of death passed upon him ― “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Genesis 2:17.) You see, then, that death was the penalty due to sin, and nothing short of death could atone for sin. Works could not atone for sin―prayers could not atone for sin―nothing but death could meet the sentence. Bear this in mind; for it is most important that we should be clear on this point. It does not require a multitude of sins to condemn a soul to death―one sin is quite sufficient for that. Death should be given for one sin, as well as for millions of sins; for “whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” (James 2:10.) There are ten commandments in the law. Remember, Adam had only one given to him, and the sentence passed on him for its breach was eternal death. How, then, can you, who have times without number broken ten commandments, escape the dreadful penalty? Death! ―what is it? Have you ever considered? It is not alone the destruction of the body―nay, far more―it is the subjection of the soul in its utmost capacity to untold and eternal misery. Take a picture of misery here on earth. Look at the man who uses all his strength to procure means to satiate the demon of lust in his soul―see him tottering on the street―he who should bear the image of God stamped with Satan’s foul brand. Enter his house―wretched picture! ―his wife clothed with rags―his children crying for bread, and his hovel having in it all the features of his wretchedness. You say, “Poor man! I would not be in his position for untold wealth.” Can you sum up all the wretchedness of such cases on the face of the earth, and condense them into one picture, then you will have only a faint idea of the misery and pain of eternal death. Satan’s malignity only drew forth, from the inexhaustible spring of God’s eternal love and goodness, the mighty work of redemption, purposed before the world was called from the womb of night. With sin came “shame and confusion of face:” Adam fled from God, and sought to hide his nakedness by a paltry covering of fig-leaves. In his sin, in his helplessness, in his confusion, God sought him, and gave him the promise (“The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head,”) which has been the rock to which thousands have since fled for refuge and comfort. He taught Adam in type how this should be accomplished; for God himself provided him with the skins of beasts with which to cover his nakedness instead of the fig-leaves, thereby, doubtless, teaching the necessity of shedding of blood―death for sin. Abel was taught the same lesson; for his sacrifice was more acceptable than Cain’s. Abel, by his sacrifice, confessed the necessity for atoning blood, and Hence the acceptability of his offering. The patriarchs were taught the same truth; and, in the case of Abraham, a grand feature of the promise was further shewn in type―when he was commanded by the Lord to take his “only son Isaac” (that son through whom he had expected the promised blessing to flow), and offer him up “for a burnt-offering” on Mount Moriah. Faithful man! in obedience to the command of his God, he went forth: his paternal affection was overcome by his strong desire to obey God; and while the would-be fatal knife was uplifted, and the innocent boy lay on the piled altar, and while Abraham’s bosom was convulsed with mingled feelings of obedience and paternal love, he is commanded to look around, and there, entangled in the thicket, he sees the substitute for Isaac’s life. The feature of the promise here set forth was substitutional death, or the death of one instead of another. Subsequently, another feature of this wonderful promise was declared in God’s direction to the Israelites in the wilderness. In the first chapter of Leviticus they are told that the offering must be voluntary: “And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt-offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.” (Leviticus 1:4.) Here we have a wonderful truth shadowed forth, ― substitutional death cannot avail anything to the sinner without his acknowledgment of it, and trust in it.

Now, dear reader, bear in mind these three grand features of God’s promise to Adam (“The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head”). The first was the way in which the promise should be fulfilled-by death. The second―that this death should be substitutional; and the third―that this substitutional death must be received by the sinner as his ground of justification before God. “When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” (Galatians 4:4, 5.) After four thousand years the promise was fulfilled. Christ, the Son of God, appeared on this earth, and undertook to die for us. The Jews despised Him, because He condemned the glory of a perishing world; for, instead of entering it with all the pomp and grandeur attendant on royalty,” He had not where to lay His head.” Within the vail of His flesh the divinity existed, and shone out in His righteous life and actions; but His goodness made man’s vileness more perceptible, and hence the self-righteous Pharisee, the proud Scribe, and the crafty lawyer combined to destroy Him. But as Satan in the first instance, by his malignant craft ignorantly unfolded God’s eternal purpose, so now his agents were again developing the grandest and most astonishing of all God’s purposes. The Lord Jesus knew all He had to suffer; He has counted the cost, and was prepared to pay the price for the redemption of man. He knew all the sorrow He must pass through; and for the joy set before Him in bringing many sons to glory, He despised the shame, enduring the cross. He was crucified in weakness; and so, when the sorrows of the cross were approaching, when the prince of the power of the air was gathering his hostile forces to meet Him, and when the thought of God’s absence from Him (while He should endure the curse on the cross) forced themselves upon and pressed out of Him the great drops of blood, at the same time wringing from His heart in the depth of His agony the bitter cry,” Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matthew 26:39), then the storm to which David alluded was already lowering, and the horizon growing black, and the waterspouts descending. The final moment came―Christ was alone. Those who loved Him in life (a few weak followers) now forsook Him ― “of the people there was none with me.” Man, whom He came to save, became His executioner: “And they crucified Him, and parted His garments,” &e. (Matthew 27:35.) Devils scoffed at Him, and thought that then they should completely succeed in overthrowing every chance of man’s escape. Their hatred and malignity, like a burning flood of boiling lava long pent-up, burst with all its fury upon His head; but―bitterest stroke of all―God, His Father, His guide, His fellow, His friend, could no longer gaze upon Him while the sword of justice was being bathed in His blood, and hence the heartrending cry―that cry which found an echo in the cold rocks―that cry which called to the very heavens to cloud themselves with a pall of darkness― “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46.) David’s prophetic words were, then, literally fulfilled― “Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts.” Mocked by man, scoffed at by devils, and forsaken by the Almighty, He bore the terrible judgment for sin. The battle was over; Satan gloried in the victory he seemed to have gained; the Jews exultingly rejoiced; everything seemed quiet for a time. After the storm a great calm set in. On the third day men were astonished at hearing of the resurrection of that man whom they had crucified. Then the truth was fully known to Satan; his revenge, his hatred, his malignity rolled back upon himself. Yes, dear reader, David’s words were literally fulfilled― “All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.” (Psalms 42:7.) He met the waves and the billows; “the Rock of Ages” breasted them; they dashed against Him with all their force, and passed over Him, and hence the triumphant cry of the Spirit, “He led captivity captive,” &c. He, “through death, destroyed him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.” (Hebrews 2:14.) CHRIST IS RISEN, having procured salvation for sinners, even for the vilest of the vile, the most wretched, the most unhappy that come to Him. “Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.” (John 6:37.) The devil, twice foiled by God’s great wisdom and power, is now putting forth all his craft to pervert the full, free gospel of God: he would make man believe that God is a God of hatred, instead of a God of love, and that to appease that wrath, and succeed in obtaining salvation, it is necessary to render unto Him penance, prayers, tears, love, obedience, or some such thing; whereas, the good news is that the Seed of the woman has bruised the serpent’s head; and God has shown to the world by the death of His Son the way in which this has been accomplished. That death of Christ must be substitutional, and, in order to be so for you, it is only necessary that you should at once renounce every plea for justification, and trust in the One who died. “He that believeth HATH everlasting life.” (John 6:47,) Before you lay down this paper, let me ask you, Have you taken Christ for your Saviour? If not, the deep will again call unto the deep, when thousands of Christ-rejecters shall, in wild dismay, call upon the rocks and upon the mountains to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb (Revelation 6:16); and then there can be no hope of such ever shouting the cry of triumph. The wrath of God shall continually be on the lost throughout the countless ages of eternity. R. M.

Justification by Faith, and Its Consequent.

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.”― Rom. verse 5:1.

THE apostle, in the former chapters of this epistle, has declared and discussed the state of all mankind, whether they be Jews or Gentiles, as under sin. He has proved that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” He has shown that it is impossible for man to deliver himself through the law: “For by the law is the knowledge of sin,” and therefore, by the deeds of the law every mouth is silenced, and he whole world proved to be guilty before God, so that by the deeds of the law, it is impossible hat flesh can be justified in God’s sight. By the law sinners are shut up under condemnation; but I, the law sinners can never receive justification. He next declares the saving grace of God, by which the ungodly are justified freely through with, and that solely by the death and resurrection of the Lord and Saviour. Jesus Christ. For the believer Jesus shed His blood, and died on the cross; for the believer Jesus rose from the Lead, and ascended to the right hand of His Father; for the believer Jesus lives at the right Land of God, making intercession, and, therefore, the believer is freed from condemnation―he is justified.

The text at the head of this paper may be taken either as the conclusion of the apostle’s former argument, or as the beginning of his statement of the blessings which follow as the effects of this righteousness by faith, by which the believer is brought into a state of acceptance with God. Thus viewed the passage as it looks nick to the apostle’s argument, has a doctrinal aspect; but as it looks forward to the statement of the effects of this righteousness by faith, it has an experimental aspect; “And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.” These two, doctrine and experience, should always go together―the doctrine as the foundation of the experience, the experience grounded on the doctrine, and both combined, producing a godly, practice. Justification by faith is the great cardinal doctrine of Bible Christianity. It was the truth taught prominently by the apostles. It was he watch word of the Reformation. It has ever men the test of a rising or falling church. The bold, distinct, and simple preaching of this doctrine has ever preceded or accompanied every genuine revival of pure Christianity since the days of the apostles.

Justification with man means to vindicate one in his conduct. We can only justify a man by proving that his action in our sight was right, and that he had done no wrong. This, however, is not God’s method of justification. Before God justifies a man, he proves the man to be a sinner, and the man himself must confess that he is guilty. The publican, standing afar off, not daring to lift up his eyes, and smiting upon his breast, cries, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” and then “went down to his house justified.” To him that “believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” Jesus “was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.” God justifies the ungodly by forgiving them their sins, and cleansing them from all unrighteousness, only for the sake of Jesus. God’s method of justification is one that harmonizes with righteousness and law, because in Jesus righteousness is established, the law is magnified, and all the claims of divine justice meet and are satisfied by His atoning death. God at first placed all mankind in Adam, in whom they became sinners, and now God by His own mercy, His free and sovereign grace, places all believers in Christ Jesus, in whom they become righteous, and are justified. By the disobedience of the one, many became sinners; so by the obedience of the One the many shall be made righteous. Adam’s one transgression made all who came of him by natural birth sinners. Christ’s one act of obedience becomes the fountain of life to all who are His children, by the second birth, in the way of grace.

The sinner is justified solely by faith in the Lord Jesus. Nothing else is needed, nothing else can avail, as a means of justification. The sinner has nothing to do, but simply to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, who has done everything.

“Cast your deadly doing down,

Down at Jesu’s feet;

Stand IN HIM, in Him alone,

Gloriously complete!”

The moment the sinner takes his position as a sinner, deserving hell and nothing but hell, and then looks to Jesus for salvation, trusting in Him alone, that moment he is justified. We have simply to believe that Jesus Christ died to save sinners, and trust Him to save us, and the instant we do that, we are saved, and “HAVE” as a present privilege, to be enjoyed now, “PEACE WITH GOD.” “We have peace with God,” through faith in the Lord Jesus as a present fact. “By nature” believers “were the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, 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), and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” By nature there was enmity between our souls and God: but that enmity has ceased, and our warfare is accomplished, the moment we believe in the Lord Jesus. Though God was angry with us, His anger is now turned away, and we are comforted by Him. God is now our salvation, in whom we may trust, and not be afraid. Jehovah is now our strength and song; He also has become our salvation. God is at peace with us, and we are at peace with God, through the blood of the Cross. This is a settled fact. Believers now have peace with God.

This, that is a present fact, should also be a present feeling. Believers have an inward peace as a fruit, wrought in the heart by the Holy Spirit. The instant we believe that Jesus has made a full atonement for all our sins, we must have peace of conscience. Let us illustrate this. You owe a large sum of money, you are unable to pay it, you are anxious and distressed in coa1 sequence. I tell you I have paid your debt. The moment you believe me, your anxiety and distress cease. The Hebrew has sprinkled the blood of the paschal lamb upon his lintel and two side posts; he retires into his inner chamber with his family; he believes that God’s eye will rest upon the blood, and that the destroying angel will pass over; immediately he has peace, and the peace which he feels is in accordance with the measure of faith he has in God’s word concerning the sprinkled blood. The fact is securely settled, because God who is faithful has promised. The feeling is produced by the Holy Spirit enabling him to believe in the fact on the sure testimony of God. The feeling is an accordance with the measure of our faith in the fact; but the fact is in no way altered, though our faith may be weak and trembling. Weak faith is as secure as strong faith: for not the strength of our faith, but the strength of Jehovah’s grace is our salvation. Believers in the Lord Jesus are justified by faith, and have peace with God; not because of their feelings, but because Jesus is risen for their justification.

“My God is reconciled,

His pardoning voice I hear;

He owns me for His child,

I can no longer fear;

With confidence I now draw nigh,

And, Father, Abba, Father, cry.”

Again, we urge thee to look unto Jesus: for He is “mighty to save.” See Him, as at Calvary, He hangs on the accursed tree, dying the just for the unjust. His limbs are all torn and lacerated. On either side of Him are stretched, in nailed agony, two malefactors. Beneath, the maddened nation rage, and swell, and foam. Devils are there surrounding the crucified Son of God. Jehovah’s face of tender love is withdrawn. Angels tremblingly hover around the Cross, but dare not approach. It is sin’s atoning hour. The crisis of the world has come. The Son of God bears, and bends, and is crushed beneath the load of His people’s damning guilt. Now the innocent suffers for the guilty. The Lamb bleeds for the wolf. But amid the blackness of the heavens, amid the cursing of the people, amid the mockings of infernal hosts, amid the terrific weight of His people’s guilt, amid the hiding of the countenance of His God, a feeble cry is heard, shrill, distinct, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.” That cry reaches the bleeding Saviour’s heart. And, amid His agony, amid His burden, amid His loneliness, amid His solitary helplessness, He pauses to reply to the penitent and dying criminal that hangs at His side, and gives to him eternal life. Oh, was not this “MIGHTY TO SAVE!” Look now to Jesus, and He will save you in like manner; for to this end, behold, He died at Calvary, and now lives making intercession at the right hand of God.

This gospel suits the human race,

It meets the dying sinner’s case;

Where darkness broods in gloomy night,

It sheds a pure and heavenly light.

This gospel brings good news to me,

It breaks my bends, and sets me free,

Renews my strength, and bids me rise,

To claim a mansion in the skies.

This gospel is a joyful sound

Wherever guilty men are found;

It points to Christ, the ever blest,

Who gives the weary sufferer rest.

This gospel is a shining light,

Before it darkness takes its flight;

It brings the wand’rer from abroad,

And makes him feel at home with God.

This glorious gospel took its rise

Within the gates of Paradise;

But now it spreads through earth abroad,

And many sinners turn to God.

Then let this glorious gospel fly

Through every realm beneath the sky;

Hosanna! let the people sing,

And praise the everlasting king.

T. W. M

Brief Notes of an Address on John 20:17-19.

on John 20:17-19.

WE observe, in John 20, according to verse 17, Jesus said to Mary, “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father;” and in verse 27, to Thomas, “Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands,” &c. How deep the condescension of the grace, pity, and love of Christ in thus dealing with Thomas! How sharp the rebuke! As His pitiful condescension of Thomas’s weakness, so was the rebuke sharp “Reach hither thy finger,” &c. And the rebuke was effectual, it did its proper work. Did ha reach forward his hand, and put it in the print of the nails? No! And yet he had vowed not to believe that Jesus was risen again, unless he could put his fingers into the print of the nails. He had made a fleshly vow, a self-willed vow, but he is ashamed and confounded, and instead of putting forth his fingers, he utters the blessed words of faith, “My Lord and my God,” and then he received fresh commendation and a fresh rebuke.

“Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” Oh! let us be the blessed ones, who believe without sight.

Now, observe, the Lord says to Mary, “Touch me not.” She needed instruction, because, doubtless, in her own imagination, she had recovered her intercourse with Christ; but the Lord gives her something better than she looked for. “Go to my brethren,” &c. As much as to say, You shall all touch me and embrace me by-and-by. But how? “We walk by faith, not by sight.” Beloved brethren and sisters in Christ, how glorious is faith! I can’t doubt the certainty of the eye, but if there be any uncertainty, let faith have the victory. Faith believes the testimony of the Spirit of God. And don’t we believe the words, “We have an unction from the Holy One?” God has settled forever His word in heaven. Let us remember that we have the very uttermost of testimony that Christ is the first-born of all creation. “Head over His body the Church, the fullness of Him who filleth all in all;” just as the first woman was the fullness of the first man. Until Adam saw Eve he had not fullness; but she was his fullness. We have now no longer to count ourselves at Adam’s children; we were that by nature, and our distance from God could be measured by no one but Himself. We are the body of the firstborn. In John 17 Jesus says, “As thou hast sent me into the world, so have I sent them into the world.” I would desire to ask this question. Do we consider how great the glory of being in this world, if true to ourselves and true to Christ? Acting in the world, and so acting as to show them that Jesus is living at the right hand of God. It is not only the business of the first day, but every day of the week, in every station. Christ, as having put away our sins, is our Priest, our Head; so is He an example to us; and if you and I track the steps of Jesus, we shall find that “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business,” was always before Him if we follow Him, we shall have the satisfaction, even in this evil world, of knowing that God orders all for our good, and that will make every bitter thing sweet, and every temptation glorious, and this will shed abroad our love one for another. Then how glorious the hope, “Behold, I come!” and how continually the answer should be heard, “Come, Lord Jesus,” This is wisdom, prudence, and thus we are able to behave ourselves aright, not only in the world, but in the Church of God, where we have most temptation of the flesh. “I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me.”

Going Home.

An Extract.

WELL do I recollect some years ago, when duty had called me away with my regimens to a foreign land, an event which, from the melancholy circumstances attending it, has in delibly graven thoughts of “Home” on my memory.

It was the height of summer, and a tropical sun had just set, and a cool refreshing sea breeze floated over the parched and burning air which we were inhaling with delight. A fever peculiar to the climate had prostrated many of all ranks, and proved fatal in some instances; and amongst the convalescent was a young officer in whom I had taken a great personal interest, His strength, however, not recruiting as rapidly as could be wished, the medical authorities advised his return to England, for a short furlough; and just as the mess bugle had sounded, and I was preparing to dress, he came in in high spirits, but with tottering steps, to tell me that, on that very evening a steamer was expected, he had obtained leave to embark, and he heartily wished me good bye. His last words were, “I am going home tonight; and perhaps the steamer will come in before you leave the mess; if not, see me off.”

It was midnight before we left the mess-room; and on walking to my quarters, I found a lamp burning in my friend’s room. I looked in and found him sleeping soundly, but apparently breathing very loudly. I went up to him, and found all my efforts to awaken him unavailing. I immediately summoned the doctor, and to my horror all my worst anticipations were realized, for he at once pronounced him to be dying. All that medical skill could suggest, or that friendship could devise, was done, but he never recovered his consciousness; and, strange enough, three hours after I had discovered his state, and just as the signal gun was fired to announce the arrival of the steamer, in which he had engaged his passage, his spirit passed away. He was gone home. His soul had winged its flight to glory. He had lived to Christ on earth, and he was now at home in the mansions which Christ hath prepared for them that love Him.

A blood-vessel bursting in his sleep, had caused his untimely end; but by his bedside lay the Bible, which he had just read before he slept that fatal sleep. He had gone from worshipping in a foreign land, to worship evermore in the home of his heavenly Father, where no partings ever take place. Earthly friends were expecting him in an earthly home, for he was “the only son of his mother, and she was a widow,” but it was decreed that that meeting should never be an earth.

Peace.

I HEAR the words of love:

I gaze upon the blood;

I see the mighty sacrifice,

And I have peace with God.

‘Tis everlasting peace,

Sure as Jehovah’s name;

‘Tis stable as His steadfast throne―

For evermore the same.

The clouds may go and come,

And storms may sweep my sky,

The blood-seal’d friendship changes not:

The Cross is ever nigh.

My love is oftimes low;

My joy still ebbs and flows;

But peace with Him remains the same:

No change Jehovah knows.

That which can shake the Cross,

May shake the peace it gave―

Which tells me Christ has never died,

And never left the grave.

Till then my peace is sure;

It will not―cannot yield:

His truth―not mine―the resting-place;

His love―not mine―the tie.

I change―He changes not;

Our Christ can never die:

His truth―not mine―the resting place;

His love―not mine―the tie.

The Cross still stands unchanged,

The’ heaven is now His home;

The mighty stone is roll’d away,

But yonder is His tomb;

And yonder is my peace―

The grave of all my woes;

I know the Son of God has came―

I know He died and rose:

I know He liveth now,

At God’s right hand above;

I know the throne on which He sits;

I know His truth and love.

Samson.

Notes on an Address. By J. T. T.

THE story of Samson illustrates to Christians an important subject; namely, “Wherein their great strength lieth.”

The spirit of the Lord began to move Samson, and so did the flesh. Walking in the latter, he married a wife of the Philistines, which was forbidden by God. Walking in the former, he rent a young lion as if it had been a kid.

The fellowship with evil in which he indulged, was what led him into all his trouble; his victory by the power of the Spirit yielded him afterward honey when he hungered.

Just so, every Christian who believes on Jesus, and thereby has eternal life (John 6:47), has within him or her two powers, ―the flesh and the Spirit: the former is the source of all our trouble; the latter is that wherein our great strength lieth.

So, again, with so simple a weapon as the jawbone of an ass, he, by the Spirit’s power, wrought a great victory, and it afterward yielded him refreshment. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord.” The Lord still uses the jawbone of an ass often to accomplish great results in the salvation of sinners.

But finally Samson found himself alone with God upon the rock Etam. The Philistines (the world) complained to the men of Judah (the people of God) that they sought to be revenged on Samson (the servant of God), and the people of God at once sacrificed the servant of God to purchase their own enjoyment of quiet. So, it any Christian really seeks to walk before God, following His word, surely their friends―yes, even their Christian friends―will seek to bind them.

Samson foolishly yielded to the entreaties of those who sought their own rest rather than God’s glory, and surrendered his Nazariteship; that, is, his separation to God. He lost his strength, his eyes were blinded, and he did grind in the prison house. But even when thus fallen, once more he exercised the Spirit. His slender arms are round the pillars of error, and one cry to God yields him his last and greatest victory.

But obedience is often difficult; for light, perhaps, is thrown on the first steps only of a long flight of stairs, from the top of which God calls, “Come up.” We cannot see the end, the issue, the result; we tremble to walk in the light; we fear to follow, not seeing the future. But then, we may remember that the darkness of the future is that which calls for the exercise of faith in the present path. If we see light clearly, let us walk in it, even though we do not see where it leads. Abraham, at God’s call, went out, not knowing whither he went.

Salvation by God's Grace.

HOW truly blessed it is when we see Jehovah working in His rich, free, and sovereign grace in the calling out of His dear hidden ones and when the efficacy of the blood of Jesus, it the pardoning of poor sinners, and cleansing them from all sin (thanks to our heavenly Father whose mercy endureth forever), is seen in the minds and consciences of sinners once dead in trespasses and sins! “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.” (John 10:16.) “It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” (Leviticus 17:11.) “And the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14.)

The following incident will most blessedly show forth, that it is not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.

A Christian sister, who feels constrained by God’s love to visit the sick, called at a house to see a dear sick one, and after speaking to her of the love of Jesus, and was about to leave the room, a woman, who was sitting there doing some needle-work, said, “I perceive, ma’am, that you visit the sick.” “Yes,” she replied, “and the poor too.” “Then, ma’am, I should like for you to visit a poor dying woman; she lives at L―,” which was some distance from the place where this conversation took place. “Oh, it is a long way off,” she replied. “Yes, ma’am, it is; but you can ride near there in a ‘buss; and you know that she has a soul that may be lost; do go to see her, ma’am.” The appeal was so earnest that she replied she would go; “and I do most earnestly believe,” said this sister, in telling this circumstance to another Christian, “that the devil put every obstacle in my way that he could to hinder my going. I went very reluctantly to see her; and when I came near the place, I found that I had left my pocket-book at home, with the name and address in it. I went in the lane where she resided, and then began to reason on the dirty place, and thought I could never go down there.” But still her unwilling feet went forward, and in a short time she was in the room with the sick woman, who she found lying on a bed, very ill indeed. She was a person nearly forty years of age, whose husband was at sea in a ship belonging to the royal navy, and she, during his absence, was at a place of service, in order to get a little money towards the maintenance of her family; when so employed, she took a chill, which brought on fever, and ended in a galloping consumption. She was also so very deaf, that it was only by calling loudly into her ear, and that very slowly, that she could hear what was said to her.

The Christian sister with much difficulty and effort, called loudly into her ear, about the blood of Jesus, and what it could do for her: “Do rest on the blood; trust on nothing but the blood; it is only the blood that can save your soul; tell God about the blood.” And in such a strain only could she speak to her―she could do no more, neither visit her again; the task was too great for her, it made her ill. So she made the circumstance known to a Christian brother who took with him another brother; and on Sunday, April 16th called on her. They spoke to her in the same strain, and left, after commending her to the Lord.

On Wednesday, April 19th one of then brethren, with another, paid her a visit, and found her more free in conversation, and eager to hear what was said to her about her soul, am the love of Jesus. “Tell me about it again,” she would say, “tell me about it in another way I do not understand you.” “Do you know Christ to be your Saviour? Do you believe that Jesus died for you on the Cross? Do you feel before God as a lost sinner, only fit for judgment?” &c. These questions were pointedly put to her; and the answers from her were hopeful but not clear. The person who first spoke about her to the Christian sister, was also present, and in earnest prayer, but not loudly, they interceded for her, before the Lord; and on rising from their knees, found her turned over on her face with her head and one arm hanging over till bed, as if she had been trying to hear the prayers. She said she could read, and did so during the night. The 3rd chapter of John’s gospel, and Romans 5, were turned down for her to read and after supplying her with some tracts, they left the house. It would be right perhaps to state, that her cough and sufferings were dreadful. “It seems to me,” she would say, “that I am pressing together.”

The next evening she was visited by two sisters, when she said that “she was prepared to die, she was so happy, she knew that Jesus was waiting to receive her.” And in answer to the question, “How long have you felt so?” she replied “from three o’clock this morning. Two gentlemen were here last night, and prayed with me and now I want to see them again, to tell them how happy I am in Jesus, I was able to hear their prayers;” and no one, she said, could imagine the hours of agony she had passed through. She had prayed earnestly to the Lord to forgive her, her sins, and now her heavy load was gone; all washed away in the blood of Jesus; the Lord was her Saviour, and he was precious to her. She was called on by friend on April 23rd and 24th and was found rejoicing in the Lord, and waiting for Him to call her home. She was longing to depart, and was able to give her children up to the Lord.

On Saturday, May 6th the two Christian brethren who had before called on her, paid her another visit. She was in a great deal of bodily pain, and very deaf, but she had no fear of death. The next day, Sunday morning, a Christian sister called on her; and to her she said that “the Lord was precious to her; more precious to her than ever; I am longing to go.” She was told that she must wait the Lord’s time; she replied, “Yes; but if He was to call me now, I am ready.” This was at one o’clock, and at five she fell asleep. Her sister was present, and states that she “died so happy.” Just before this, she said to her sister, “Don’t you see Jesus there, in the corner of the room, with His arms outstretched to receive me? My mansion is all prepared. Do not cry, dear Emma; prepare to meet Him too.” She smiled sweetly, and never spoke more.

And now my dear reader, are you through God’s mercy enjoying health? Have you been kept from a sick bed and severe illness? so was this dear one for many years; and God can withdraw these blessings from you. It is the Lord that gives, and it is the Lord that can take away; and should God cut short your days, what hope have you? Have you been living without hope and without God in the world? God’s Word declares man to be forgetful of Him; but “He hath appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:31.) “Flee from the wrath to come.” “We pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:20.) “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” (Acts 16:31.)

But, dear reader, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, then follow on to know the Lord; seek to be like-minded to Him, and may Christ say unto you, “I was sick, and ye visited me.” Christ sent out His disciples in twos. It was two that Jesus met in the way to Emmaus; and Paul took Silas; Christian found a fellow-pilgrim in Faithful, and when God took him hence, he overtook Hopeful, and they helped, instructed, supported, comforted, and strengthened each other along the King’s highway, to the end of the journey. May the God of all comfort bless you; and may you be able to comfort them that are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith you are comforted of God. Amen.

What is the greatest hindrance to persons receiving the gospel for the salvation of their souls? Their religion. With an open Bible, and all the outward privileges of this land, many sit down in self-satisfaction. “Their table is a snare and a trap,” like that of Israel. (Romans 11:9.)

The Sick One's Prayer.

MY Father, when I’m weak and ill,

And cannot think or pray at will,

Oh let me feel thy presence still,

Blessing thy feeble child.

And when I’m very weak and faint,

And feel so given to complaint,

Administer thy lov’d restraint,

Comfort thy weary child.

Should pain distract me night and day,

Without the prospect of allay,

My Father, be the strength and stay

Of thy poor suffering child.

And when my soul strives to be free,

And from its tabernacle flee,

Then for the place prepar’d for me,

Conduct thy willing child.

Now praise to thee, who all my way

Hast known my griefs and heard me pray,

In heaven I’ll sing thy love alway,

Thy loving happy child.

M. E.

Familiar Letters From a Father to His Children, on "The Times of the Gentiles."

No. 9.

MY DEAR CRILDREN. ― During the ten years which elapsed between the battle of Marathan and the expedition of Xerxes into Greece, all Asia resounded with the din of arms. Xerxes in the second year of his reign, having put down the revolt of Egypt, had time to organize his forces. They were immense; but before I relate the story it is well that we should know what Scripture says about him. “And now I will show thee the truth. Behold there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth shall be far richer than they all: and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia.” Those were Cambyses, Smerdis, the magian, Darius, and the fourth Xerxes. If Darius accumulated riches, Xerxes had the benefit of them. In both these reigns, but especially in the latter, the energies of the whole civilized world were stirred up against Greece. It is supposed also, that the Ahasuerus of the book of Esther, was Xerxes at in the cuneiform writing, the names, by leaving out the initial letter A, answer very well. The splendor of his court is attested by the description of the feast, and of the “white, green, and blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple, to silver rings and pillars of marble,” &c. These were probably the curtains drawn over the otherwise unroofed great ball of the palace. It does not appear that Xerxes was particularly anxious to invade Greece, but he was surrounded by those whose ambition and interest it was to go on with it. Mardonius, hit brother-in-law, hoped to retrieve his character after the failure of his former expedition into Thrace, and to become satrap of the conquered country. Accordingly everything being complete, Xerxes left Susa for Sardis, in which last city he spent the winter of 481 B.C. In the spring of the ensuing year, the mighty host of 1,700,000 foot, and 80,000 horse, were put in motion. But these are not supposed to number the whole army, for he received accessions after he crossed into Europe; and we have to take into consideration the number of men on board a fleet which consisted of 1200 tireremes, and 3000 smaller vessels, so that altogether the numbers are said to have exceeded five millions, according to the calculation of Herodotus. Later writers have greatly diminished these figures. They are probably overstated; for on the one hand, the vanity of Xerxes before his defeat would be fed by the exaggeration of his numbers; and on the other, after that event, the vanity of the Greeks would be fed by a like exaggeration. We may, however, safely infer, that it was the largest armament ever called into existence, if only by the fact that Herodotus insists that the rivers and streams were exhausted in supplying this host. I will only add, that if any of you were to see 5000 men in array in this country, you would think the number immense. Very rarely are 10,000 men mustered in one field in England, and an European army of 100,000 men is a very large force. Great difficulty would be found in the feeding of such a multitude, but notice was given long beforehand to the towns the army was to pass through, that each was to be prepared with one day’s provision for the whole force, and large collections were made at various depots on the route. Besides which, it is not likely that any of the troops tasted meat. Their food was probably beans or wheat, which, stowed in sacks, could easily accompany the march. There is also one principal item in favor of the advance of large armies in ancient times. There was no sea or land artillery, the weight of which with their shot is the heaviest part of the armament; nor muskets to be carried by the soldiers, which is the heaviest part of their equipment’s; so that not only might each soldier carry a considerable quantity of provision; but the great artillery wagons of our modern armies, in which the powder and shot are conveyed, and for which the most horses are needed, would in ancient times have been employed for provisions, and the transports accompanying the expedition likewise. We must remember too that the word of the great king was law, so that the entire resources of the countries he passed through were at his command; and since, as I told you in a former letter, the Eastern mind partakes largely of magnificence and grandeur, we may be sure that there were not wanting men in these large assemblages, with powers of organization, whose lives would have answered for any failure in their departments. In fact, the expedition would have been impossible, without good arrange means as to food. Xerxes assembled his host in Cappadocia; thence they were marched to Sardis, whence he met them, and his route is, along the western borders of Asia Minor, near the sea, till he reached the coast near Abydos where he found a double bridge of boats, to the opposite shore, with two passages or lines of causeway, one for the men, the other for the baggage. These straits are with us called the passage of the Dardanelles, and are considerably more than a mile across, being now protected by heavy forts on either side. His vast host occupied seven days in passing this bridge. As to the ships which accompanied the expedition they were tireremes, or vessels having three rowers at each oar, and carried, besides the crews, about thirty soldiers. They attended the land force as near the coast as they could get.

Before I briefly describe the disastrous results of the expedition, let me remind you of a remarkable passage in the book of Daniel. Thrice in the book (chapter 8:21, 10:20, 11:3) is Greece mentioned as in antagonism with and to succeed Persia. In chapter 9 Daniel had been praying and confessing the transgressions of all Israel in departing from Moses’ law. In chapter 10 he had been mourning and fasting for three weeks. In consequence of this (10:12) he sees a vision one whose “body was like the beryl, and hi face as the appearance of lightning,” &c. He was sent on the behalf of Daniel. In verse 13 he says, “The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; but, lo, Michael one of the chief princes, came to help me.” Here, then, was a kind of angelic interference, both to hinder and to help the development of the counsels of God, as in favor of the Jews. This mysterious person seen in the vision (verse 20) “was to return to fight with the prince of Persia,” &c. We thus see how these mighty armaments, and these ambitious rulers, could not hinder the bringing about of God’s purposes and these all connected with Daniel’s people, the Jews.

Bear in mind, my dear children, that these Persians and Greeks knew nothing about the true God. The Greeks at this time were votaries at the shrine of the Oracle at Delphi, or Pytho, which means serpent. Thence they drew all their inspirations. They loaded the temple of Apollo placed there with gifts. The Persians were not, as I told you before, idolaters, ―they were worshippers of one God; but still they were ignorant of the true one.

I now return to the history of Xerxes. Having crossed the Hellespont, he numbered his army at Doriscus, in Thrace. This he did by drawing up ten thousand men in a square, in close array; he then built a wall round them, and by packing successive ten thousands into this enclosure he found his fighting infantry to consist of 1,700,000. The invading army passed uninterrupted through Thrace and Macedonia till the pass of Thermopylæ, south of Thessaly, was reached, off which lies the island of Eubœa. This pass being defended by Leonidas, king of Sparta, with a few hundred Spartans and other Greek troops, offered a resistance of several days to Xerxes’ choicest troops; but Leonidas being at length taken in reverse by the Persians, the whole number perished, and Xerxes continued his advance to Athens, which he took and burned. Off the island of Salamis his fleet, however, was signally defeated. Xerxes now became fully aware of the prowess of the Greeks, and fearing that the bridge across the Hellespont might he destroyed by their fleet, decided on a retreat, which he ignominiously effected, and returned to Sardis, leaving Mardonius with 300,000 men to pursue his conquests. But the next year he was killed, at the battle of Platœa, and with his life all hopes of the conquest of Europe by the Persians vanished. Xerxes, it is said, became a mere voluptuary, and perished by a conspiracy, after reigning twenty-one years. He died 464 B.C. Thus ended the man whose insane pride and ambition Scripture notices, as the one to “stir up all against the realm of Grecia.”

The latter half of the duration of the Persian monarchy does not need much notice. Xerxes was succeeded by his son Artaxerxes Longimanus. He befriended the Jews, and, in the seventh year of his reign, allowed Ezra (Ezra 7) to return from Babylon to Jerusalem, with any of the Jews who chose to accompany him. Nehemiah was his cup-bearer, and he too, in the twentieth year of this reign, was permitted to return and rebuild the city. It is this latter decree from which the seventy weeks, or four hundred and ninety years (Daniel 9:25), are undoubtedly to be computed. He is said to have been a mild, if not a great prince, and we may fairly suppose that the comparative tranquility of his reign, and its length of forty-one years (he died B.C. 423,) was owing to his recognizing Jehovah the God of Israel as the God of heaven, to whom he and his councilors made offerings. (Ezra 7:15-21.) The other kings need only a passing notice. Darius Nothus reigned nineteen years (he died B.C. 404), and had two sons― Artaxerxes the Second and Cyrus. By this time the superiority of the Greeks over the Persians as soldiers was universally admitted, and henceforth it was the custom to employ them in large numbers as mercenaries. Cyrus, wishing to overthrow his brother Artaxerxes, employed 13,000 of them. He was, however, defeated, and these Greeks, being abandoned by invaders and invaded, had to make their way from the heart of Asia―for Cunaxa, where the battle was fought, is not far from Babylon―to the nearest Greek maritime colony in Asia Minor, a distance of not much less than two thousand miles. They succeeded in avoiding or fighting their way through all opposition; and it was this retreat, the account of which was written by Xenophon, the general, and a subsequent warlike visit on the part of Agesilaus, a Spartan king, that satisfied the Greeks as to the internal weakness of the Persian empire, and the possibility of conquering it. After a few imbecile kings and bloody revolutions in the Royal family, the last occupant of the throne was Darius Codomanus, mentioned perhaps in Nehemiah 12:22. He had distinguished himself by his valor in the reign of a former king; but his star waned before that of Alexander the Great. If we search out the causes of the weakness and fall of the Persian monarchy, we shall find them distinct from those of the fall of Babylon. There it was idolatry, gross and without excuse; for Jehovah had revealed Himself to Nebuchadnezzar in a marked and public way. (chapter 2, 3, 4) Yet Bel and Nebo still held their places in the capital. (verse 4.) With Persia it was different; for, save Daniel in the den of lions, that notable miracle done in the presence of Darius the Mede; and save the proclamation of Cyrus (Ezra 1), we have no knowledge of any absolute public communication from the Lord to the monarchs of Persia; and how He revealed Himself to Cyrus is not recorded. The failure in this second monarchy, is rather to be found in its setting aside the natural relationships between man and his fellow, established by God for the welfare of His creature man, ant the safeguards of society, and specially laid down in the Jewish law. Thus almost all the later kings married their own sisters, or even their own daughters; whilst publicly their government was a mixture of intrigue and cruelty. The fruits of such misconduct were terrible. Poison and the sword were habitually used within the palace to get rid of any obnoxious members of the Royal family. There were civil wars, incorrections, and rebellions, until at last the whole kingdom fell into disorder and confusion―a shapeless mass without a proper head. Mankind at large, and those high in station in particular cannot relax the wholesome bonds establishes by the Creator without suffering for it, even in this life, and it is of the ways of God to man it this life that I am writing to you. ―Your affectionate Father.

Thyself, Lord Jesus!

I PANT, Lord Jesus, for the day―

The promised day of glory―

When I shall gaze upon the brow

For me once pierced and gory.

Without Thy presence, dearest Lord,

This world’s a desert dreary,

Through which I wander oft distressed,

And sad, and lone, and weary.

I long for this dark night to pass,

This night of sin and sorrow;

Weeping endureth for the night,

Joy cometh on the morrow.

O yes! for, Lord, the sight of

Thee

Dispels all sin forever;

And then, to praise Thee long and loud

Shall be the one endeavor.

No stranger do I wait to see.

But one who knows me fully;

Knows I, of sinners, am most vile,

And He Himself most holy.

‘Tis He whose love is still unquench’d,

Though often grieved and slighted;

No stranger―but the very one

To whom I am united.

O what a heart of tenderness!

What love divine, unfailing!

O’er all my coldness and neglect

Still burning―still prevailing.

O losing Jesus! quickly come,

And fold me to Thy bosom;

Thou art my rest, my joy, my all,

The glory of my heaven!

J. W. T.

Notes on the Book of Revelation.

Chapter 10

THIS chapter may be read, in company with the twelfth, as forming a distinct section in the Apocalyptic book. Though the range extends from the birth of the Messiah to His return to tread the winepress of the wrath of God, yet it is principally occupied with the great events of the last half of Daniel’s seventieth week. In the twelfth and thirteenth chapters we have for the most part a record of events in relation to the earth, ―Satan, the beast, and the false prophet being the principal actors in the scene; but in the fourteenth chapter we have God brought in upon the scene, and here it is not as to how things stand in relation to Satan and the beast, but as to how they stand in relation to God. Moreover, we have here several distinct actions, but each giving us God’s mind in relation to things then connected with the earth. 1. We have God and the Lamb in relation to the remnant of Israel. 2. God’s testimony of the everlasting gospel to an apostate world. 3. God’s witness to the fall of Babylon. 4. God’s warning against worshipping the beast. 5. A voice from heaven pronouncing blessing on those who henceforth die in the Lord. 6. The harvest of the earth. 7. The vintage, or treading the winepress of the wrath of God. Let us now look a little more particularly at each of these actions.

1. The Remnant of Israel.

John says, “I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the Mount Sion, and with him an hundred fort) and four thousand, having His Father’s name (or, according to the best copies, His name and His Father’s name), written in their foreheads.” They are presented in blessed rest and companionship with the Lamb. They are servants of God, sealed in their foreheads, and, however much they had been oppressed by the beast nevertheless they are seen as having proved the faithfulness of Jehovah, and the sure abiding of His word of promise, in caring for them and exercising His own power in bringing their through the fire. John, who had before seer them so hotly pursued by Satan, now sees then with the Lamb; and not only so, but on Mount Sion, the place of promised blessing on the earth, the metropolis of past and future national glory―the mountain, not of Sinai blackness and darkness, but the place of royal grace, when David and Solomon were honored by Jehovah, and where again the true Messiah, the greater than Solomon, shall yet manifest His wondrous power and grace, bring glory to His people Israel, and reign before His ancients gloriously. These hundred and forty and four thousand then are blessed in the earth; they have not their Father’s name, but His Father’s name, written in their foreheads. Those who compose the Church of God, the body of Christ, are a heavenly people, ―know their sonship, have received the indwelling Spirit, the Spirit of adoption, and know God as their Father. But these are not the Church; but, like every redeemed company whether heavenly or earthly, they owe all their blessing to the Lamb; for the blood of the Cross is the foundation of all lasting good.

While John is thus beholding this favorer remnant, he heard “a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder.” He heard also “the voice of harpers harping with their harps.” These, too, were heavenly sounds; for he goes on to tell us that “they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four living creatures, and the elders.” Let the reader notice here, that we have first the company on Mount Zion; secondly the elders in heaven; and, thirdly, harpers harping before the elders. Here are three distinct companies―one on earth, and two in heaven and though all are redeemed and brought into their blessing by the blood of the Lamb, it is impossible to identify them, or to regard them as only different visions of the same company, for reasons assigned when considering the seventh chapter. The question for us now is, Who are he harpers? 1. We are distinctly told they are in heaven, singing as it were a new song before the elders. 2. There seems to be a remarkable sympathy between the “harpers” and the hundred and forty and four thousand on Mount Zion, for no man but these could learn their Song of Solomon 3. We only get one company in the Revelation having harps besides the elders in the fifth chapter, and these are that part of the faithful remnant who are martyred for not worshipping the beast, who get the victory over him by having a place given them in heaven on the sea of glass, and to them is given harps of God. They are described in chapter 15 as singing the song of victory and of the Lamb; but it is Jewish in character, for they sing the song of Moses and the Lamb. But further. In this first action in the chapter before us, the remnant evidently are taken of as on Mount Sion with the Lamb, as redeemed, as learning directly from heaven to sing the new song. They are virgins, have escaped the foul defilement of an adulterous generation; they have been true to God, and are only now engaged in following the Lamb whithersoever He goes. In their mouth is found no guile or lie, and they are without fault. The last words, “before the throne of God,” are omitted by the best critics. My conviction is, that we must place this first scene, in Revelation 14, on earth, as existing at the same time as the harpers seen in heaven in chapter 15.

There are two other points deserving special notice in the description here given of the remnant on Mount Zion. 1St. They are redeemed from the earth, from among men, the first-fruits unto God and the Lamb (verses 3,4); and, secondly, they were faithful to God. The first point is of importance, because it shows us that this company is still on earth, on the mount of earthly favor and blessing, redeemed from the earth―an election from among Israel for the earth. There is no thought here of the Church the body of Christ. It is a sealed remnant of Israel, which will be brought through the great tribulation into the millennial blessing. With regard to their being the “first-fruits,” we are to understand the first fruits from the earth for earthly blessing; the harvest of the earth is to follow.

2. We are told “they are virgins,” i.e., pure and uncorrupted. Living in a time when violence and the foulest corruption fill the earth, when the world is deluged with infidelity, men are under the “strong delusion,” and the only Lord God in every way denied, they stood boldly out for the living and true God, and refused to worship the beast; they were therefore not defiled, and in their mouth was found no guile or lie. The power of the God of Abraham encircled them, and brought them through the time of temptation, and they now are with the Lamb, follow Him whithersoever He goes, and are without fault, or blameless.

2. The Everlasting Gospel.

This is a remarkable testimony. It would seem to be the last before the great and terrible day of the Lord. The faithful had gone out with “the gospel of the kingdom,” and some of them had been put to death. (chapters 6) The two witnesses also testified, as we have seen in the eleventh chapter, until the beast killed them. And now the seer at Patmos says, that he saw “an angel fly in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel,” &c. We must not confound the different ways in which gospel is brought before us in the word of God. We have “the gospel preached to Abraham,” promising blessing through his seed. We read also of “the gospel of Christ,” which testifies of Christ’s work, ―redemption through His blood. We have also “the gospel of God,” which enters into the eternal purpose, grace, and glory of God in our salvation in Christ, and through His blood. Then we have what Paul called his gospel― “my gospel;” which unfolds “the mystery” revealed to him of the oneness of believers with Christ the Head in heaven. We read also of “the gospel of the kingdom,” which promises blessing in the earth to the faithful when Messiah shall appear, when it will be seen that those who endure to the end shall be saved. But here we have the “everlasting gospel.” At a time when infidelity and “great delusion” have overspread the world, and God is denied, not only as Redeemer, but also as Creator, when man will set himself up above all that is called God and be worshipped, this testimony, which has been true in all ages, and will be forever, goes forth that God is worthy to be acknowledged and glorified as the Creator. It implies that there will be blessing to those, who, refusing to worship the beast, do homage to the living and true God. The testimony is, “Fear God, and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment is come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” It is proclaimed with “a loud voice” to them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people” (verses 6, 7). It seems to be God’s last glad tidings, just before the time of actual judgment arrives, and it asks simply that the living God be owned and feared as the Creator. Blessing in the earth has always been connected with the acknowledgment of the Creator.

To what a terrible crisis men are hastening! How lamentable is the fact, that, with all the world’s boast of Christianity and enlightenment, Christ is coming in flaming fire to take vengeance on those who know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, ―who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. But where will the Church be then? Blessed be God, we shall be vessels of mercy filled with Christ, and bringing glory and admiration to Christ, through what will be seen of Him in us. “When He shall come to be glorified IN―not with, but in―His saints, and to be admired IN all them that believe. Then the world will believe that the Father sent His Son to die for sinners, and that He loves us even as He loves Jesus.

“Jesus, thou art enough

The mind and heart to fill;

Thy life―to calm the anxious soul;

Thy love―its fear dispel.

“O fix our earnest gaze,

So wholly, Lord, on thee,

That, with thy beauty occupied,

We elsewhere none may see.”

"Come as You Are."

An Extract.

EARLY one morning, in the middle of last year, (writes a friend who witnessed what he describes,) a fire broke out in one of the houses in a narrow street in London. The alarm was given by a policeman on duty, and speedily the engines were heard rattling along to the scene of action; but ere they could get to work, the flames began to issue forth, and rise high into the air. Presently a young man was seen to appear at one of the upper windows of the house, in his night clothes. The fire escape, which had also arrived, was placed against the house, when a fireman ascended the ladder, and called the young man to make all haste, and escape for his life. But to his surprise the young man refused to come away just then, saying he wished to dress first. The fireman repeated his warning with increasing earnestness, “Come as you are! Come as you are!” but to no purpose, for he still said he would come when he got dressed.

When one below in the street heard this, he broke open the front door, and tried to ascend by the stairs: but the wind admitted by the open door soon fanned the flames into redoubled fury, and compelled the man to retreat. The youth within had gone from his bedroom to dress, and the fireman was unable to enter through the window in consequence of the heat and smoke. Meanwhile the flames rose higher and higher, when suddenly the stairs gave way, and the roof fell in with a terrible crash, burying the unfortunate young man beneath the ruins, and rendering escape no longer possible. A day or two thereafter, when search had been made for his body, it was found amid the wreck and rubbish all charred and blackened, and otherwise terribly disfigured.

A sad and awful death surely! and rendered all the sadder when we reflect that but for his own infatuated refusal to avail himself immediately of the means of rescue which had been placed within his reach, the young man might have escaped, if with naught else, at least with his life.

Reader, may not this suggest, and even picture forth to you, the still greater infatuation of those who, from youth to manhood, and from manhood to old age, and on to death itself, refuse to “flee from the wrath to come?” And if so, beware lest such should have been your practice up to the present hour. Many loud warnings may have been unheeded by you in the past, because the “convenient season” to which you have been looking forward has not yet come. Remember, “the time is short;” and you know not what a day may bring forth. Then escape for your life; look not behind you; an almighty Saviour stands ready to receive you, and His word is, “COME AS YOU ARE!”

Jesus Will Come.

HARK! hark I hear the glad tidings: soon, soon, Jesus will come,

Robed, robed, in honor and glory, to gather His ransomed ones home.

Yes, yes, oh! yea, to gather His ransomed ones home.

Joy, joy, sound it more loudly, sing, sing, glory to God,

Soon, soon, Jesus is coming, publish the tidings abroad.

Yes, yes, oh! yes, publish the tidings abroad.

Bright, bright, seraphs attending, shouts, shouts, tilling the air,

Down, down, swiftly from heaven, Jesus our Lord will appear.

Yes, yes, oh! yes, Jesus our Lord will appear.

Now, now, through a glass darkly, shine, shine, visions to come,

Soon, soon, we shall behold Him, cloudless and bright in our home.

Yes, yes, oh! yea, cloudless and bright in our home.

Long, long, have we been waiting, who, who, love His blest name;

Now, now, we are delighting, Jesus is near to proclaim.

Yes, yes, oh! yes, Jesus is near to proclaim.

Still, still, rest on the promise, cling, cling, fast to His word,

Wait, wait, if He should tarry, we’ll patiently wait for the Lord.

Yes, yes, oh! yes, we’ll patiently wait for the Lord.

Fragments.

There is only one thing that ever sets a heart right with God, and that is, standing before God in perfect righteousness―God’s righteousness.

The righteousness of the Law was not the righteousness of God.

God makes men righteous, not by making bad men good, but by making His holy Son sin.

There are two classes of persons which make God a liar. 1St. Those who deny that they have sinned (1 John 1:10), and, secondly, those who believe not the record that God gave of His Son (1 John 5:10.)

Faith says, “I can take God at His word, I can trust Him, to fulfill His own promise,” and thus the believer sets to his seal that God is true.

Gentiles are characterized in the epistles by three things―foolishness, high-mindedness, and vanity of mind. To Israel God says, “All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.”

Christ is both the DOCTRINE and the TEACHER.

“Ye have not so learned Christ, if so be that ye have heard Him, and been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus.” (Ephesians 4:20, 21.)

In the first epistle of John, we get “God is light” before we get “God is love.” We must enter into God’s love by the gate of His holiness, that is, the Cross of Christ.

Self-interest is the world’s grand maxim, self-denial the rule of Christ.

God is not now converting the world, or giving a religion to the world, but is calling out of the Gentiles a people for His name. (Acts 15:14.)

We are not true worshippers when we attach worship in connection with a place on earth. Jesus says, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20.)

The Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

“And the angel answered and said unto the woman, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here, He is risen as He said, Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”―Matt. 28:5, 6.

THE resurrection of the Lord Jesus is the great testimony of Scripture to the perfection of His work. To proclaim the glad tidings of a then Saviour, is to preach the gospel. The facts of the gospel are very simple and few. They are: first, “That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures;” second, that Christ “was buried;” and third, that Christ “rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” These facts are declared by the angel to the women who came to seek Christ in the sepulcher.

1. That Jesus died. “Which was crucified.” There must be no mistake about the death of Jesus. He really died, and died for the sins of His people. He took upon himself flesh and blood, and lived on this earth, that He might die, the just for the unjust. The death of Jesus was, in the strictest sense of that word, vicarious. Jesus did not die as a martyr; He died as a malefactor. He who was sinless, became sin for us. He who was most blessed, became most cursed for us. His nature was absolutely without spot or blemish, and His life was one of continued obedience; but His death was the death deserved by the sinner. He died as the substitute of lost, ruined, guilty, rebel sinners. We deserved death, therefore, Jesus died.

Jesus “died for our sins,” is the uniform teaching of the Word of God. With reverence we can say, taking all Scripture as our evidence, that “without shedding of blood” God could not give “remission” of sins. God bound himself as the moral governor of the world, to forgive sinners only on the ground of the atonement effected by His Son. God promises salvation to none, he bestows salvation on none, save on the ground of the sufferings and death of Jesus. There can be no pardon for any sinner without a full and complete atonement for the sinner’s sin. Jesus has satisfied all the claims of justice; He has endured all the penalties of a broken law, and, all the sins of believers were punished in His person. There is but one mediator between God and sinners, even the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all who believe on His name. The Saviour Jesus Christ gave himself for sinners, that He might redeem them from all iniquity. Every believer can say, “Jesus loved me, and gave himself for me.” He loved His Church, and gave himself to be her substitute. He hath once suffered for sins, the innocent Lamb of God in the place of guilty rebels, to bring them back unto God. Christ, who knew no sin, and who never could know sin, became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He was made sin, by the imputation of sin to Him. We had wronged God; but our wrong doing was put to the account of Jesus. The sum of all the sins relatively and personally chargeable on the persons for whom Jesus became the sin-bearing substitute, was imputed to, Him. This is clearly taught in those passages of Scripture which assert, “The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” “He bare the sins of many.” “He shall bear their iniquities.” “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.” “His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree.” “Who was delivered for our offenses.” The sufferings and death of Jesus were judicial inflictions. “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace” ―that is, the punishment necessary to be borne in order to make atonement for sinners― “was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.” The punishment of our sin was exacted from Him, and He was made answerable for our sing. He hath redeemed believers from the curse of the law because He was made a curse for them. He was ever the unspotted Lamb of God, full of blessing and of grace; but He voluntarily placed himself in our room, and thus became as though He were the sinner, and was made subject to the curse. “The wages of sin is death;” Jesus died; and now “the gift of God is eternal life,” through Him. Thus the salvation of all believers in Jesus is placed on the firmest basis. Sinners are freely pardoned because Jesus has been punished in their stead. Jesus “was crucified,” is the key-note of the gospel.

2. That Jesus was buried. “Come, see the place where the Lord lay.” As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, so the Son of man was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Matthew 12:40.) “And He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth.” (Isaiah 53:9.) The grave of Jetties was appointed with the wicked, with the malefactors who were crucified with Him; but He was with a rich man in His death; for Joseph of Arimathea, who was a rich man, took the body of Jesus, and wound it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, wherein never man before had laid. Wonderful condescension! The Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth, dies between two thieves, and is buried in a borrowed grave! He was buried; but He saw no corruption.

3. That Jesus rose again. “He is not here, He is risen, as He said.” He could not be holden by death; but on the appointed morning, having finished the work which He had undertaken at His Father’s bidding, He rose and left the dead, no more to die. He rose as death’s conqueror, as the grave’s destroyer, as His people’s Redeemer. Justice being satisfied, the Surety was released. He rose as the first-fruits of them that slept. He rose in the power of an endless life, and ascended to the right hand of God, where He ever lives to make intercession for all sinners who come unto God by Him. The resurrection of Christ is one of the great foundations of faith. It was real. He was seen alive. after He had risen by, and conversed in the body with, many creditable witnesses. He went into the prison house of death for His people, and came forth triumphantly after having atoned for their sins. The atonement He made was thus accepted by the Father on our behalf. The work of satisfaction which He undertook, He perfectly accomplished, and to that work the Father bore witness when He raised Him from the dead. Therefore Peter, in jubilant strains, exclaims, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.” He “rose again for our justification.” The living One evermore lives.

The risen Saviour is the accepted Saviour. His death was perfectly sufficient for our salvation Jesus has done all that was necessary to be accomplished to take away our sins, and to prepare us to see God. God raised Jesus from the dead that this might be proved to the whole world, God is well pleased with the work of Jesus finished for us; we may trust in Jesus, and out heaven is secure. The risen Saviour is the living Saviour. We must not seek the living One among the dead. He lives for us, and with us, if we believe in Him. Because He died, we are forgiven; because He lives, we are saved. He who has risen will come again, — no more the “Man of sorrows,” but the Lord of glory.

4.They who seek Jesus have no need to fear. “Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus which was crucified.” None who seek for Jesus shall ever seek in vain. If Jesus is found of them that sought Him not, much more shall He be found of them that seek Him. If with love and longing ye are seeking the crucified One, ye shall find Him as the living One; ―living to save your souls. Seekers sometimes make mistakes, as these women did. They sought the living among the dead. We repeat this mistake when we seek Christ in our feelings, works, and duties. Jesus is not to be found there. He lives at the right hand of God, and it is there we must seek Him, if we would find Him.

The seeking soul need not fear hell, death, or sin, since Jesus rose. He need fear not; for hell is vanquished, sin is destroyed, and death’s sting is extracted. The Father, looking down on the believing sinner, smiles upon him for Christ’s sake. He, having accepted Jesus for the sinner, will accept the sinner in Jesus. Jesus is at the Father’s right hand as the pledge of the Father’s good-will. Jesus is pre-eminently the Beloved of the Father; and He has made all believers accepted in the person of His Son. He who is raised up at the right hand of God is Jesus the Saviour. He was so named by the angel of the Lord before His birth, and for this reason, that He might save believing sinners from their sins; and there is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved. He came into this world, died on the accursed tree at Calvary, and rose to the throne of God, that He might save believers from the guilt of their sins; that they might have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. He came to save believers from the power of sin, that it might not have dominion over them. He is exalted to save from ignorance, from hardness of heart, from impenitency, from unbelief, from pride, from carnal security, from the tyranny of Satan, whose slaves they were, from those raging lusts which strive for the mastery and which war against the spirit, from the love of this present evil world, from the deceitfulness of self, and from the fear of death.

5. In conclusion, Jesus will come again. The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with the angels of His might, in flames of fire, taking vengeance on those who know not God, and will not hearken to the glad tidings of His gospel. And from the presence of the Lord, and from the brightness of His glorious majesty they shall receive their righteous doom, even an everlasting destruction, in that day when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all believers. The very same Jesus, who was seen by the disciples, to ascend up into heaven, shall so come again in like manner as they saw Him go. He will come again and receive us unto Himself. This is the constant hope of the true Church of God, and the solid comfort of all who look forward to its accomplishment. He is coming quickly. His coming in glory will be, to the world at large, an unexpected moment. Careless sinners will be taken unawares; but they who believe God’s promise, and watch for Christ’s appearing, will hail Him with delight. Those who know not God shall be destroyed with vengeance, when He comes in flaming fire; and those who have not obeyed the gospel shall be consumed with utter destruction. They shall die “the second death,” which is not annihilation, not ceasing to be, but an eternal loss of all happiness, a total banishment from His blissful presence, and from all the glorious effects of His saving power, which will then be manifested in His saints; they shall be driven away in His fury, and banished to suffer the greatest miseries, both in body and soul, forever and ever.

Dear reader, are you prepared to meet Christ at His coming? The second coming of Jesus will be dreadful or delightful, according to our real, our present state before God. If, now, we have fled to Jesus; if we have believed God’s testimony concerning the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ, we may now lift up our heads with joy. We close with the closing words of the Scripture of truth, “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

Amen. T. W. M.

Familiar Letters From a Father to His Children, on "The Times of the Gentiles."

No. 10.

MY DEAR CHILDREN, ― You must transport yourselves to the year 336 B.C. at which time Alexander, at the age of 20, became king of Macedon, and captain of the confederate forces for the invasion of Asia. He is thus spoken of in Daniel 8 “Behold, and he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the earth: and the he goat had a notable horn between the eyes.” But I must still linger over the previous centuries, in cadet that I may shew you how his family came into power. If you take up a history of Greece you will find the times which properly belong to history, divided into epochs, during which certain cities had the supremacy. Thus there was first in Athenian, then a Spartan, and lastly a Theban supremacy. They were always fighting for headship, and Persia, who had long given up any lopes of conquering the mainland, received their exiles, and subsidized this party or that, in order to keep up these dissensions and pursue her own plans of rule by intrigue; so that, notwithstanding her inferiority in arms man to man, against the Greeks she still virtually ruled them. Thus, in the year 387, during the Spartan supremacy, he Persian king settled a peace between the states of Athens on one side and himself and he Spartans on the other, in the following terms: ― “King Artaxerxes thinks it just, that the cities in Asia and all the islands of Clazomenæ and Cyprus should belong to him. He Liao thinks it just, to leave all the other Grecian titles independent, except Lemnos, Imbros and Scyros, which are to belong to Athens, as of old. Should any parties refuse to accept this peace, I will make war upon them,” &c. &c. The rise of Macedon came to pass as follows: ―They were lot Greeks, but Illyrians, and had remained unnoticed during the more splendid career of the Grecian states; but their sovereigns claimed descent from an Hellenic stock, and so were allowed to contend at the various public games. The early history of the country is involved in obscurity, and it was not till the accession of Philip, father of Alexander the Great, at the age of 23. (B.C. 359), that its greatness began. By little and little he secured his frontiers, and then, by means of the weakness which a war, called the Social war, entailed upon Athens, which was it that time recovering her supremacy, he gradually encroached upon her power and her dominions. He was aided also by the war called Sacred, connected with the temple at Delphi, which Further embroiled the states of Greece, and by taking part with the Oracle there, betrayed his ambitious designs to become master of Greece. All this was foreseen by Demosthenes, the Athenian orator, who directed his celebrated Philippics against him. At length war was declared between Athens and Macedon, and victory declared for the latter, at the famous battle of Cheronœa, and from this time Greece was at his feet. Very shortly afterward he was stabbed (B.C. 336), after a reign of 24 years, at the celebration of his daughter’s nuptials with a neighboring prince, and Alexander became king. Before this he had been celebrated both in arms and letters. His education had been carried on and his mind cultivated, by the care of Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, and he had commanded a wing of the army at the battle of Cheronœa, and had materially contributed to the success of the day. I must not forget to mention that Philip at his death had completed his plans for the invasion of Asia in the ensuing spring as captain-general of all Greece against Persia to which he had been elected by a sort of general council, and in which office his son succeeded him. But previous to Alexander’s departure for Asia, he had to infuse a salutary dread of his character and of his arms into his European neighbors all around him. Perhaps never were his energies and military talents more tested than in his campaign across the Danube again the Getæ and Triballi, thence back again into Illyria against the Illyrians, the old enemies of his house, and thence to quell a revolt at Thebes which ended in the destruction of that city These campaigns were finished in one spring summer, and autumn. He now prepared to invade Asia. Whilst Darius Codomanus had abundance of resources (for if he could no depend upon the valor of his own subjects, he could command the services of thousands of Greek mercenaries) and a full treasury, Alexander, it is sap, had only sixty talents in till treasury, a heavy debt, and a supremacy over the other Greek states held upon such a precarious authority, that it was disputed on several occasions, even when his success over the Persians was known, and indeed was never acquiesced in by Athens or Sparta. But he had the resources of his own indomitable courage; and with a strong confidence in his destiny undertook the legacy bequeathed to him by his father, with a force of thirty thousand infantry and four thousand five hundred cavalry, ―all from Europe although not all Greeks. Of this whole number twelve thousand infantry were Macedonians and fifteen hundred cavalry. If, my dear children, in these letters I leave the history very meagre, for every school-book has these subjects in more detail, it is that I write to draw your attention to the ways of God with men if I may so say, in providence, irrespective a that intimate relation which He holds with us as Father who believe in the name of His dear Son, and are cleansed from our sins through His blood. I hinted before, that we have no such direct display of the power of God to the Persian kings like that to the Babylonian. We have still less in the Grecian. Nebuchadnezzar owned Daniel’s God (after the vision of the image, chapter 2), as “a God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets.” After his madness he “blessed the Most High, and praised....and honored Him that liveth forever,” &c. He praises and extols “the King of heaven, all whose works are truth....and those that walk in pride He is able to abase.” (4:37.) With regard to Cyrus (Ezra 1:1), it is said “The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus;” and he says, “The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and He hath charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem. “We know not in what way the communication was made. Daniel was certainly alive at the time. (Daniel 10:1.) But with Alexander there was no communication vouchsafed, except, as profane history (namely, Josephus) affirms, by a dream. The story is as follows: ―Alexander, somewhere about the time of his siege of Tyre, marched to Jerusalem. The High Priest Jaddeus (Jaddua, Nehemiah 12:22), anxious as to his own course owing to his allegiance to Persia, was desired, in a vision, to put on his robes, open the temple gates, and go out with the body of priests to meet him. When Alexander saw this great procession, he went forth alone to meet it, and prostrated himself before the holy name on the miter of the High Priest. (Exodus 28:36, 39:30.) One of his chief officers drew near, surprised, and inquired why he, before whom all prostrated themselves, paid that honor to the High Priest of the Jews. His answer was, “Whilst I was yet in Macedonia, I saw him in the same dress in my dreams. And as I was deliberating in what manner I should conquer Asia, he exhorted me not to hesitate, but to cross over with confidence, as he would deliver the Persian empire into my hands. As this spectacle reminds me of the vision in my sleep, and of the exhortation, I conclude that my expedition was undertaken under Divine Providence, that I shall conquer Darius (the battle of Arbela had not then taken place), put an end to Persian domination, and succeed in all my plans.” It is said that afterward the book of Daniel was shown him, and the prediction that a Greek was destined to overthrow the Persian empire. A scene like this affords matter for reflection. Perhaps in some such way does God deal with every instrument through whom He effects his more marked purposes upon this earth. We may be sure of this, that He gives them unbounded confidence in their own destiny, although not always by a dream, or in a manner which themselves could point out. This was eminently the case with Alexander. He never falters, and from the first treats Asia as his own. No other reply did he ever vouchsafe to the embassies of Darius, who was endeavoring to treat him as his equal, than that Persia was already his own and that, for whatever he wanted, he must appear before him as a suppliant. We may say, that in the state of heart of Alexander― a man who sacrificed to the gods of every country which he conquered, and in every capital which he entered, it was impossible that Jehovah could communicate with him openly―what fellowship could He have with the shrine at Delphi? (and at this time the whole of Greece was given over to a debased, though outwardly a splendid idolatry) yet he was not the less, though unconsciously, an instrument in His hands for carrying out His own purposes. I am not at all sure that, besides the declension in the value of the metal of the statue from gold to silver and from silver to brass, serving to mark the lest absolute character of each monarchy, from the stern dictatorship of Nebuchadnezzar through the somewhat aristocratic character of rule in Persia, down to what it really was―the military chieftainship of Alexander, these metals may not also indicate the feebler sensible dependence which their monarchs had on God himself, in consequence of His less marked connection with them.

But we must return to Alexander. As soon as he had settled his affairs in Europe, he carried over his army, by means of his fleet, to Abydos and whilst he left it marching along the sea coast northwards, he himself, with a small attendance, made for Troy, where he sacrificed to Achilles, with Homer in his hand. The Persian commanders meanwhile held a council of war, as to where they were to meet the foe, and eventually determined to resist his passage over the Granicus, a river which, rising in Mount Ida, flows into the Hellespont, now called the sea of Marmora. Here a bloody battle was fought, against 20,000 Persian cavalry and a like number of Greek mercenaries (infantry), entirely to the advantage of Alexander. History tells us that his advance out of Greece had been so sudden and rapid as to disconcert all plan on the part of the Persians; and in the same way he attacked the enemy, by rushing eagerly into the Granicus, almost immediately he saw them, notwithstanding the remonstrance of his veteran general Parmenio. And as from this time forward his career was one continued success: I shall adduce a remarkable passage out of Daniel to shew the complete agreement of history with the Scripture. Daniel 8:5: “And as I was considering, behold, an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground.... And he came to the ram which had two horn;....and ran unto him in the fury of his power. And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler against him, and emote the ram, and brake his two horns: and there was no power in the ram to stand against him but he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him.” This description exactly suits the energy displayed by Alexander, and the feelings which imbued him until Persia lay lifeless at his feet. I mention in conclusion, that the effigy on the coins of Alexander has often ram’s horns worked in as an ornament of all head. We may suppose they were coined after his conquest of Persia. I shall continue the accounts of Alexander’s victories in my next letter. ―Your affectionate Father.

Thou Art for Me.

Hosea 3:3.

H. B.

A Brand Plucked From the Burning.

THERE is nothing so refreshing, to those who know the love of God, as to witness the work of the Holy Ghost in bringing a poor sinner to God. Those thus privileged can only exclaim, Even so. Hallelujah!

To portray the character and pursuit of one just saved by grace through faith may not be profitable, except to say that the Holy Spirit so deeply convicted of sin as to exclude every ray of hope.

The signally condemning sin was that of having repeatedly resisted the monitions of the Holy Spirit, and hence the question, Is there pardon for me? Can there be pardon for one who has despised the love of God? the personal love of the man Christ Jesus? the virtue of Jesus’ precious blood, and the love of the Holy Spirit? ―all these despised, how can I be saved?

It pleased God to give deliverance through faith in the word: “Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom.” A deliverance not to be forgotten; yea, deliverance from the condemnation of sin, with all its tremendous consequences, unto the simple, yet entire, reliance on the God of all grace, to keep and guide unto His eternal kingdom and glory.

The writer cannot express the joy he realized in witnessing the wondrous change, whose joy is deepened by the knowledge that “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.”

Believers, rejoice! give glory to God! sing hallelujah! hallelujah! to God and to the Lamb!

Unsaved sinners, consider; your sins are unpardoned; the righteous wrath and indignation of God abideth on you. What can deliver you?

It may be that the Holy Spirit has witnessed against your sins, has reminded you of the love of God, of the perfect work of the Lord Jesus, has told you of eternal life and glory, and to this very moment all have been unheeded. Take heed! Man’s wrath may be appeased, his standard is imperfect; but God’s wrath cannot be appeased, it must be satisfied. “Without shedding of blood is no remission.” God’s holiness must be fully honored, His righteousness fully satisfied. Would you give the fruit of your own body for the sins of your soul? this could not atone, the wrath could not thereby be averted. He alone could find a ransom. Consider well the purity, perfection, and preciousness of God’s ransom. For a good man some might even dare to die (as a proof of intense love); but “God commended His love to us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” So pure and perfect is His love, that nothing less than a perfect, spotless, victim, found only in His beloved Son, could pay the ransom. “He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”

I would that you, beloved reader, saw sin as God sees it, and believed the intensity of wrath treasured up against the day of wrath for sinners who die in their sins.

The happy recipient of grace before alluded to would join me in beseeching you, in Christ’s stead, to be reconciled to God―to see your sins laid on Jesus, His spotless Lamb. Did you know the yearnings of a believer’s heart over you, your heart might soften, your pent-up tears steal softly down your cheek; but, above all, did you realize the yearnings, entreating’s, beseeching’s of God, of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit in that word, “Why will ye die?” methinks that your heart, though as an adamant stone, must exclaim with the poet―

“Love so amazing, so divine,

Demands my soul, my life, my all.”

Beloved reader, receive these entreaties—flee from the wrath to come! Now is the accepted time―now is the day of salvation! Today, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart. To you He says, “Deliver him from going down into the pit, I have found a ransom.”

May God, the Holy Ghost, engrave this truth upon your soul, to your present and abiding profit, to the joy of angels and the glory of the eternal three in one. Amen.

The Gospel in Sligo.

THIS is now nearly a year since the first drops fell of the copious shower of blessing that has since continued to pour upon the town and county of Sligo. And while the streams of grace flowed down from the Father’s hand, a continuous volume of sweet incense, ascending from glad and grateful hearts, has gone up before the throne, an offering of a sweet-smelling savor, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Many declining Christians, whose first love and zeal and devotion had gradually subsided by reason of the cold and lifeless atmosphere that surrounded them, have been quickened and revived; and, with hearts full of gratitude, they count it their reasonable service to present their bodies to God as living sacrifices, and are spending and being spent in the effort to win souls for Christ, and to swell the numbers of the happy and rejoicing company who have lately passed within the Father’s threshold.

Nor is it the least remarkable feature of the work, that no sooner do the new-born souls enter into the joy of their salvation than they begin to call their neighbors and friends to come in and share their happiness with them; and thus the laborers are multiplied, and many souls are won.

Besides the gospel meetings, two of which are held in Sligo weekly, and one in most of the neighboring villages and towns, wherever it is practicable, believers’ meetings are also held, where much prayer is wont to be made, and the Christians are instructed in the Word, and exhorted to consistency, faithfulness, and intimate personal communion with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ our precious Lord.

These believers’ meetings have been made a great means of blessing for the strengthening and building up of the Christians; and many, I may say all, are searching their Bible as for hid treasure, some evidently determined to follow its teaching though it cost them dear.

From time to time there is also a good deal of house to house visiting carried on, and it is pleasant to see the way in which even a strange visitor, as your correspondent is, is welcomed, provided he come to speak of “Jesus only.” This is so in a great number of houses where a year ago it would have been very different.

When I say that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ has shone into hearts in a hundred houses since last June, sometimes converting every member of the family, I am very far from exaggerating. And this I say of Sligo and its neighborhood alone, not to speak of Boyle, and Balling, and Colloney, and Coolaney, and Ballymote, and Killalla, and Mullaferry, and Ballinglen, and Skreen, at each and all of which places God has done marvelous things in saving souls from death, and heaping honors upon the name of Jesus. Of the work in these places a history in itself may be written that would cheer your readers’ hearts; of Christians quickened, backsliders restored, drunkards reclaimed sleepers awakened, formalists brought nigh, children saved, and gray-headed men and women converted.

Truly we have reason to raise a loud and long-continued song of praise to our loving, gracious, and merciful Father, who, in his long-suffering yet puts forth His hand to save in such mighty power, using worms to accomplish His purpose, that all the glory may be His own. Amen. Bless the Lord, O our souls, and all that is within us bless His holy name.

As to laborers, they are almost all as yet come from a distance to tell the joyful tale, but there are several who, it is hoped, will, before long, be workers in their own fields. Certain it is, the laborers from a distance cannot do the work that is to be done; no, nor if their numbers were to be doubled could they preach in all the places where there is an open door and hearing ear, to say nothing of keeping watch over individual cases, and visiting amongst them; so we pray―and will your readers join us?―that those who are fitted may no longer hold back from their work through false humility or slothfulness, but, remembering that the time is coming when no man can work, let fall their water pots of earthly pursuits, and go into the city to call their fellow-men to “come and see” Jesus. The God of the harvest will answer us, for the Master told us so to pray.

But you will ask, “What about the ministers of the various denominations? do they work with you and share the burthen of the sheaves?” I regret to have to answer that as a rule they do not. Here and there are bright exceptions, and God is honoring them and giving them joy in their ministry that they never knew before, as some of them have testified: would to God their fellows were partakers of their joy! But some are standing aloof―neutrals, though owning the work as God’s, and some are opposing and hindering, and bringing sore trouble upon those who, in obedience to the words of Jesus, are keeping His commandments, taking up His cross and following Him. The servant is not greater than his lord; and in their troubles they ass comforted with the same comfort wherewith the Lord Himself was comforted of God, when He stood in our place in the world before us, to leave us an example that we should follow His steps.

In many places the work has been so blessed that now but little remains to be done but to take by the hand and lead the new-born souls to the Fountain of living waters, if peradventure they may be refreshed by drinking there, that never again will they forsake those streams for the broken cisterns of the earth, even though meetings should cease and pastors fail.

But though this is so in many of the older fields, new doors are so constantly being opened that a week seldom passes in which many souls are not saved, and wanderers brought home.

G. T.

A FEW Cherokee women, who had been converted to Christianity, formed themselves into a society for the propagation of the gospel, which was now become so dear to them. The produce of the first year was about ten dollars, and the question was, to what object this should be applied. At length a poor woman proposed that it should be given for the benefit of the Osage nation; “for,” said she, “the Bible tells us to do good to our enemies (Matthew 5:44); and I believe the Osages are the greatest enemies the Cherokees have.”― An Extract.

Our Prayers Do Not Die With Us.

THOUGH we die, our prayers do not die with us; they outlive us, and those we leave behind may reap the benefit of them when we are turned to dust. For my own part, I must confess before the world, that I have a high value for this mercy; and do, from the bottom of my heart, bless the Lord who gave me a religious and tender father, who often poured out his soul to God for me; and being full of love to his children, often carried them before the Lord, prayed and pleaded with God for them, wept and made supplications for them. The prayers and blessings, left by him before the Lord, I esteem above the fairest inheritance on earth.

Oh! it is no small mercy to have thousands of fervent prayers lying before the Lord in heaven for us. Oh, that we would all be faithful to this duty! Surely our love, especially to the souls of our relatives, should not grow cold. ― Flavel.

Evil Reports.

MR. Simeon, referring to evil reports, writes: “The longer I live, the more I feel the importance of adhering to the following rules:

1st. To hear as little as possible what is to the prejudice of others.

2nd. To believe nothing of the kind, until I am absolutely forced to it.

3rd. Never to drink in the spirit of one who circulates an ill report.

4th. Always to moderate, as far as I can, the unkindness which is expressed towards others.

5th. Always to believe that, if the other side were heard, a very different account would be given of the matter.

“My blessed Lord,” he writes on another occasion, “when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not, but committed himself to Him who judgeth righteously.” That seems the right thing for me to do, though some, perhaps, would think it better for me to stand up for my rights. But to all the accusations which were brought against Him, our Lord made no reply, “insomuch that the governor marveled greatly.” I delight in that record; and, God helping me, it will be the labor of my life so to act. “Thou wilt hide me in the secret of thy presence from the strife of tongues.” Insult an angel before the throne, and what would he care about it? Just such will be my feeling whilst I am hid in the secret of my Redeemer’s presence.

Prophetic study has its peculiar perils, because it is so fascinating to the intellect. When we speculate, instead of worship, we are always in danger.

The Raven and the Dove.

The Raven, Eating Carrion, Disregards the Ark.

HERE was I until year thirty-three,

When I found Jesus, who died for me;

Whose flesh is meat indeed, and heavenly bread,

To feed the members of their risen Head.

Till then I had not rest―yet knew not why

I had not peace, and would have feared to die;

I knew not then the grace of God had granted

That rest and peace in Jesus which I wanted.

I heard one preaching loudly of the doom

To hell and judgment, and eternal gloom

Of unregenerate men, who yet despise

The word which makes unto salvation wise.

Of Christ the Saviour from another heard,

His grace and life was taught me by a third;

How Jesus died, and why He then was raised:

This met my case, and I looked up and praised.

In a fourth Christian’s course, I found one who

Saw in his Saviour his example too;

His boast was in the Lord, his risen Head,

As very man who suffered in his stead.

I then believed redemption’s work so true,

That it could fully save a sinful crew

Of such as I, were they but found relying

On Jesus’ death, and what His end in dying.

And so referred my sins to Jesus’ blood,

A weight which more than counterpoised their load;

He recompensed for sin when on the tree,

That grace―not sin―might have the victory.

This is my rock―on this I take my stand,

Which popes and cardinals do count but sand;

The saints of old found that a sure foundation,

Which modern Roman priests count innovation.

The Dove Flies to the Ark, and Noah Takes it in.

Here have I been since year thirty-three,

And shall be safe for all eternity;

I found in Jesus refuge from the flood,

From conscience, guilt, an answer in His blood.

Then heard I one who preached the liberty

Of those in Christ, from curse and judgment free;

Who, cause He died to sin, and rose again

As risen with Him, are free from death and pain.

He also led me to a closer view

Of what’s the church, and Scriptural order true;

But overzeal for church, I found, did tend

The mind from Christ, the object, center, end.

When saints make fine drawn thoughts of church and creed,

The gathering point on which to be agreed,

Instead of Christ Himself, their risen life,

Then dogmas wither love and gender strife.

Let Christians learn to find in Christ alone

Their common bond of union―e’en the stone;

In whom as living stones they’re joined forever,

By bonds which all the powers of hell can’t sever.

Those men have passed away, but He remains

The risen Head of life, and those sustains

Who live on Him by faith; who for them died,

When in their stead condemned and crucified.

Some men yet live whom I could put in rhyme,

But saints thrive best who get no praise in time;

Let saints, while living, serve the Lord they love,

And when they’re gone their works will not remove

If I might dare to set this law aside,

I’d name the names of those so crucified;

They’re willing to be naught, and least of all,

If only Christ their Lord be all in all.

But stop: the praise of living men, though true,

May yet be proved absurd by what they do.

"Thy Sins Be Forgiven Thee."

Notes of an Address. By J. N. C.

Read Matthew 9:1-8.

IN the first place, we learn from the objection which these people made to Christ for forgiving sins, how opposed the natural mind is to the idea of free, unqualified forgiveness. In this instance it was a mere pretext to object to Christ; but the feeling is radical in the natural heart. Still the idea is one which the heart rejects― it cannot believe in free forgiveness.

Those who brought this sick man to Jesus had great faith concerning bodily complaints; for, “Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the sick of the palsy, Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.” Do you ever find, when the blessed Jesus was pouring out His abundant loving-kindness to man, that any came to Hill for the forgiveness of their sins? In the whole of His dealings with man on earth, did you ever find that the spontaneous sense of sin in any man led him to Christ? No. It is a remark I have long made, that until God touches the conscience, the sinner is so truly dead in sins, that he feels no concern about this, his chief complaint. Men’s consciences were asleep as to sin but they were quite awake as to bodily want. People flocked to Jesus round the sea of Galilee to get bread; they contrived the most ingenious ways to bring their sick to be healed; but as to sin, conscience, because we are sinners, is asleep until God awakes it by His voice. Oh, what I blessed thing it is that Jesus removes not merely the effects, but sin, the cause of all our ailments.

When Jesus saw the faith of these people, He acted according to His own estimate of the case and said, “Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.” Christ thinks it is the most cheering and gladdening of things, that our sin should be forgiven; God knows there is nothing which can so truly rejoice the beast as the removal of the grand source of all our sorrow. Then would be no sorrow in the world but for sin When man fell, the blessed God said to him “In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.” The fact of our being in trouble ant in sorrow―the fact that this world is a valley of death and tears, where there is groaning and travailing in pain at the natural consequence of departing from the living God, is an indirect proof of His blessedness; just as when Israel forsook Jehovah and joined themselves to Baal, God withdrew His rain for three years and a half, thus proving himself to be the fountain of blessing. When they returned and acknowledged that “the Lord He is God,” then He vindicated His blessed claim upon their undivided homage, by sending showers of rain upon them.

When He saw their faith, Jesus said, “Thy sins be forgiven thee.” If we have even a little faith, He would draw out more. The same gracious power that can heal the body, can forgive sins. You see that nobody asked Him for this, but it was the Lord himself who thought of, and proposed of His own accord this forgiveness; for

“Nothing brought Him from above,

Nothing but redeeming love.”

But certain of the scribes said within themselves, “This man blasphemeth.” “Jesus, knowing their thoughts” (this proved that He was God―they had no need to speak out), said to them, “Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?” This shows that it is evil in God’s sight to question the authority and willingness of Jesus to forgive sins. “Why think ye evil?” What was the evil? The evil was not to believe that it is easy for God to forgive sins on earth, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Then said Jesus, Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise and walk?”

Now comes a point of great and deep blessing when we understand it. Jesus was not unwilling to forgive; He did not do it because He was solicited, or because it was expected of Him, or for anything which had been done to induce Him, He was willing, nay, anxious to forgive. But when the people objected to Him for doing so, is it not wonderful that He persisted and insisted upon it as His rightful prerogative, saying, “That ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, He saith to the sick of the palsy, Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. And he arose and departed to his house.” Now, says Christ, see him going to his house; there is a proof of my power and delight in forgiving sins!

Consider this any of you that may be doubting or questioning Christ’s willingness to forgive you. The cause of your uncertainty is not only the natural objection which there is in every heart to free and full forgiveness, but also that you really do not know the joy that Christ has in forgiving sins. None but He can penetrate into the depths of the guilt and degradation into which man has sunk, and therefore none can so rejoice when one is rescued from thence. Who was the chief person that rejoiced when the prodigal was restored? Was it not the father He originated the whole scene of festivity; ‘twas he who said, “Bring hither the fatted calf am kill it, let us eat, and be merry.” The feast was to celebrate the father’s joy. “It was meet that we should be glad.”

God knows the grounds on which He can forgive sin. “He is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake.” There you see justice is for us through Christ, and because of his death. When the goat was killed on the day of atonement, the use made of its blood was to sprinkle it before the mercy-seat. The sins of the people were then confessed over the head of this live goat, and he was sent off into a land where nobody could see him anymore. (Exodus 16) This signified that the sins of His people confessed by Christ, and put away by His blood, and put on of God’s sight, God’s glory was reinstated am vindicated when the blood was sprinkled on thy mercy-seat; and since God was glorified, everything else is easy. Forgiveness easily follows when God’s glory is honored; for if the cry of sin had penetrated even into the holiest, and the majesty of God thereby insulted, the voice also of atonement has entered there, and has been acknowledged, God is satisfied there; and now not merely is mercy shown, but justice can be exercised in saving those who believe.

“Justice smiles and asks no more.”

Now it is the joy and glory of God to forgive sins. This is not merely that mercy is grudgingly shown, when sinners are forgiven, but God is glorified. Sinners refuse to honor God if they refuse to let Him forgive them. Now a sinner by receiving forgiveness has an opportunity of giving glory to God; “He that hath received his testimony has set to his seal that God is true.” Such are the triumphs of God’s resources in redemption. I say it fearlessly, for the encouragement of any who have not realized what it is to be forgiven. God has more glory in forgiving a sinner, because Christ died for him, than in the obedience of thousands of thousands of angels who always do His will. If we do not see this, we will not be so ready to believe to the salvation of our souls.

Hear Jesus say, “That ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins.” Is it not most wonderful to find He was not contending for power to condemn us, but to forgive us. If He had this power when on earth, before atonement was an accomplished fact, before He had gone back to heaven, how much more is it easy now, when He sends a message of forgiveness to each of us. “Be it known unto you, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.” Now suppose that this is the synagogue of Antioch, where, after the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers sent to Paul and those with him, saying, “If ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.” Now that was law. It was assuming that there was something good in the people to be exhorted, but Paul began to tell them of Jesus, and to preach the gospel. “Be it known unto you, men and brethren, through this man or person of whom I have been speaking, is preached the forgiveness of sins. I put it before you now, whosoever you are, or whatever you are, there is forgiveness preached to you; and every one that believeth in Him thus preached to you, is justified from all things. He is put before you to believe in as your Saviour, and I declare to you that every one that believeth is forgiven and justified. Beware, therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets. Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish, for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.”

Now this is simply the proposition of forgiveness to all those sinners who were present through Christ who had died and risen again. It is God’s tender for their acceptance―His proposal―then what was their part? Only to believe―for all who believe in Jesus are justified; not shall be justified, but are.

Oh, how should we render thanks to God for His great goodness. What a spirit of hearty worship we should have for such free grace in giving us this great blessing, if we simply believe Him, and trust no longer to anything in ourselves. You remember the story of the fig-tree that was withered to the roots, and which could never bear fruit again―it was an emblem of man in the flesh―you are like the fig-tree withered to the roots, you cannot have any confidence in yourself any more; then “Have faith in God,” believe in Him who is so gracious, so willing of His own accord to say, “Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee.” The time when the fig-tree was hopeless, that was the very fittest time to have faith in God; God has tried man till he was found to be just as that withered tree―now He says you must believe in me; the worse you are in yourself, the more fit you are to be cast upon, and to be blest by the goodness of another.

The coming of our Lord will be both separating and uniting―separating from all who believe not, and uniting all that are in Christ―we shall be caught up together.

Notes on the Book of Revelation.

Chap. 14:8-20. 3. The fall of Babylon.

BABYLON is doomed. Her fall precedes the coming of the Lord. It has both a civil and religious aspect, and is a mighty system permeating almost every other, spreading its influence among all nations and ranks. A terrible corrupting power, and dwelling in ease, luxury, and supported by the strength of nations, she now says in her heart, “I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.” But its loftiness must be laid low, its glitter pass away, its delusions exposed, and its adultery judged. Hence the announcement from heaven, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” Ah, how little do men think they are under a terribly deceiving power, when they take the intoxicating drink from the cup of this false system. So important a consideration is Babylon in the mind of God, that two chapters are occupied with its details, which we hope to consider in due time. Here her doom is simply announced.

4. God’s Warning Against Worshipping the Beast.

This testimony follows the two previous announcements, and is most plain, solemn, and decisive. It reminds us of another inspired testimony, “If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha,” that is, accursed when the Lord cometh. How few think that we are rapidly hastening to this eternal crisis! Alas! man’s pride and self-will harry him on to judgment: and it must be so; for it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment. This awful warning seems to be the last before Christ is actually revealed from heaven, and it is uttered with a loud voice, “If any man worship the beast, and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his right hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast And his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.” (verses 9-11.) Nothing can be plainer, or more awful-drinking God’s wrath, no rest, tormented day and night forever and ever. Let us try to think of its dread reality; for it might make us more in earnest with souls, and more decided in our testimony. Multitudes are acting on the principles of the beast and his image, little thinking that setting aside the authority of the Scriptures, and acting out a religiousness according to their own will and mind, they are thus helping on the work of the great deceiver, and rushing onward to the impending crisis.

The Lord pauses after this announcement, to notice again the patience of the saints, as He did also in the previous chapter—the remnant who are still passing through the fiery tribulation. Their zeal for the observance of God’s commandments, the law of Moses, and also their faith in the coming Messiah are not overlooked by Him.

5. The Voice from Heaven.

This is very remarkable, but beautifully fitting in with the character of the whole chapter. For one of the faithful remnant of Israel to die at this time would not be considered by them at all desirable, because they are expecting the Messiah to appear, and looking forward to enjoy the glorious land with Him. This voice from heaven, therefore, is very tender of the Lord, and will be particularly cheering to any of those who may suffer death under the beast; for it assures them that still they are “blessed.” Though they die before Messiah comes to reign, and thus lose their earthly inheritance, yet being in the Lord they are peculiarly the “blessed,” and while the worshippers of the beast have no rest day and night, they shall “rest from their labors, and their works do follow them.” They will have part in the “first resurrection.” There is nothing new in its being blessed to die in the Lord, but the peculiar application of this action to those who are the faithful remnant in Israel is very interesting, and shews the graciousness of God. “From henceforth” shews that they get into their blessing immediately.

5. The Harvest of the Earth.

We have had the “first fruits of the earth,” now we have “the harvest of the earth.” This is reaped at the coming of the Lord. The prophetic testimony to Israel was not only that when the Messiah came He would tread down the wicked as ashes under the soles of His feet, but that He, as the Sun of righteousness, would arise upon Israel with healing in His wings. Thus blessing to the elect nation and judgment on the wicked attend the revelation of the Lord from heaven. Isaiah says of this time, “The day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.” We get some account of the former in the concluding action of this chapter, and it is more fully brought out in the nineteenth chapter of the latter, in “the harvest of the earth.” It is the Son of man, making the cloud His chariot, as in Revelation 1:7, crowned with a golden crown, and having in His hand a sharp sickle, with which He gathers to His bosom the fruit of His own sowing. Angels are associated with the Lord in the work. It is evidently the end of the age of Matt. 13, when the wheat is gathered into the barn, and the next action shows us the tares cast into fire unquenchable. There is no idea here of resurrection of the dead, or of any being removed to heaven, but of gathering the living righteous, ―reaping the wheat. A separation between good and bad, and judgment on the latter, constitute the instruction of the last two scenes in this chapter. The Lord is coming to establish His millennial kingdom in righteousness. He will, therefore, sever the wicked from among the just, and take out of His kingdom them that offend and do iniquity, and cast them into a furnace of fire. The Seer says, “I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle and reap; for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And He that sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle, and the earth was reaped.” (verses 14-16.)

7. Treading the Winepress.

This is not the harvest, but the vintage, gathering and treading grapes fully ripe. Now Satan works in sowing tares, and God bears with it till the iniquity is full. Christ is the true vine, and Israel is called a vine brought out of Egypt; but this is called “the vine of the earth.” Not connected with Christ risen and ascended into heaven; it is carnal, Satanic, earthly religion. The tares are the children of the wicked one. It may be apostate Jews and apostate Gentiles, but now they are fully ripe. They have unmixed judgment. Wrath without any mercy. The extent is beyond anything the world has ever known. It may be figurative, but we are surely to understand by it, its unparalleled character. “And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.” (verse 20.)

He Sat Down to Meat.

Luke 7:36.

I HAVE in my morning walk been again contemplating templating the words, “He sat down to meat.” This is the statement of a fact which, under our ordinary circumstances, is of no importance; but as the Spirit of God records it concerning Christ, there must be importance in it―so we will contemplate it in its connection. The former part of the chapter records the miracle of raising from the dead the widow’s son; and the rumor that “a great prophet was risen up, and that God had visited His people, went forth throughout all Judea, and throughout all the regions round about.” Doubtless the Pharisee Simon desired, it would seem simply on the ground of the rumor in favor of Christ, that Christ “would eat with him.” For what “form or comeliness” or “beauty” was there in Him (save to the open eye of faith) that they “should desire Him,” “whose visage was more marred than any man, and His form more than the sons of men.” Accordingly, when the Lord went into the Pharisee’s house—he gave Him no water for His feet, no kiss, no oil, according to custom and courtesy. But he would give Him to eat. So the Lord “sat down to meat” as one who, “seeing many things, observed not.” “Who (inquires the prophet) is blind as He that is perfect, and blind as the Lord’s servant?” (Isaiah 42:19, 20.)

The woman “that is a sinner” comes behind Him, as He sat at meat, and washes His feet with her tears, kisses His feet, and anoints them with ointment. Nothing disturbs Jesus―the ways and thoughts of the Pharisee who desired Him to eat with him, or of the other guests, or of the woman at His feet behind Him. Nothing disturbs Jesus―He has but one thing to do: please His heavenly Father, by doing good to those about Him. Had the other guests been served as was Jesus, one might have expected that in displeasure they would have left the meal; but Jesus―as if nothing to be noticed had happened―sat down to meat. He made no complaint of failure of courtesy, but He sat down to meat. Our blessed Exemplar never finds fault but with a view to mend fault. It is not always the best time to mend the fault as soon as the fault is committed―it is the time to tell the fault to God, and wait on Him for wisdom to deal aright with it. The Lord waits patiently, and He not only gets better from the sinner than the Pharisee could have bestowed; but by waiting, Simon himself gives the Lord the opportunity of finding, and, doubtless, mending the fault. Thus far the Lord had been silent. He is “as a man in whose mouth are no reproofs” ―who says, “Thou wilt answer, O Lord, my God.” (Psalms 38:14, 15.) God so orders that the woman comes in to supply Simon’s lack, and Simon SPEAKS within himself, saying, “This man, if He were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth Him; for she is a sinner.” Now Jesus ANSWERING said unto him, “Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee.” We know what follows: Christ makes it manifest that He is a prophet―He knows Simon’s thoughts―He puts the judgment on Simon’s shoulders—whose sentence is that the woman that is a sinner loves Christ the Prophet and the Son of God more than the Pharisee loves Him. How great the wisdom and the grace. How blessed the example! When we are put to the test, let us have a care for the faulty one, and not for our own name, and wait on God for opportunity to do good to those who are not so ready to do good to us, and to glorify God, who will own and bless us for our every endeavor to these Christ like ends. “Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.” (Matthew 11:29.) “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not His mouth.” (Acts 8:32.) He who was content at once uncomplainingly to sit down to meat in the Pharisee’s house, ―who went about doing good, not inquiring, “What good will you do me?” or “What evil have you done me?” but “What good can I do you?” He it was who also was led “as a lamb to the slaughter,” who “bare our sins in His own body on the tree:” our Saviour and our Exemplar.

Let us exalt His name by life and lip, whom God hath exalted with His right hand; ourselves walking humbly before God and man, waiting for our Master from heaven, who soon will come to receive us to Himself. The record that Christ “sat down to meat” should be as a rule for us to measure our ways by. The proud natural heart would say under the failure of courtesy, such as Simon’s was, “Away with your meat, if these are your manners.” The selfishness of nature is such that it would not come to mind that there was an opportunity given to return good for evil. Ungodliness will never “overcome evil with good,” and so glorify God. God makes nothing of those who make much of themselves. Of Christ, who was meek and lowly in heart. He says, “Behold my servant whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth.” (Isaiah 42) To us He says. “My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice.” (Proverbs 23:15,16.) Our word should be, “Let not them that wait on thee be ashamed. Show me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day. (Psalms 25:3-5.)

The great point of difference between persons is this: some (believers) “have death and judgment behind them—have passed from death unto life;” others (unbelievers) have death and judgment before them. How vast is this difference!

Words to Believers.

No. 4. The Invitation.

“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear in voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”―Rev. 3:20.

HOW suitable, and how welcome, is this gracious word to many a poor, weary, way-worn heart! Separated, perhaps, by some necessity from others; shut up, it may be, to the solitude of the sick-room, or to the still deeper solitude of a grief that none around can understand: how grateful to a heart thus worn and tried is this sweet word of Jesus! “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock.” The friend of sinners asks admission; the Lord of heaven and earth presents himself to wait upon the need of the poor, lonely, and heart stricken one. And who can minister like Him? Who can bind the broken heart, or cheer the drooping spirit; who can touch and heal the secret grief, or gladden solitude, like Jesus? Who can give the wounded conscience rest, or pour the stream of peace into the ruffled bosom, but the Lord? None, surely. How blessed, then, to hear His voice―the voice that seems to speak to one alone― “If any man.” And this is not a solitary instance of this gracious way of His. When here in humiliation, we find Him more than once providing for the “one alone.” Rejected by the world that knew Him not; by Israel, whose fathers He had led, in by-gone ages, through the desert, by the fire and by the cloud; this living Rock, in tenderest grace, declared, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.” (John 7:37.) Fountain of living waters, then, He was, and is so still; only source of blessing to His people; and the “one alone,” as well as the many gathered ones, may find Him so. Again; still further on, in the same gospel, does He take of the same form of speech: “I am the door; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved and go in and out, and find pasture.” (John 10:9.) Safety is with Him, the good the faithful Shepherd of the sheep, whose precious blood has flowed in their defense; who died that they might live; who rose again that they might rise and dwell with Him forever. And this blessedness He speaks of to the lonely one: yea, and more than this. Not only life, and peace, and present safety from all harm, but richest food and sweet communion too. The Father and the Son will come and dwell with the obedient one (John 14); for thus runs the further word: “He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him.” (verses 21, 28.) How sweetly here is the solitary cared for! How full the blessing treasured up for him! And does not Jesus, as it were, invite us once again to it, in the still later page of His most blessed word?” If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in and sup with him, and he with me. “How condescending is the grace that waits upon us!” will come and sup with him.” Yes, the Lord will come, and take what we set before Him; all our sorrows, all our burdens, all our heavy griefs and cares. Wondrous that He should do so, but thus it is.” I will sup with him.” As ones of old He walked and talked with two of them (Luke 24), drawing out the tale of heaviness by the gracious question,” What manner of communications are these, that ye have one to another as ye walk and are sad? “leading them, as it were, unconsciously, to find relief in telling all, so now He speaks to us yea, any one of us. We have but to throw open freely ear and heart to Him, and what an exchange He gives us! Not only does He say, “I will sup with him,” but adds, “and he with me.” For as those of old received, as well as communicated, a tale of interest such as only He and His can dwell upon together, till their very hearts burned within them by the way, so now the same most precious Lord not only hears and bears away our griefs, and takes up all our burdens, but gives the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; not only takes the portion which we give Him (bitter alas, it often is, and fraught with shame, as well as sorrow), but gives us back so sweet, so rich a repast in return, that we are constrained to say, that we have forgotten our poverty, and our misery is remembered no more. Not only does He sup with us, but we with Him, to our exceeding gain: and if it but so now, when we see Him, as it were, but in the twilight; when what we are, and what we bring, so hinders us; if it be joy to hear Him now, and to sup with Him now, what will it be when there is nothing to hinder? when our body of humiliation shall have been changed and fashioned like unto His glorious body? when there shall be no more pain, or sin, or sorrow? when we shall sit down with Him in the kingdom of God? when He shall no longer have occasion to knock, as though He were a stranger, but when voice, and form, and feature shall be ever present with us? when we sup with Him, and He with us, in our eternal, blissful home?

Fanny B.; or, the Love of Dress.

An Extract.

FANNY and Eliza B― were sisters; the former fourteen and the latter thirteen years of age when they came into my class in the Sunday school. They were generally-attentive to the instruction given, and learned the lessons appointed for them pretty correctly; but as soon as the restraint of school was over it seemed as if they quite forgot all they had heard. I was often reminded by them of the first part of the parable of the sower (it is written in the eighth chapter of the gospel of Luke): “A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it.” And the Lord Jesus, when explaining to the disciples the spiritual meaning of the parable, said, “The seed is the word of God. Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.”

Now Fanny and Eliza used, Sunday after Sunday to hear the gospel of the grace of God proclaimed; they were told of their condition as lost sinners in the sight of Him who is of “purer eyes than to behold iniquity;” and were entreated to come to the Lord Jesus Christ, who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” They committed to memory the words of Scripture; they sat in the class with others, some of whom were Christians, and were not permitted to remain in a state of utter ignorance as to the necessity of having their sins pardoned before they could be ranked among the children of God, and heirs of everlasting life; but alas! they choose for their companions the giddiest and most thoughtless girls in the school, and when on Sunday afternoons they left the room, instead of going home, and thinking over the truths to which they had listened, they went away to laugh and shout, and run about the streets in a most improper manner. Like the “fowls of the air,” devouring the “good seed,” so did their idle, foolish conversation entirely destroy from out of the minds of Fanny and Eliza all remembrance of what was so frequently said to them about sin and the need of a Saviour; or if a thought ever crossed their minds as to the wickedness of their course, I suppose it lasted but a moment, and was soon banished.

Their mother (their father being dead) was informed of the trouble that they occasioned me and several of the other teachers, and was affectionately advised to check them; but she had brought them up in such habits of indulgence that they would not be controlled, and she did not know how to make them obey her.

An intense love of finery soon began to display itself in the dress of the sisters, and I think they must themselves have chosen their gaudy clothes, as their mother, who was herself a plainly-dressed woman, could hardly have been willing to allow her children to be decked out in the extravagant manner in which they appeared; and, as they were allowed to do just as they liked, it is probable that they persuaded her to give them as much money as they thought necessary, and then bought what they chose without consulting her taste and judgment. Poor girls! perhaps they thought when they stood before the glass, and put on their smart clothing, that they should be very much admired; but, if they did attract the attention of the worldly and worthless, none whose esteem was of any value prized them the more highly for it. A neat frock and bonnet would have been far more becoming than their gay ribbons and tawdry muslins; and many a time have I deeply regretted their pride and vanity when witnessing the way in which they tossed their heads, and twisted and turned as they entered the school-room, while they looked round to see who was noticing them.

Fanny was an impulsive girl; and sometimes, when I had an opportunity of speaking to her alone, the tears would fill her eyes, and she would seem grieved that she had caused me sorrow; but I never saw her humbled under a sense of her sinfulness before God, and after each conversation with her my heart was heavy, as I had little reason to hope that she was at all penitent.

After I had taught these two sisters for more than a year, I left the neighborhood where they lived, and went to reside a few miles off, but I frequently heard of them from the lady who took my class when I gave it up. Fanny appeared very sorry to part from me, and while she assured me that she felt grateful, although I had so often to find fault with her, she, at the same time, pressed me to accept a little ivory and velvet pin-cushion as a keepsake, which I still possess. The letters that I received from her teacher were anything but satisfactory, and, while rejoicing at the account which was given of some of my late scholars, I was much pained when I heard that Fanny and Eliza, although still attending the school, had only gone from bad to worse, and had grown inattentive and careless it her class, besides being still more giddy than ever as soon as school was over.

One day I went to spend a few hours near my old home, and determined to call on Fanny and her mother. I had been told that Eliza had gone to service, and that Fanny was apprenticed to a dressmaker, so I knocked at their door, at the time when I understood that Fanny always went back to her dinner. When I entered, I found that the mother had gone out, and that Fanny was alone. She seemed pleased to see me, but very unhappy, for, after talking a little while about her new occupation, and on various other subjects, she suddenly burst into tears, and said, I am truly miserable! “I never was so wretched in all my life! there is nothing worth living for!” I tried to find out the cause of this violent sorrow; but she did not tell me; and I again urged her to come to Him in whom all true joy is centered. She, however, continued to sob and cry, and as I was taking leave of her at the bottom of the staircase, she threw herself into my arms, and shed bitter tears, as her head rested on my shoulder. I longed to know why she was thus affected, and thought that if she disclosed the secret to me I might be better able to comfort her; but my attempts to win her confidence were useless, and I was compelled to say goodbye to her, without any apparent power to direct or soothe, little thinking that we should never meet again, and that in a few days she would have passed away from this world.

Shortly after, I heard sad news of poor Fanny. I shudder now when I reflect upon her melancholy end. Led away by bad companions, hoping probably to obtain the means of purchasing more expensive clothes than her mother’s slender purse could afford, Fanny had fallen into great and terrible sin. Her mother discovered it; and when Fanny went home to her dinner at one o’clock, about a fortnight after I last saw her, she told her daughter all she knew, and accused her of having almost broken her heart. Fanny totally denied the charge, and grew positively furious with passion; she stamped and screamed with rage, declaring that what her mother said was false (although it was true), and at length rushed out of the room, slamming the door violently behind her. She ran quickly along the street to her employer’s house, which was close by, and on entering the work-room fell on the floor in a fit! A doctor was sent for at once, and someone fetched her mother; but as soon as the unhappy girl recovered in some degree, another fit came on. She never spoke again, and after about a dozen fits she died at midnight, without having been able to address a single word to those around her.

Dear young reader, if you are yet in your sins, that is, if you have not yet found pardon through the blood of the Lamb, let me warn you of the terrible danger in which you are at this very moment. You must be either on the Lord’s side or on the side of Satan; and if you choose the latter, you will find him a hard master, luring you on in the path of sin, and making you fancy it at first very bright and pleasant, till at last nothing but misery will await you, and your only wages will be death. Let poor Fanny’s history be remembered; and if you are a Sunday scholar, be careful how you hear what your teacher says, and how you recollect it; and when the school is dismissed, never let dress or any similar trifle be the subject of conversation between you and your companions as you walk home. Think of the parable of the sower. Satan will be on the watch to take away the “good seed” out of your heart; but do treasure it, dear child, and, by God’s blessing, it may take root, and be the means of leading you to Christ.

Oh! if you are careless and inattentive, you give your teachers much sorrow; for if they know what it is to have their own sins forgiven. The desire of their hearts is that you may be saved; and they are surely often in prayer for you and the other children of their classes. Consider, too, the many advantages that you enjoy. In a country where Bibles are so cheap that you may get one for less than a shilling; where the Gospel is faithfully preached in so many places; and reflect, that if you die unforgiven, it will be because you did not accept God’s offer of pardon through His Son, and that you will be without excuse.

The Lord Jesus Christ is coming again to fetch His own people, and they will, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, be caught up to “meet Him in the air,” and be ever with Him in glory. From God’s holy word we know that He will come; but when that day will be we know not. It may be today, or tomorrow, or next week; and then, if you are not numbered among the children of God, you will have no part in the joy of His appearing. Be warned, then, now; and now, even now, own yourself a sinner, coming to the blessed One who died that sinners might live. May the Holy Ghost lead you to Him, and show you that His “blood cleanseth from all sin.”

H. L. T.

“The gentle Jesus pities you,

Poor thoughtless little child;

He bends on you a look of love,

So tender and so mild.

“He knows your little foolish heart

Prefers a worthless toy

To all His love, which, once believed,

Would give you lasting joy.

“He tells you, in His holy word,

How joyfully He gave

Himself―the spotless Lamb of God―

His wandering sheep to save.

“The child that knows his sins forgiven

Through His most precious blood,

Is made a lamb of Jesus’ fold,

A happy child of God.”

The Boy That Would'nt Get Angry.

I ONCE heard an interesting story about two brothers. One of them was ten years old, and the other eight. The elder boy had, within a few months past, indulged the hope that God had given him a new heart. He thought that he was a Christian; that he loved the Lord Jesus Christ. But his little brother did not believe that his heart had been changed. He thought his brother was no more a Christian than he had ever been. He said he could not see any difference; yet he meant to try him, and see; for as his brother now appeared more sober than usual, and was more willing to go to meeting than before, he did not feel, certain that he was not a Christian. Now, how do you think this little boy, eight years old, undertook to find out whether his brother was a Christian? Why, every time he could get a chance, he would tread on his brother’s toes, kick his heels, or pinch his arms, to see if he wouldn’t get angry as he used to do. But his brother bore it all with meekness and good nature; without an angry word or look. This was very different from what he used to do. He had always been ready to take revenge on the spot for such an abuse. The younger brother was sure that he could not do so; for he knew he would get angry if anybody should treat him unkindly. He soon became convinced that his brother was a Christian, and he was not. He became very anxious about the salvation of his soul, and in a short time he, too, believed that God had, for Christ’s sake, pardoned his sins, and given him a new heart.

Fragments.

Are we walking preachers, as well as speaking preachers?

We have all been born into a world which has crucified the Son of God.

We should meet together for worship and edification, not merely as brethren, but as members of the body of Christ. (Ephesians 4:16.)

You will never become humble by studying yourself, but by realizing and enjoying your standing in Christ.

In true worship, we have the Father for our portion, the Son for our title, and the Holy Ghost for our power. The Father is listening, the Son presenting, and the Holy Ghost inditing. “For through Him, we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.” (Ephesians 2:18.) There is now no order, form, or uniformity of worship, but this.

"So Sure! So Sure!"

IN the year 1862 a tall, handsome young mar rode over to arrange about a cricket metal about to be played in this neighborhood. He put up his horse, and as we walked along to gather through the fields, he cleared one of two railings in a way which marked unusual physical strength and activity. He was a good cricketer, and fond of being a leader among other young men in games which required skit and agility.

As we strolled along, I took the opportunity of speaking to him about his soul, and was rejoiced to find that he was by no means inattentive to eternity. I found that he was trusting to Jesus for his salvation. He told me how his mother had often pressed the blood bought salvation on him, and I thought he had by faith availed himself of it; but when I asked him, Was he saved? he did not seem to know. He assured me that he was trusting to Jesus and His death, and that he knew he was a sinner; and I then showed him out of Scripture that if this were the case, he was saved from condemnation; for “whosoever heareth my words,” said Jesus, “and believeth on Him that sent me shall not come into condemnation;” and “he that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” He seemed to see his position as a child somewhat cleared, and soon after we parted, and he rode home.

No one can succeed in walking as a child, until they are first assured of the fact, hence the necessity of your knowing assuredly, O reader, whether or not you are a child of God.

I have a letter here in which his mother writes to me in October, 1863: “My darling Willie was seized with diphtheria. Strange to say, he appeared to think from the commencement of the disease he would not recover; but in answer to a Christian physician who mentioned the uncertainly of life, he expressed the assured hope which he enjoyed through the Saviour ‘So sure! so sure!’ he added, and then unable to speak much, he opened his Bible at the 15th of Corinthians for his dear mother to read, and seemed to drink in each word as addressed to him. On Friday evening he grew rapidly worse, and towards morning he sent for his brother George, and said to him, “Oh, George, what would I do now, that I am on my dying bed, if I had not Jesus? What would you do if you were now here, if you had not Jesus? If ever you wish to see me again, come to Jesus, come now, don’t put it off, and remember the last words of your dying brother, Meet him in heaven. It is so simple―just simple faith.” Then turning to his mother he said, “Mother, darling, don’t fret, I know you won’t, for your wish is fulfilled; you always wished me to be Christ’s and now your wish is about to be fulfilled.” He began to sink, but recovering a little, his mother asked him how he felt? “I felt very near the glory, very near the glory. I am now nearly over the valley―caught up, caught up―oh, so sure! so sure! ―come, Lord Jesus, come quickly,” were on his lips; and on Saturday he thus passed away from the arms of his earthly parents into those of his heavenly Father, aged eighteen years and seven months―a young man in the prime of life.

“What is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” “He that believeth on the Son hath EVERLASTING life.”

I little thought, when last we met,

Thy sun on earth was nearly set,

I said, what I can ne’er forget,

Dear boy, we’ll meet again.

The Lord’s day sun rose bright and clear,

When thine was setting on us here,

To shine more bright in yonder sphere.

Farewell, we’ll meet again.

I stood beside thy silent bed,

Thy marble brow was cold and dead,

Thy gentle soul was fled―was fled.

Dear boy, we’ll meet again.

I saw thee in thy narrow rest,

The clods upon thy coffin pressed,

The clouds dropped tears, yet in my breast

God said, We’ll meet again.

The precious dust beneath that lies,

Shall at the voice of Jesus rise,

To meet the Bridegroom in the skies,

That day, we’ll meet again.

Railway Incidents.

No. 2.

AFTER you left me in the train, I asked the Lord to open the way for me, if it was His will I should so far break over all the rules of decorum (according to this world) and address the officer in the corner. I felt quite powerless to speak one word. I opened my Bible, and commenced to look at it, but could not read. I thought every moment. Perhaps he goes out next station, and what shall I do then? Nothing. My opportunity will be lost. I saw him pull out your book, look at the title, look at me, and put it in his pocket, open his bag, and take out two more yellow-backed books! He read a bit of one, then pitched it away, took the other, read a bit, looked over at me, shut it up, put all in the bag, took out your little one. I was praying for direction, when he changed his seat and came on my side. I looked at my book, and found it open at John 9. My eyes fell upon the 35th verse, and the Lord said to me, point him to the question in this verse. I at once moved up, held the Bible to him, and pointed to the query.

You should have seen his face! He turned round, pierced me with a contemptuous look, returned the book, saying, “Or cousin I do; do you take me for a heathen because I was reading any other book but that which you have had open for show, I suppose, for you certainly were not reading.”

I told him simply why I was not reading; that my heart was yearning over his soul; that I fell the difficulty of addressing him; but the Spirit of God had overcome that, and directed me not to speak to him, but to allow the Son of God to now, I said, remember your answer was not to me, but Him. I read the narrative, showed him how different was the blind man’s answer to his, told him I could not tell whether he was a heathen or a Christian; but God knew, and sent me to him with His word, which is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

I again ventured to hold the same portion to him, saying, Many a man sleeps calmly on the brink of a precipice. How friendly the voice should be that awakes him. Jesus desires to awake you this day, and to send you on your way as rejoicing as He did this blind man. He turned and gave me another look, asked who you were. I told him. You are in earnest he said. I will tell you all about myself; for I suppose by this time you have discovered that I am not a converted man.

I said I suspected he either was not, or if he was, was like Lazarus before the grave-clothes were loosed off him.

I read this for him; it seemed to rivet him. He then said, I want to be a Christian this long time. My captain is converted, and only 33 years of age, and I see his happiness. I pray with all the energy of my NATURE to be made like him, and yet I can’t get to be. I’m in a bad school.

Oh! dear young man, I cried, you are indeed. You are all wrong. You can’t pray in the energy of your NATURE, because it is corrupt find abominable, and unrenewed and unholy, and prod hears no prayer offered in the energy of our nature―it must be in the energy of the Holy Ghost, received by reason of our union with a risen Christ, having been made partakers of His death, cleansed from sin in the blood of the Cross, born of God into His eternal kingdom, our sins ill buried with Him who bore them, and we risen with Him into newness of life.

I know all this, he said, but how do we get this Spirit? A friend told me yesterday that when GOD calls a man or woman He always gives the power to come to Him, and that there is not a bit of use in my bothering myself about religion until I feel the Spirit drawing me, and he showed me some passage in John to make it clear.

He said, perhaps I am not one of the elect it all; that if I was, I would get an unmistakable call as he did, and not have the power to refuse.

I tried to shew him how Satan quoted Scripture many a time, but that if he quoted he never quoted what other portions of the word agreed with it, and that proved, whoever quoted thus, to be a deceiver and misrepresenter of God’s character.

You have nothing to do with election, that is a secret thing belonging to God, who has a sovereign right to send you and me and all of us is rebels to hell; but, as hell-deserving sinners, we have to do with two things―one is the way sf escape God has provided, the other is that He commands us on peril of eternal death to accept it. Put yourself in the blind man’s place. God commends His love to you, and offers you salvation now in the words of His own Son.

But I don’t see Jesus, he said. Do you see Balbriggan? No; but I’m going there, unless something happens. Just so; and you must see Jesus by faith, to whom you will go, and be forever with, if you believe on Him as your only Saviour, unless that something happens called he taking possession of your heart by the evil spirit of unbelief, which alone can keep you from Teeing Him―Jesus now offering you His blood us an atonement for your sins.

You pray to be made like your captain; that shows you not to be praying in the Holy Ghost. It is to be made like unto Jesus we pray, who hath left us an example; and besides, you are trying to be a Christian yourself, and that great work must be begun, carried on, and completed by God Himself. I told him of the brazen serpent, held up Jesus to him, prayed God to bless he words spoken in great weakness, and gave him for his encouragement that verse: “To as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God.” You can’t become a child of God until you believe yourself a lost sinner out of Christ, and believe in His ability, and accept His offer to save you from God’s wrath, which hangs over you until you are born again.

He here became softened, and wiped away the tear. I asked him, Did he believe in Jesus as having satisfied God for his sins, and borne the punishment due to him―death?

We were just coming up to the station. I pressed it, in prayer, and he said, “I think I do. I feel to have learned a great deal in a few words. I’m afraid to trust myself.” I said, “Aye, and you may safely never trust yourself, but trust Him who promises if you believe you shall never perish.”

He shook hands, saying, “Thank you very, very much. God bless you; pray for me. I hope I’m a believer; pray for me;” and thus we parted, never perhaps to meet until that day.

But ah, dear friend, I thought, as I came home in the train alone, what should we be surprised at in the Lord blessing us to poor souls? If He does not use us, it is because of our own unfaithfulness and fear of men. Our opportunities meet us at every step of our way. God has to say to us, “I never left you long without an opportunity of testifying for me; but often it does not suit you to testify for me, and you forget your calling, and then opportunities pass unused, and you wonder you have no trophies to cast at your Lord’s feet. Watch for souls.”

Jesus, the Proof, Not the Cause, of God's Love to Sinners.

John 3:16, 17.

I HAVE often heard mothers say to their children, “If you be good, and love God, God will love you; but if you do not love God, and are naughty, God will not love you.” I have heard this said by parents, who, professing to be Christians, should know better. Scripture nowhere tells us, that if we love God, He will love us. Scripture, on the contrary, declares, that God’s love to us is the cause of our love to God. “We love Him,” writes John, “because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19.) The declaration of God’s glorious good news to sinners thus reads: “God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:8-10.) How inconceivably beautiful and tender is this! All the work which Jesus wrought on the earth, and “finished” at Calvary, where He shed His blood, was the work of God, and a manifestation of His love to sinners. The love, solicitude, and compassion of Jesus, were the compassion, solicitude, and love of God, towards the ungodly. Each petition presented by Jesus to His Father, while He was on the earth, met with a full response in the bosom of God, who “so loved the world, that He gave His wily begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:16, 17.) Jesus appears as the manifester of the Father. Jesus was sent by God, that God might be known in, through, and by Jesus. All that Jesus did and was, as the substitute for sinners, was the fulfillment of the Father’s good pleasure. God was working through the Son. Many turn from God the Father, as though a perpetual frown rested on His face, and seek for rest and repose only in the Son. This is wrong. It is dishonoring to God the Father, subversive to the Christian’s own peace of mind, and a misrepresentation of Christ’s mission in the world: for Jesus came to reveal the Father―to make known the great love of the Father’s heart; Jesus came, not that He might cause God to love us, but as the great proof and pledge that God did love us. God is eternally unchangeable. “God is love.”

The gift of Jesus fully reveals the blessed fact, that “God is love.” The Cross manifests God’s name and nature. There God’s love to the whole world God’s benevolence to the human race―God’s pure, perfect, holy, infinite kindness to sinners, is most clearly manifested. There the infinite hatred of God to sin, and infinite love of God to sinners, are fully exhibited. There God is seen to be a just God, and a merciful Saviour. There sin was punished, and “put away,” that sinners, even “to the uttermost,” might be saved. There God’s “will” is made known. “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” God is now in Jesus made known to us, as possessing a longing and yearning desire to receive each and every man into His favor. The Lamb provided and sent forth by God, has so taken away the sin of the world, that every sinner now coming unto God by Jesus, may receive pardon of sins, and everlasting life. “As I live,” saith the Jehovah-God, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” The “way” of “the wicked” is death; but “the way” of God, Jesus Christ, is “everlasting life.” The will of the Divine heart is to embrace with strong yearning love every returning penitent. God commands sinners everywhere to return to Him, from whom they have wandered. The Cross of Jesus reveals the ability and willingness of God, in consistency with the ends of justice, to save all who return. The “atonement” of Jesus is blessedly sufficient and efficient to save all who will avail themselves of it. The “precious blood of Christ” is sufficient and efficient to wash away guilt of the deepest dye, and to remove corruption of the darkest stain. The redemption price paid down by the Son of God is amply sufficient for all who will use it. This is the glad tidings proclaimed to guilty men as rebels; and the authoritative command of God’s sovereignty summons every rebel, at his peril, to return to his allegiance. The sinner obeys that summons the moment be hearkens to the trumpet’s gospel call, and accepts Jesus as the free gift of God’s melting love. Faith receives and rests upon Jesus alone for salvation as He is “freely” proclaimed in the gospel, and commits the soul, and the soul’s interests for eternity to Him.

Dear reader, do not imagine that you must make yourself good―that you must love God, and then He will love you. “Make yourself good!” Easier far can the leopard change his spots, and the Ethiopian his skin, than the sinner alter himself. “Must you first love God?’ You cannot love God, and your inability to do so is both your guilt and your ruin. You must believe in the love of God toward you, as dis played in the gift of Jesus, before the “enmity” of your heart can be changed. We can never repent of sin until we see sin in the light of God’s love. The great, the grand, the central truth of the gospel is, “God is love,” and the Cross is the fullest revelation of that fact. Then we can see the relation of God’s love to us al sinners: for there we behold “the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world;” then we see Jesus so taking away sin, that it does no exclude us from God’s love. The gospel tells us, that sinners as we are, God loves us. That He “so” loves us, that He has given Jesus, His only begotten Son, to die, that “whosoever” believes in Him should never perish, but have eternal life. The gospel says not, that if we believe, then God will love us: it declares that God loves us just as we are. It says not, God will give Jesus to sinners, if they will receive Him; that would be impossible if He were not already given; but it declares that God has given Jesus to die for sinners, and calls upon them to receive God’s gift. All who by faith receive the Lord Jesus, receive all they need in Him. Is Christ Jesus, believers find an atonement for their sins, a righteousness for their justification pardon, and everlasting life.

Here is the sinner’s gospel—the glad tidings suited for the sinner. God loves you, He has given Jesus to die for you, He has given all things in Jesus for you, He is well pleased and satisfied with His Son’s finished work; believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. T. W. M.

John 14:1, 3.

THE blessed grace displayed in these words of the Lord will be evident, if we consider the circumstances under which they were uttered, and the condition of those to whom they were addressed. He was on the eve of His mysterious sufferings, the depth and intensity of which we can never know, but the fruit of which we are nailed into the eternal enjoyment of. He was to go forth alone in His spotlessness to meet the avenger of blood, that He might receive in His own precious person the judgment due to sin, that hateful thing to which His whole nature was a stranger, but which He chose, in the greatness of His love, to have laid upon Him that those for whom He thus became the Surety might be sheltered forever from the consequence of their transgressions, and receive a blessedness which He alone could fully estimate, as being it author and sustainer. A few of these favored ones were around Him. And were they, naturally, better than others? No, in no wise. (Romans 3:9.) They were men, and men are sinners. Yea, “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” “They were men of like passion with ourselves.” But a little space before, unholy strife and ambition had been among them. (Luke 22:24.) Not one of them could appreciate the feelings of the “Man of sorrows.” Within an hour the one that leaned upon His bosom would sleep, regardless of the Watcher and the Holy One that sought his sympathy: another would deny, with oaths and curses, that he knew the Lord; and all would desert Him in the heaviest, darkest hours of trial. This He perfectly knew. They might not have seen their utter weakness and unworthiness―the coming moment was to exhibit that―but “He needed not that any should testify of man.” All was naked to His view. He can tell it all before hand―the denial―the abandonment―the scattering. But is it to upbraid? The very contrary He speaks to sustain―to console. And this is ever His way, His gracious way. He may convince us of our sin. Indeed He will, if He gives us self-knowledge at all? for what is man if looked at in himself? What is a converse man, even, if left to his own strength but for a moment? But, oh! what matchless grace is His who, in the full apprehension of what we are gives utterance to His heart in words like these; “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.” He calls them off from confidence in themselves to confidence in Him. They had known something of Him―they were now to learn more. He was no broken reed―no unfaithful friend. They might give way―He never could. They had seen much of His fidelity―His tenderness―His truth. Let them rest in Him unshaken. They might lose sight of Him, but He would be employed for them. In His Father’s house were many mansions. If not, He would have told them. He went before them to prepare a place. None could do this but himself. His blood must mark the way; His blood must open heaven. They must enter only in His name. His title to those blest abodes was indisputable; but they had none, unless derived from Him. This He now gave, and more. He would prepare a place for them. A suited place―such as was worthy of His love to give―such as He could share with them when they should be changed and fashioned for it. “The palace is not for man, but for the Lord God,” said David, speaking of the house which Solomon was to build: and if the earthly house was great―the place of Jehovah’s feet―if, too, the future temple in that land is to be glorious (Isaiah 60:13)―how much more the heavenly home, where the Father’s love is to be enjoyed, and the Father’s glory manifested in the Son, who from eternity has been with Him, and through eternity will declare Him in all the spheres which have been or which shall be formed for the enjoyment of that love, or the revelation of that glory. As there have been outshining’s of God’s glory in the past, there will be also in the future, witnessing to His redeemed of what He is, to their eternal blessing. There was a glory in Creation when the morning stars sung together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. (Job 38:7.) There was a glory in Eden for a little moment ere the man and we man fell―a glory on the plain of Mamre when Abraham received his Guests at the tent door―a glory where the sleeping Jacob lay at Bethel-hidden glories these two latter, only for the eyes of those that saw them―precious glories too, that told of a love peculiar, sovereign, discriminating ―wondrous in its character, familiar, perfect, free yet awing by the majesty it brought with it―for if it was a love beyond all measure, it was the love of God―the Eternal―the Supreme. There was a glory when the hosts of Israel went up from Egypt, through the Red Sea and the desert, to the promised land: ―may I not say glories of varied character―the glory of the cloudy, fiery pillar―the glory of Sinai, with its thunders and lightnings, and its trumpet-voice long and loud―the glory of the tabernacle, with its shadows of good things to come. There were glorious visitations in the land in successive periods of its history, in days of its judges, prophets, priests, and kings: glorious deliverances, preservations, miracles: glorious utterances, visions, foretelling’s: glorious exhibitions of Divine longsuffering: patient expostulations, threatening’s, judgments;―until the glory passed away from the temple and the city in the closing days of the kingdom, no more to return till Jesus came, Himself the brightness of glory, the Living Temple wherein the Godhead dwelt (John 2), discerned by faith alone as the Incarnate Word― “the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Glory was there—a soft and tender glory that attracted to itself all hearts that felt its beams, that learned its power to heal their deepest woes―woes that sin had brought―woes that would vanish nowhere save in the light of that blessed countenance which beamed with love and mercy and compassion for the lost. All wants were met in Him. The soul that found Him found its all―all it could need, and all it could desire. “We have found Him,” expressed the satisfaction of the heart. But He was going to the Father by the cross and by the grave into His heavenly dwelling-place. Would He leave them comfortless, as orphans in a world of trial? Surely no! His death would be eternal life to them,―yea, endless peace and endless liberty. The Comforter would come to witness to them of His love―the virtue of His sacrifice―their own full pardon and acceptance before God in Him. And He himself would come again. “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.” Ask ye of heaven? It is the presence of the Lord. For He is risen―risen from the dead. The glory shone upon the Mount of Olivet the Saviour passed from thence―passed through the heavens―yea, He ascended far above all heavens. And has He not left a blessing behind, ―even the promise of His coming to receive His people to himself? Shall we not cherish in our hearts so rich a legacy? Shall we not cling to this most blessed hope? Lord, deepen, strengthen it in all thy saints, for thy Name’s sake. Amen.

Influence.

IT must have been a startling thing for a serious, thinking man, accustomed to be looked up to as an authority in religious matters, to have heard that word addressed to him by the lips of Him who is truth itself― “Ye must be born again.”

Born again! It was a new idea. How could it be? We had not dreamed of it. Strictly observant of the forms and ceremonies, the institutions under which his forefathers had lived and died―knowing them, too, to have been divinely given― (for if the law was given by Moses, surely Jehovah was its author) ― how could he be wrong? Or how need aught but that which the law prescribed, or contained within itself? What could this new thing mean, this being born again, or from above? It lay beyond his ken altogether. And is it not the same with many now? “What is your Christian name?” asked one of a fellow traveler. “Names do not make us Christians, friend,” was the reply. Quite true, they do not. What does make a Christian, then? This new birth, surely. But how comes it? Whence comes it? The Scripture answers, Of water and the Spirit. Thrice is the Spirit named (10:5, 6, 8) ―the water once. The Holy Ghost, then, is the author of the second birth. But it is said, “Of water and the Spirit.” Is [then] water here to be understood as denoting the natural element? I think not. The Lord was speaking of a spiritual, heavenly birth. “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” It was His wont to use natural objects as emblems of spiritual things. “The words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life.” We have an instance in His conversation with the Samaritan woman: “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water.” Then, contrasting the two ― “Whosoever shall drink of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever shall drink of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” And again, in chapters 7, “If any men thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive. Thus much to show that water is used as a figure. But is it not used as a figure of the word in some places? “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” (John 15) “Christ also loved Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.” (Ephesians 5) If this be so―if water represents the word there will be no difficulty in shewing how this passage in the 3rd of John’s Gospel harmonizes fully with other Scriptures as to the means by which regeneration is produced. The Apostle James writes (chapters 1.), “Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth,”―and Peter (1 epis. 1), “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” How precious, then, the gospel of grace, as the means of eternal life to sinners! for it finds man a sinner, and addresses him as such, else why does he need regeneration? Christ, the Lord, brings this fully before Nicodemus. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

Here is the loving message of the God of love to a lost world; here the mighty lever by which poor souls are lifted up and drawn to God, ―the atoning work of His beloved Son. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God! And the change effected through the heartfelt reception of the Gospel by the power of the Holy Ghost, is as real as that which passed upon Creation when God said, “Let there be light, and there was light.” The formless void which earth presented when darkness was upon the face of the deep, and ere the Spirit of God had moved upon the face of the waters, is an apt image of the soul that knows not God, that knows not Christ, but

“Where the Lord has planted grace,

And made His glories known”―

where it can be said, “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, is He who hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ”―there is regeneration. There Is a new, a spiritual, a heavenly life, a life which cannot fail, ―which has its springs in God Himself; for He in whom the soul believes is life, ―life eternal. “God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.” (1 John 5) “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life.” Surely this is enough. He who is rich in mercy―He who is Lord over all, who is rich unto all that call upon Him―hath provided an abundant blessing, outside all the ruin of the fall. O that men were wise―that they would think of this―would look to Jesus and be saved! For God hath shined―hath revealed His glory in the face of Jesus Christ. Beholding this, the soul reposes in the enjoyment of a love that knows no end. Now indeed, through a glass, dimly, while the moms tabernacle clothes the spirit; but hereafter, face to face, in scenes of perfect light and holiness and peace and bliss.

Dublin Believers' Meetings.

Address of Mr. Code.

1 Thess. 4:13-18.

THIS is the great crisis that we wait for, ―the termination of a long-protracted course of God’s gracious dealings with this present evil age; and, as far as I may speak with any certainty, the only thing that delays this grand expectation and blessed hope to those who know the Lord Jesus Christ, is His waiting till His elect be gathered in unto Him. “Blindness in part is happened unto Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in, and so all Israel shall be saved;” i.e., Israel’s prospects are in abeyance till the full number of the Gentiles is completed who, along with the Jews that have been called constitute this body of which all who believe an members― members of Christ’s body, of His flesh, and of His bones. And as that event, at to its time, depends upon the completion of the number that are to constitute that body, God only knows the moment when what is declarer in that passage shall be fulfilled: “The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the cloud! to meet the Lord in the air.” And while out brother was speaking to us of the attractiveness of Christ crucified, my mind was carried on a step further to this our hope, when we shall be caught up, and caught up by the attraction of Jesus. Nobody whose creed, whose orthodox is uncertainty about their present salvation―nobody whose creed teaches them to depend in their dying moments upon the offices of a priest none such could ever consistently hold a doctrine that puts aside all human preparation, and take, us all up just as we are, as the Lord’s people. We must be safe, we must be spotless by atoning blood alone, we must be ready, in God’s account of us, in order that we might be partakers of that rapture into the air.

How good it is, beloved, that when we are saved our affections are under the influence of this everlastingly attractive object, ―the Cross “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me.” That meant the cross; the passage itself explain, it. “This He said signifying what death He should die.” He has been lifted up there, and now He is the attracting object in heaven.

It is to my heart a beautiful word He spoke, in the 14th of John, when He said, “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself.” Now, is not that happy? It is as if the Lord reckoned upon its being a delightful thing to everybody who knew Him that He should come, and not merely take us to heaven, but, as the sum and substance of blessing—as the climax of every step of glorious blessedness, receive us UNTO HIMSELF! Do you like that? Is that pleasant to you? Is that better than heaven to you? Is that better than a crown to you? Is that better than reigning in the kingdom to you? It is the best thing that could be given to us. And heaven will be nothing, and glory will be nothing, compared with JESUS. He is the glory of our glory, and the heaven of our heaven, Himself.

And oh, what a conquest is this, when we consider, beloved, how reluctant we are to have anything to do with Him! How constantly we find the tendency and propensity to forget and avoid Him. The carnal mind is enmity against God; but the blessed Jesus performs such a conquest as to attract this mighty multitude that will go up to Him; with not a reluctant heart, every one attracted to Him, every one running in to Him with joy and gladness; not a single thing in them that would withdraw them from Him, but everything in them that will respond to, and sympathize with, that mighty Magnet,—the loving bosom of Jesus Christ. And how blessed for Jesus, when He comes in the air, and waits for all those He has loved, and whose affections He has died to win, how blessed for Him to stand there and receive them unto Himself! And what a smile of joy, what a beam of brightness, will be in His countenance when we see Him! Oh, the blessed happiness of Jesus, when He gathers us all around Him, ―when we flock around Him as the center He has become to us! How blessed is this!

There is a little incident recorded in the last chapter of John, which is a happy illustration of the attractive power of the Lord Jesus. There was Peter, who had denied the Lord Jesus. In the interval between Christ’s resurrection and ascension, he had returned to his nets, although Jesus had called him to be a fisher of men. That night he caught nothing. In the morning Jesus stood upon the shore, and as soon as Peter knew it was the Lord, he girt his coat about him and cast himself into the sea to go to Jesus. He had again been to blame by returning to fishing, besides his previous shameful denial: yet the moment he knew it was the Lord, he thought not of his sin, nor of himself; every thought of self or sin is overcome, and vanishes before the engrossing charm of His most blessed presence. We don’t think of our sins when we see the love of Christ. Here was a mighty conquest. He attracted to Himself the man that before all had three times denied that he knew Him!

What a word is this in Thessalonians! It is said, “We shall be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air.” There are two things in connection with this being caught up: we shall see God; we shall see in the Man Christ Jesus the image of the invisible God. There is an object to put out the glory and attraction of every other object in our eyes, the one Man Christ Jesus. And then we shall be caught up to the Father’s house. The blessed Son of the living God comes down to the air and draws us up to Himself, and then takes us to our Father’s house, our home. And that is what every man is seeking after in this world―a peaceful home a permanent rest―but never gets it. But God will give it to us, a peaceful, happy home; nothing to disturb, nothing to mar that peace, with all the blessing that the God who gave His Son for us can give us.

But these two words, “Caught up together.” We are to be caught up. How? Separated. Our brother has spoken of the separating power of the Gospel. Here is what we expect, ―the separating power of Hope. You who believe in this truth expect to be caught up, caught up out of the world, caught up from your friends and relatives, caught up from every association that would bind you here, caught up from everything. How would you like that? Would you like to be caught up now out of the world? Are you ready now? It is a separating principle, and should mark every step of our way now. It is separating; it is also uniting: separating from the world, uniting to one another. We are not only all caught up, but we are all caught up together. This hope must therefore, while separating from the world, unite to one another; for we shall have no independent place. The saints in Thessalonica were in difficulty in reference to the saints who had fallen asleep. The apostle tells them, “We shall be caught up together.” Herein you see there is a bond of union between saint and saint. How separating from the work this is! The very thing that unites us to each other separates us from the world; and the very thing that binds us to the world separates us from one another. Nothing will separate you from the world like this hope.

Well, it is necessary, therefore, for us to consider, beloved brethren, whether our circumstances in the world help or hinder us in this our expectation. It may appear a trifle, but there is a meaning in this, that the Lord Jesus Christ, when He ascended up, He did not ascend out of the heart of Jerusalem; He might have done it if He pleased; but He led them out as far as Bethany, and from Bethany, outside Jerusalem, He ascended. And surely, we are told to “go forth unto Him without the camp, hearing His reproach; for here we have no continuing city.”

And now, beloved, I put this question to you, in conclusion: Is Christ such an attractive object to your soul―not merely an attractive object whereby you are drawn to Him for life, and for forgiveness of your sins, but the attractive object that has put out every other light, the attractive object that has captivated your heart, and taken your affections from every other object? Oh! beloved, we shall be caught up to be in God’s home, to be “forever with the Lord;” not a transient season of joy, but to be “forever” with the Lord; not a consciousness of His presence for a while, but “forever.” Oh, the power that is in God, oh, the attractiveness there is in Jesus, to satisfy the demands of millions of needy, hungering souls throughout eternity! The need, the unsatisfied hungering of poor souls in hell, is put in contrast with the blessed fullness and power of God to satisfy every desire of our hearts! What confidence He must have in His own power, what confidence God must have in His resources, to make you happy! He binds you to His Son by the indissoluble tie of unity in life, so that if you are not happy, then Christ is not happy; that if for a moment in eternity you flag in the vivacity of your joy, then that moment Jesus’ joy will fail. But He is the source of eternal blessing, of unfailing streams of joy. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus!” Blessed be the Lord, we shall be soon taken away—soon be with the Lord! And though separated from those we love here, who are still in their sins, who are still in ignorance of Christ’s attractive power, the intenseness of the love of Christ in our hearts shall put away every painful consideration and reminiscence, and we shall be happy as eternity is long. Oh, that we might live, and if need be, die, for the salvation of sinners!

"I Keep Under My Body."

I WAS one day visiting a gaol, and had been I having long and deeply interesting conversations, in the company of a lady, with the inmates, when, towards three o’clock, we were fairly worn out with work, and we were leaving to get some luncheon, when, as we were going out, I asked the turnkey, a fine young man, “Had he got the great salvation?” He said, “No; but I have been very anxious about it since I was up at the meeting the other night; and the schoolmaster here would like to speak to you about it; and there is another of the officers who, I think, would like to see you.” “Get them in here,” I said, pointing to his sitting-room which was close by. “I will, sir,” he said, and away he went, whilst my friend and I sat down.

Well, I thought, I’m quite worn out, and how shall I be able to undertake such a phalanx of men? My friend said she was quite exhausted, and must go home. I felt so tired that I was on the point of going home too. Here, however, was an opportunity for keeping this body under subjection. There are many ways of doing this―here was one―and what matters if it suffers a little hunger when such a vast stake is at issue; and while I was thinking, in walked three of the finest young men I have ever, seen―intelligent, quiet, and thoughtful. I preached Christ to them, and one, more intelligent perhaps than the others, or rather more ingenious in his arguments to prove that he could do something with advantage to help in his own salvation, especially occupied the conversation.

The devil whispered to me, “Go home and get some luncheon, and then come back at them, you will be twice as strong.”

Perhaps I may not get such another chance, I thought, and went on, and so I kept my body under subjection.

“But, sir,” said one who had hitherto been very silent, “what am I to do with my sins which I commit after I have believed?”

“But,” said I, “do you believe in Jesus as your Saviour?” “I do, sir. I can trust in His blood, through that you have been saying to that other man.”

“Glory be to God,” I thought, “the Lord is using his servant. I shall not be a castaway on this occasion,” and one after another of those fine young men received Christ, and I got up soon after, not feeling hungry, strange to say, and shook hands with them―all three believers in Christ, renouncing all their good endeavors, and resting solely on the blood of Jesus.

This is about a year ago, and I heard the other day that their walk has since been a pattern to other believers.

Now, dear believers, do you understand what it is to keep your body under subjection, lest that by any means you should be a castaway; or, as the Greek has it, “disapproved of,” for service? I must keep this body under subjection if I mean to be used as a servant; and though I may be saved with very little, or even, possibly, with no service, yet “so as by fire” I can understand how Paul, who knew there was no condemnation against him, and therefore gloried in the service of God, kept his body under and brought it into subjection, lest that by any means when he had preached to others he himself should be cast aside as a servant.

Lord Jesus, Come!

“For yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry. — Heb. 10:37.

WITH longing hearts we cry

Lord Jesus, come!

O tarry not, but take

Thy pilgrims home.

The conflict rageth sore!

Struggling, we cry the more,

Lord Jesus, come!

Thou hear’st the cry ascend,

O Lord, how long?

All echo one note now,

All raise one song.

Yet still thy steps delay,

Though the church cries each day,

Lord Jesus, come!

We long and pant to meet

For perfect grace,

He whom our hearts do love―

To see His face.

This longing, Lord, is thine;

But love, strong and divine,

Still keeps thee back.

For there is work to do

Before thou come.

Souls of thy death to tell

Of their long home!

For them thou still doss wait,

E’en now thou’rt at the gate,

Yet stay in love.

Impart to us this love!

So teach us, Lord,

That we may wait thy time,

And speak thy word.

So that the watchman’s cry

As it ascends on high,

May plead for souls.

In love we now would say,

Lord, bring souls in!

O tarry till they’re saved

From death and sin;

And then, when all are thine,

Who’ll hear the call divine,

Sweet Jesus, come!

A. C. C.

Notes on the Book of Revelation.

Chapters 15, 16.

IN these two chapters we have another section of the book. It gives the account of the outpouring of the seven vials. Terrible judgments as they are, they are followed by the Lord himself coming in flaming fire. But as we have previously seen in the Apocalypse, so here, the heart is relieved from the sorrows of the out poured wrath of God, by a parenthetic announce went of a saved remnant standing in joy and blessing before the throne of God.

The fifteenth chapter opens by telling us, that John “saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven las plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.” It is sad to think that the awful doom which awaits men is so unheeded. God speak; once, yea, twice, but man perceiveth it not. We have traced the opening of the seven seals, and the sounding of the seven trumpets in all their various characters of judgment, and now the last acting’s of divine wrath, prior to the Lord taking everything into His own hands, are brought before us. It is the wrath of God in these chapters; the wrath of the Lamb will follow.

But before the prophet’s soul witnesses in the vision the long-deserved writhing’s of the profane his eye is drawn to the sea of glass before the throne of God. In the fourth chapter, we noticed “the sea of glass like unto crystal,” and unpeopled; but here it is mingled with fire, and occupied by them “that had gotten the victory over the beast, his image, and the number of his name.” They are seen standing upon the sea of glass, in the attitude of thanksgiving and rejoicing, having “harps of God;” all expressive of marvelous deliverance and victory They had known the deep sorrow and distress of the time of Jacob’s trouble, and they got victory over the beast, not by an arm of flesh, but by faith; and though by death they lost the place of blessing on the earth, they found it more than made up by a place of resurrection joy and gladness given them before the throne of God.

Who are the people here spoken of? Let their own utterances tell us. They do not sing the new song of the fifth chapter, or the song of the seventh chapter; neither are they described as coming out of every nation, as we find there; but they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb. It is a song of redemption, both by power and by blood; but why the song of Moses? Is it not to shew us that the singers are on Old Testament ground, in other words pious Jews, faithful to Moses’ law, and hoping for the kingdom to be set up? Are not these people a remnant―the saints described by Daniel (7:21), and which we saw suffering under the beast in the thirteenth chapter of the Apocalypse? Their song, too, seems in harmony with the spirit of the remnant often brought before us in the psalms, as speaking of the judgment and power of God, which would subdue all nations to himself. This song is, in principle, much like the song of Moses brought before us in the book of Exodus. They say, “Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are thy ways, thou King of nations! (Margin.) Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name; for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.” The difference between this utterance and the new song of the fifth chapter is most striking, so that it is impossible to identify them. The whole company stands before us as another witness of the faithfulness of God to those who, in any dispensation, make God and the Lamb their refuge, and thus find shelter from impending wrath. The 20th chapter shows us those who thus get the victory over the beast and his image in the first resurrection. (10:4, 5.) Before closing our remarks on this portion, it may be well to say that the marginal reading, “king of nations,” is preferable to “king of saints,” because the Scripture nowhere teaches that Christ stands to us in the relationship of king. It is true that He is Lord of all; but our hope is to share His throne with Him, instead, of being reigned over by Him as King of kings, and Lord of lords.

The Seven Vials.

After this, the Seer looked, and “behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened,” and the whole scene is expressive of wrath coming out from the sanctuary of God. There is not a cheering ray. The whole temple is filled with smoke; for the seven angels are charged with the seven last plagues, and are sent forth to execute on guilty man the wrath of God. How very solemn! Happy those who now, while the gospel is preached, heed the warning, and flee from the wrath to come, by taking refuge in the precious blood of the Son of God. The time will come when it will be too late. With many, we fear, the hardening process is going on, which will increase till they deny the only Lord God, both as the Creator of the universe and Redeemer of His people. Praise God that the gospel of the grace of God is still preached, the arms of pardoning mercy are still opened wide, and that God is the Saviour and everlasting Friend and Father of all who believe on the Lord Jesus. Blessed be God, at this moment we can say―

“Great grace there is for sinners great,

Rich grace for those who’re poor,

Almighty grace to keep the weak,

Come ye, and test its power.

Infinite grace for finite worms,

O Lord, how good Thou art

Unto poor sinners who are vile!

Sweet Jesus, take my heart.”

We should notice, that one of the four living creatures is here seen again acting apart from the elders, and doing that which seems very unlike the business of sinners saved by grace, namely, giving the angels the vials of wrath to discharge on the men who had the mark of the beast, &c. I am aware that some dear servants of the Lord have considered the living creatures to be the Church, but this does not seem to me capable of being established, for reasons assigned when considering the 4th and 5th chapters. But those who do hold that the living creatures are the Church, are bound to admit that the saints are caught up to heaven before the great tribulation, because here we see one of the living creatures in heaven engaged in giving the angels vials of wrath to pour out on men, the worshippers of the beast and his image on earth. “One of the four living creatures gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth forever and ever. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from His power: and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.” (verses 7,8; see chapter 16:2.)

The First Vial.

The solemn moment will come when the command will be given, and the vials be poured out. To the seven angels it will be said, “Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.” (chapter 16:1.) This series of judgments evidently begin after the beast has been fully manifested, and his image set up; for the first vial is poured out on those who are connected with the abomination of desolation. “The first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.” (verse 2.)

The Second Vial.

In the outpouring of the vials, we do not find their effect limited to a third part, or a fourth part, as the trumpets and seals were; and the character of the judgments not only is more severe, but more extensive. If the Apocalyptic judgments have a special bearing on the nations where the light of the gospel and outward privileges have so abounded, now they are giver up in a thoroughly apostate state to the fury of God. The second vial is poured on the sea bringing death on everything. “The second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.” (verse 3.)

The Third Vial.

The rivers and fountains now become blood and the angel of the waters acknowledges till just retribution of God upon men in thus executing judgment. “Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and vast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy. And I heard (not another out of, but) the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.” (verses 4-7.) How little do men think that God will act in retributive justice! How awful is the thought that men, with all their boastful cries of “improvement” and “progress,” are hurrying on to the time of God’s anger! But so it is. He will yet arise, and require all the righteous blood that has been shed, and avenge His own elect. Again, we are forcibly reminded of the safety of those who are sheltered by the precious blood of Christ.

The Fourth Vial.

Men are burned (margin) with a great heat, and blaspheme the name of God. There is a remarkable similarity in the spheres of judgment in the first four trumpets and vials―the earth, sea, rivers, fountains, and sun being smitten in each; the vials, as before noticed, being more extensive and severe. And as we saw in former judgments, so it is recorded now, that instead of these things leading men to repent, it brings out horrible blasphemy. How bad is the human heart! How oft should the believer’s cry to God be―

“Take Thou my heart, and lot it be

Forever closed to all but Thee!”

How strikingly in the Apocalyptic judgments we see that terror and judgment harden instead of soften the human heart; as here again, in the midst of their sufferings, “they blasphemed the name of God, who had power over these plagues, and they repented not to give Him glory.” (verse 9.)

The Fifth Vial.

This outpouring of God’s wrath is directed to the seat of the beast. As in the days of Pharaoh the people suffered for some time while the wicked king went free, so now those who worship the beast have the vengeance of God executed upon them, while the judgment of the beast is postponed till the Lord himself comes to cast him alive into the lake of fire. This will be a time of terror, suffering, and distress. The kingdom of the beast will be full of darkness, and men will gnaw their tongues for pain. Surely this very earth shall witness many at that time weeping, and wailing, and gnashing their teeth. It would seem as if the darkness and torment of hell had overtaken men on earth, so terrible will be the outpoured wrath of God. But what effect will it have? Will these judgments break men’s hearts, and subdue them to the living God? Ah, no. We are told here again, that “men blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, ant repented not of their deeds.” (verse 11.)

The Sixth Vial.

The first point noticed here is that it is pourer “upon the great river Euphrates, and the water thereof is dried up, so that the way of till kings (not of, but) from the east might be prepared;” that is, that the present barrier to the kings of the east mingling with the wester! powers should be removed, and thus the great gathering of kings and people for their fine overthrow might be accomplished. The rive Euphrates, which formed the eastern bounder: of the land of Canaan, is a deep and wide river about 1,500 miles in length, and in some places nearly a mile in breadth; so that we can easily see what a barrier it must be to the free passage of persons across it. This, however, is to be removed in God’s time of wrath, and the spirit of gathering together and centralizing, now so rapidly growing, will, with special help from Satan and his allies, speedily bring about the awful crisis.

John tells us that he saw “three unclean spirit like frogs” acting upon the kings of the earth, and the whole world―the whole habitable world―to gather them together to the great day of God Almighty. This power is Satanic. The unclean spirits come “out of the mouth of ail dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, am out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles,” &c. Like frogs silently lurk about in hidden places unperceived, so are these, and overcome by the miraculous signs and lying wonders whirl they accomplish, and gather men to the great battle. It is said that “He gathered them together,” and in the 14th verse “they gatherer them;” that is, that though Satan be the instrument, it is to carry out God’s purpose and counsel so that it may be truly said that “He gatherer them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.” (verse 16.) Men little think what Satan is doing by the confederacies of thy day. Is it possible that the fraternizing of nations, and the various minor association among men can be already the beginning of this great and awful gathering together? The question is, What is man’s object now? Is it self or Christ? Satan is ever opposed to Christ, am acts on man’s selfishness. The world, too, lied in the wicked one. How solemn it is that till dragon (Satan), the beast (the Roman earth) and the false prophet (the antichrist), give birth to these three unclean spirits like frogs, and that they gather men together.

It is remarkable that, as we noticed between the sixth and seventh seal, and the sixth and seventh trumpet, so between the sixth and seventh vial, a parenthesis occurs. It announces the Lord coming as a thief in judgment, ―the day of the Lord, ―when we shall come out of heaven with Him. (See chapters 19:11-14.) He says, “Behold I come as a thief.” Christ will suddenly come upon this world as a thief. “The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” But we know that He will not come to us as a thief. “Ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.” (1 Thessalonians 5:2, 4.) But while judgment is threatened, there seems also to be a gleam of mercy rejoicing against judgment. (verse 15.) It intimates that a remnant will be watching for the Messiah, (and we gather from other scriptures that such will be the case,) and others are spoken of as having the shame of their nakedness made manifest. “Behold I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.” (verse 15.)

The Seventh Vial.

This vial is poured into the air, then a voice out of heaven utters, “It is done,” and many terrible things follow. The great city― Babylon―(see chapter 14:8; 18:10) is divided into three parts. The cities of the nations fall. Great Babylon, too, now comes into remembrance before God, to receive the cup of the fierceness of His wrath. God shakes terribly the earth. Every island flees away, and the mountains are not found. A great hail falls upon men out of heaven; every stone about the weight of a talent; and here again we are told that men blasphemed God because of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great. (verse 17.21.)

As we saw in connection with the opening of the seventh seal, and sounding of the seventh trumpet, the temple of heaven brought before us, and voices, and thundering’s, and an earthquake, so now “there came a great voice out of the temple,.... and there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings, and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.” This I believe takes us to the time of the personal coming of the Lord Jesus in the clouds of heaven with great power and glory―the great day of the wrath of the Lamb.

In the Revelation we see John’s feelings moved in various ways. He falls dead in chapter 1; he weeps much in chapter 5; he wonders with great admiration in chapter 17; and forgets himself with joy, and worships an angel in chapter 19 and 22.

"He That Speaketh Lies Shall Perish."

“A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall not escape. Many will intreat the favor of the prince: and every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts ... .A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shalt perish.”―Proverbs 19:5, 6, 9.

THE greatest liar is he who makes God a liar, and there are many who so do and know it not. Consider, dear friend, whether this be your case or not. Remember, I do not judge you. I judge myself, and ask you to judge yourself. It you die a liar (whether you know and own it or no) your portion will be the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone. Ah, poor sinners, see the warning― “He that speaketh lies shall not escape.” See the punishment― “Shall perish.” Do you believe that God gave His Son, that “whomsoever believeth on Him shall not perish but have everlasting life?” Do you believe, that whosoever receives God’s Son, the Saviour, Jesus Christ the Lord, as a poor sinner, into his heart saying, God gave His Son, and I receive Him, has eternal life? Do you believe what God says about it, that such as receive Him are children of God (John 1), sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty? Then, if you do not receive Him you reject Him; for there is no middle path. If you believe that the word of God is true, and yet reject the Saviour, and neglect the salvation let me ask you a plain question―Is not such a person worse than a liar? He believes that God gave His Son, and gives life eternal to them who receive Him, and yet he receives Him not. He who receives Him not, whatever they may say they believe of Him, they do not in the heart believe on Him; and “he that believeth not of Him hath not life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.” With His Son, God gives life eternal. If you receive life eternal, and Christ, who is the life eternal, you are no longer at enmity will God; and we beseech you, in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. Believe in God’s Son, and you are reconciled to God by the death of His Son―you no longer make God a liar. You believe in your heart that God gave His Son, the Saviour, to be received by sinners. You are no longer an enemy to God, as all are by nature, but you are reconciled by the blood of the cross. Now, you see above that it is written, “Every man is a friend to Him that giveth gifts.” Are you a friend to God, who gave His Son, and lift eternal with Him, to all that receive Him? Do you show by your ways that you are a friend to God? Would you not show yourself friendly to a man that would give you bread, clothing, ant money if you were poor, hungry, and naked? and if the prince were to come to your house and gave you leave to entreat his favor, would you not be glad to do so? Now, we beseech you, in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. Receive the gift of God―eternal life. See how poor you are, how naked in God’s sight, and receive with Christ durable, unsearchable riches, ―the garment of salvation, the bread of life. We entreat you, care not so much for bread and clothing (good as these are for the body) as for the bread that came down from heaven, the true bread from heaven, the living bread, the bread of God, which gives life eternal to the world. What! care more for silver, and gold, and food, and raiment, than for present peace and eternal life? Are you so sinful and so foolish as to care more for the shadow than the substance? for that which perishes than for that which endures? Receive Christ. Receive forgiveness of sins. Receive life, and peace, and rest. Be not an enemy but a friend to God, the greatest Giver of the best gifts. Reader, are you a poor, needy sinner? Then be a friend to Him that giveth gifts.

Heart Yearnings.

MY Saviour, when I think of Thee,

Of all thy pain and love,

I do so long Thy face to see,

And reign with Thee above.

But, while on earth I here do stay,

I wish to do Thy will,

To walk with Thee from day to day,

And all Thy ways fulfill.

I long to be as Thou, Lord, art,

Meek, lowly, loving, mild,

In other’s pains to have a part,

As Thou did’st from a child.

I long to have a heart like Thine,

That feels our deepest woe,

That loves to see our faces shine,

And cheers us here below.

I long to have a hand like Thine,

Stretched out in love divine,

Saying, “Sinner, I would that thou wert mine,

So come and trust in Me.”

A. C. C.

Familiar Letters From a Father to His Children, on "The Times of the Gentiles."

No. 11.

MY DEAR CHILDREN―In my last letter, we left Alexander with Asia Minor in his power after the battle of the Granicus. I shall in this letter give you a very short account of his conquests and death. But before doing so, I wish you to admire the ways of God in the universal spread of the Greek language, which the sway of Alexander brought about. It was in this language that God intended to communicate the knowledge of His Son, through the writings of the New Testament, and so He disseminated it, by the conquests of Alexander, over the face of the earth. Fifty years later (about B.C. 277), the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek, and the Hebrew having fallen into disuse, this version was common in the time of our Saviour and of the Apostle Paul, and is often quoted by them. When you find, in reading treatises upon the Scripture, such a sentence as “the version of the LXX has such a reading,” you should know that it means this Greek translation of the Old Testament, which being supposed to be the work of some seventy learned men, these Roman equivalent numerals are used for the version.

Now there could not have been a more suitable language in which to express the simple, yet very deep and refined truths of the New Testament. It has a beautiful and delicate system of moods, voices, and tenses, capable of expressing the most minute shades of thought. The German is the only modern language which resembles it in its power of combining several ideas or uses of things in one word. In English, mostly, when we wish to give the meaning of a science in one word, we do it by combining two Greek words into an English one, as Geography, which means a description of the earth. Besides the elaborate system of verbs, it abounds in prepositions and particles, which give to its sentences great points and accuracy of meaning. We may humbly suppose, that one reason of the Greek poets and historians being preserved to us is, that, whilst the beauty of their style, and the range of their thoughts make it worth the while of the learned of this world to study them, when God may please to touch their hearts by His truth, they may bring their stores of Greek learning to elucidate and explain the Greek Testament. You must not mistake me, as if I wanted you to suppose that we cannot understand the truths of Scripture without knowing Greek; blessed be God, we have an excellent translation—a reflection of the original quite good enough to instruct us in the deepest truths: what I am rather aiming at, is to show that if we had one twice as good, it could not take the place of the original in the hands of a scholar capable of appreciating the delicate precision of the Greek language.

We may now return to Alexander. Let us not forget that his kingdom is figured under a he goat from the west (Daniel 8), a leopard (chapters 7), and the belly and thighs of brass of the great statue (chapters 2); and so these Greeks in history are called the brazen-coated Greeks. From the time of the battle of the Granicus, until Alexander’s death, was hardly twelve years. Having conquered the whole of Asia Minor, he had to prepare for a battle with Darius himself. This took place near the river Issue, in Cilicia, at the eastern extremity of Asia Minor, near the sea (B.C. 333). He obtained a memorable victory over Darius, who fled, leaving his wife, mother, and daughters in the conqueror’s hands. After this (B.C. 332), Alexander marched into Syria, and the Tyrians refusing him admittance into Tyre, he laid siege to it, and after seven months took it (Sept. B.C. 332). It had previously stood a siege by Nebuchadnezzar of thirteen year, and its possession confirmed him in the rule of the sea, as Tyre was the great maritime power, and the richest city in the east. The taking of it finished his third campaign in Asia. It was about this time that his visit to Jerusalem, as mentioned in my last letter, took place. All Syria was now under his hand, and his next progress was into Egypt, which fell an easy prey to him, as the Egyptians had never willingly suffered the Persian yoke, although they had succumbed to it for nearly two hundred years. His capabilities as a statesman were here shown in the founding of Alexandria, a city which must always be the emporium of the trade, and the highway of communication between Europe and India. Returning to Tyre, he undertook his fourth campaign, which included the great battle of Arbela, where the Persian power was finally ruined. He crossed the Euphrates, and subsequently the Tigris, in search of Darius, who had marched from Babylon, and the two armies met near Arbela, in Assyria, on one of the last days of September B.C. 331; the Persian troops numbering one million of infantry, and thirty thousand cavalry, against forty thousand infantry, and seven thousand cavalry on the part of Alexander. The victory was decisive, and it is said that more than three hundred thousand Persians perished. It is remarkable, as showing the accuracy of the word of God, that these three battles of the Granicus, Issus, and Arbela, were each fought so near a river, that the Greeks had to cross one immediately previous, and Scripture says, “the ram (the emblem of Persia) was standing by the side of the river.” Alexander was only 25 years of age when the battle was fought. He advanced immediately to Babylon, where he was received with open arms. The city was fast sinking in wealth and importance, and the Euphrates was beginning by the bursting of its banks to convert the surrounding country into a marsh. His first care was to provide for the re-building of the temple of Belus, and he restored their revenues to the priests of the idol. No doubt it was his purpose eventually to make it the seat of empire, and to restore it to its ancient magnificence; but the sentence of God had gone forth, that Babylon should be “an astonishment and an hissing without an inhabitant:” and who was this or that monarch to counteract Him?

From Babylon, Alexander marched into Persia proper, through Susiana, and received the submission of Susa, one of the Persian capitals. The unused treasures of the empire had been accumulating there for years, and accordingly Alexander found 50,000 talents of silver in the citadel. It was here that Daniel “at Shushan in the palace” saw the vision described in chapter 8. Alexander now proceeded to the proper capital of Persia, viz., Persepolis, which he burned, and thus ended his fourth campaign. He next visited Ecbatana, the Median capital, and hearing that Darius had left it but a few days before with a small body of troops, he pursued him, and finally overtook him; but only to find his dead body, for the satraps by whom he was accompanied had mutinied, and wounded him, leaving him by the wayside; and when Alexander came up he was just dead. This assassination took place in July B.C. 330, and from thence we must date the fall of the empire.

I shall not attempt to follow any further the career of the conqueror, which is traced in every book of ancient history, but shall give you only in his own words the extent of his conquests, when his soldiers refused to proceed beyond the region of the present Punjaub. “Macedonians and allies” (said Alexander) “seeing that you do not follow me into danger with your usual alacrity, I have summoned you to this assembly, that either I may persuade you to go further, or you persuade me to turn back. If you have reason to complain of our former labors, or of me your leader, I have no more to say; but if by these labors we have acquired Ionia, the Hellespont, with Phrygia, Cappadocia, Papblagonia, Lydia, Caria, Lycia, Pamphlylia, Phœnicia, Egypt, Cyrenaica, part of Arabia, Cœlo, Syria, Mesopotamia, Babylon, Susiana, Persia, Media, and all the provinces governed by the Medea and Persians, and others never subject to them: if we have subdued the regions beyond the Caspian gates and Mount Caucasus, Hyrcania, Bactria, and the countries between Caucasus, the river Tanais, and the Hyrcanian sea: if we have driven the Scythians back into their deserts, and the Indus, the Hydaspes, the Acesines flow within our empire, why do you hesitate to pass the Hyphasis also, and add the nations beyond it to the Macedonian conquests?” But it was not to be so. The soldiers refused to follow him. At the age of 30. he had to turn back to the Hydaspes, where he built a fleet, and with a division of his army marching on either bank, fell down the Indus, and after unheard of difficulties and dangers, through hitherto untravelled routes, arrived both fleet and army safe in Persia, and eventually at the age of 32 returned to Babylon, where he died of fever at the age of 33. He was full of plans at the time for rebuilding and embellishing Babylon, and for the subjugation of Arabia, both contrary to the purposes of God. (Genesis 16:12, 25:18.) So he was taken away.

I shall now touch upon the character of Alexander’s government, for the purpose of showing that “the belly and thighs of brass,” by which it is symbolized in the statue, were inferior both to the gold of Nebuchadnezzar’s empire and to the silver of the Medo-Persian. We are to consider Alexander the Great as a kind of Confederate Chief―indeed, as such the States of Greece elected him for the invasion of Asia. He was a general in the midst of his fellows; and it was the marked superiority of his personal character, rather than any national predilections in favor of monarchy, or any hallowed prejudices attached to royalty, which gave him such immense power. Off the field of battle his generals were his boon companions. In short, his was a kind of military monarchy. The very reverse was the case with Persia. Everything in her history spews us that, irrespective of the character of the monarch, there was a reverential awe attached to his person, and he was surrounded with a state, which all belonged to this sacredness. It is true that at last it fell by the weight of the accumulated vices of the court; upon the other hand, Alexander’s monarchy fell to pieces at his death. It is evident that when he reached the climax of his power, he was desirous of amalgamating the two nations; for except in his ignorance of the mind of God, Alexander ever showed himself an excellent administrator, and a good judge of the motives which influence men. He early perceived that a handful of rude Macedonians could never govern his immense empire of Asia, so he encouraged intermarriages, and himself showed the example. He organized, too, a Persian army on Greek tactics, and bred up Persian youths in the arts and languages of Greece. He surrounded himself with the state of a Persian king, and adopted the loose dress of these monarchs, so as to appear to his subjects to be the genuine successor of Darius; but he never could persuade the Macedonians to yield to him those acts of prostration, which the potentates of Asia exacted from their subjects, and which were freely yielded to him by the Persians, and even the discussions on it were the fruitful causes of bitterness and alienation on the part of the Greeks. As a man he was capable of the strongest attachments, and his personal qualities were such as to endear him to all those by whom he was surrounded. His great faults were the almost unlimited habit of drinking, which was the cause indeed of his death, and in his later years, when prosperity had spoiled him, giving away to suspicion and immoderate anger. Arrian, his historian, sums up his character in the following words (I quote them as remarkably corroborative of Scripture): “There did not, as I believe, in that age exist the nation, the city, nor the individual, whom the name of Alexander had not reached. My own opinion, therefore, I will profess, that not without especial purpose of the Deity such a man was given to the world, to whom none has ever vet been equal.”―Your affectionate Father.

"Surely I Come Quickly."

Rev. 22:20.

JESUS only would I follow

Through this vale of death’s dark shadow;

Shadows dark, and paths of sorrow:

Saith the Lord, “Surely I come!”

Without sun no shadows, could be,

So gazing up, I wait to see

It shine o’erhead, ―then shadows flee!

Saith the Lord, “Surely I come!”

Shadow of my Lord’s rejection!

Shadow of a curs’d creation!

Shadow of the saints’ inaction!

Saith the Lord, “Surely I come!”

Ah! darkly now these cross the way,

When glory shines they’ll fade away,

And darkest night be turn’d today:

Saith the Lord, “Surely I come!”

O, Jesus is the glorious way!

My heart doth dance hearing Him say,

Fear not! shadows must flee away;

Still wait―I will surely come!

A. C. C.

Fragments.

THE glory of God is His goodness, His grace― it shines in the face of Jesus Christ. There is continuance in God’s ways of grace. Failure, alas, comes in, we break down and become troubled and exercised; but grace shines in again, and we hold up our heads and are glad, because we see that the failure has been anticipated, and the precious blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Thus we can rise from our despondency― our feeblemindedness―thus we can rejoice in the Lord. He it is that justifies us freely, by His own perfect grace. “By Him all that believe are justified from all things.” He has lived and died, and having risen again, is gone into heaven. His presence there is for His people. They are complete in Him. His work is finished. Nothing can be added to it―nothing taken from it―it is God’s perfect work for our salvation.

“The sense that we are nothing, makes us glad to forget ourselves, and then it is that Christ becomes everything to the soul.”

Extracts.

A LITTLE boy in Westminster, eight years of age, was bitten by a mad dog, and died of hydrophobia. Fatherless, ragged, and poor, yet he loved the Saviour, and was happy. At the foot of the bed stood the doctor, who, in a whisper, said to the anxious mother, “I fear your son cannot live much longer.” Faintly as they were uttered, the poor child caught the words, and instantly said, “I am glad to hear it, sir.” “Why, my little man?” inquired the doctor. With a beautiful smile, the poor boy answered, “Because, sir, I am going home.” For some time he conversed with his teacher about the peaceful mansions Christ had gone to prepare for those who love Him. And having affectionately bid his friends good-bye, he sweetly fell asleep in Jesus―went home.

IN a sweet spot in one of the Western States, lives little Annie Gale. Not long ago she was led to embrace Christ as her Saviour. The news of her conversion soon spread through the place. One day a friend called on her father, and said, “It’s all nonsense for your Annie to think she has been converted. She was just like a little angel always. I don’t believe in religion’s making her any better; she was good enough before. If Dan Hunter, now, could be turned round and made a Christian of, I’d believe in it.” Annie heard the conversation, and her heart beat with pity for poor Dan. She knew him to be one of the worst and vilest of characters. Impelled with love for his soul, she went to his wretched dwelling, and began to talk to him in tender tones about Jesus, and God’s love to the chief of sinners. After referring to her own conversion, she asked him if he was not a sinner, and if he did not need the same Saviour whom she had found. Poor old Dan’s heart was touched: he wept, he fell upon his face and cried, “Lord, ha’ mercy on the worst of sinners!” God heard that earnest, penitent cry, and Annie left the old man praising the mercy which could save a wretch like him. It was Dan’s business now to tell to all the story of God’s love. He would say, “It’s the same gospel, the very same gospel, that so blessed little Annie Gale. You wouldn’t think it could be, such a dreadful sinner as I’ve been; but the same good Lord who takes little children in His arms and blesses ‘em, saves the chief of sinners too. It’s true, Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.’”

Young believers, be encouraged by this narrative, and seek to win souls for Christ.

Faith Versus Feeling.

“IF I could only feel it,” as a young officer said to me, when I pressed on him that enough had been done on the cross to save his soul.

“You have not got to feel it,” I said; “yet may be saved without feeling. I believed in Christ for about a fortnight before I realized that I was saved, because I was waiting to feel it. At last I said, Well, if I don’t feel it until I find myself in heaven, I don’t care. God says, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” I believe in Christ. I used to believe in doing something myself, but I don’t now. I do believe and trust solely to Christ’s work on the cross for my salvation. Then I have everlasting life―God says it. ‘Do you feel it?’ whispered Satan. ‘No, I don’t!’ ‘Then you can’t have it!’ whispered that arch liar.

“It is written, ‘He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.’ I do believe in Christ, therefore I have everlasting life, whether I feel it or not. God says it. I am and must be right in believing Him, despite every feeling. I found I was safe, not because I felt it, but because God said it.”

“I declare I believe you are right,” said the young officer, who had been listening with the deepest attention. “I have all along been thinking that I had to bring good feelings to God before I could be saved.”

Reader, the devil has been misleading souls for near 6000 years, so he is an experienced foe, and no mean antagonist. Mayhap he has been misleading you. Don’t mind about your feelings, they are changeable things at the best, like quicksilver in stormy weather-sometimes up sometimes down.

You must make sure of two points only to secure perfect peace with God.

First, ―Is God perfectly and forever satisfied with me when He looks on the blood of Christ as a complete atonement and propitiation for my lifelong of sins? I am sure of it; for He Himself has “given the blood to make an atonement for the soul: for it is the blood that maketh at atonement for the soul.” I believe it: “The Blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin.” Very well. Secondly, ―Now listen: “All that believe are justified from all things.” (Acts 13:39.) “But I don’t feel that I am justified, therefore I can’t be justified,” you say. That’s the devil’s suggestion. Answer him with, “It is written,” God says you are justified, whether you feel it or not. Dear friend, Satan deceived me for a long time that way, so I thank God for allowing me to expose his artifices to others. I have rested now for upwards of four years simply on God’s word, without looking at my feelings. The more I do so, the more I like it. The more Satan turns me to my feelings, the less I like them.

If you simply believe in the blood of Christ as having made an atonement for all your sins, you are warranted in knowing that you are justified from all things, whether you feel it or not, just because God says so.

The Aged Infidel, and the Fitted Instrument.

SOME years ago, there lived at Ipswich an old man who kept a large stick handy to break the head of any person who dared to cross the threshold of his door. The clergyman of the parish in which this old infidel lived was himself an old man, but one who feared God, and mourned in secret over this unhappy old parishioner of his. Time was hurrying on, more than eighty years had passed since this old infidel was born, and really no man seemed to have the courage to visit him; but there lived in the same town a woman who, if she feared God, did not fear man much, and looking to the Lord to lead her, went just where she believed He would have her go, and, as people said, did in her own way a deal of good. To this person at length the good old clergyman spoke about the old infidel, told her just the state of the case, how he threatened the life of any parson, or Scripture reader, who ventured to come to his house, and then asked her if she would go. At first she was a little staggered, but soon recognized the application thus made to her as that which God would have her heed, and she consented to pay the dreaded old man a visit. Looking to Him whom she served for wisdom and courage, away she went. As she drew near to the old man’s house, there he was at his door with a broom in his hand! This rather made her quake; but on she went, looking unto Jesus. She was well known in the immediate neighborhood, as engaged in the very work this old man despised and hated, and presently the old man’s eye fell on her, and immediately he advances towards her, broom in hand! She hardly knew whether to advance or to retreat; but in a moment the old fellow began sweeping the path before her feet, backing towards his own door, and saying: “Ma’am, John the Baptist prepared the way for Christ, so I sweep the path before you.” Many of these infidels do, in their secret hearts, believe more than they allow themselves to acknowledge; indeed, for the most part, they believe too much for their peace of mind; they love sin, or rather their own way, and hate God who they think interferes with their happiness and prosperity, and so try to persuade themselves that there is no God, and read infidel publications to fortify themselves in their adopted infidelity. This perhaps may reach the eye of some bold-faced infidel who, if he were honest would yet own that there are moments when he questions much his own principles. Oh, it is a miserable thing for a Man to fight against God; for it is certain that He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hash ordained (Acts 17:31); that He will “brink every word into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil” (Eccles. 12:14); and, moreover, will overcome when He is judged! (Romans 3:4.) Only conceive man, guilty, puny man, bringing GOD to the bar of his little judgment-seat! Oh, how many there are who are practically doing this who yet would be sorry to be classed among the infidels!

Well, this good woman felt relieved by the way the old man accosted her, and said, “I was or my way to pay you a visit.” “Were you?” said he. “Come in, it is my birthday. I have been out to get a pot o’ beer, and you shall come and drink my health.” In she went, and sat down; and when the old man had also taken his seat, she said, “This is your birthday, is it not?” “Yes,” said he, “it is.” “Well, do you know,” said the lady, “that unless you are born again you will go to hell?” This was plain speaking and it told. The old man’s jaws dropped. HE seemed staggered for the first time in his life and after a moment asked what she meant. The lady found that the door was opened to her indeed, in more senses than one, and pressed or the poor old sinner his wretched condition. HE listened most attentively, and when she arose to depart requested her to come again.

The word of God had proved to be quick and powerful the foundations of the old man were destroyed and he felt miserable. Oh! what a mercy to have our refuges of lies swept away and to have torn from us, however rudely, the covering we have been weaving for ourselves. Very shortly after this the old man broke his leg, and then, while confined to his bed, he welcomed the visits of this servant of Christ, who directed him to Him who, when we were yet without strength, in due time died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6.) The details onward from this moment I do not remember; for I am speaking of that which the “elect lady” herself told me twenty years ago. I only call to mind in a general way, that on that sick bed he sought Him who is always found of them that do seek Him in truth: he sought Him who as a Shepherd had sought out this poor wandering sheep, and laid it on His shoulders rejoicing.

This story I relate as another instance of the kindness and love of God our Saviour. What love can match that love? What must be the value of that sacrifice for sin which can meet the case of one so long hardened in his heart against Jesus? O God! what has not sin done that it can steel men’s hearts against thy love, and lead them to spurn from them that only thing that can afford one moment’s solid peace even here?

What an instance, too, is this of God’s choice of the instruments He will use, link by link, unto the accomplishing His own kind and fixed purpose. It was the love of God shed abroad in the heart of the old clergyman that moved him to take such interest in one whom be felt that his own direct instrumentality could not reach; it was the secret but sure influence of God on his mind that directed him to the “elect lady” I speak of, as the most likely person to yet at this old sinner. Does not this story also show how God takes up so often the weak things of the world, and things which are despised, to confound the things which are mighty? and how, when He has a strange work to do, He can find the fitted instrument, the instrument indeed of His own fitting, who, going forth in His name, shall find the heart already prepared of God that God designs to bless. GOD it is who devised the means that His banished be not expelled from Him (2 Sam. 13:14); that means is the cross of Christ, the death of Christ upon the cross, the just for the unjust. God it is, as we have seen, who fits and fills the human instrument to thunder words that shall arouse the sleeper, and then to pour the oil and the wine into the wounded conscience. God it is who, by the Holy Ghost, reveals in the conscience the virtue of that precious, precious blood which cleanseth from all sin! so that the saved by grace through faith are forward to exclaim, “Of Him, through Him, to Him are all things.”

These lines may, perchance, meet the eye of one of the many who in these days spring at one leap into an easy profession. Well, I say nothing against sudden conversions; for if there is conversion to God, God’s hand must be in it, and it will then be effectual; and He can work suddenly as well as gradually. But when He does work He does convince of sin, in some more poignantly than in others, and then He gives no rest until He gives peace in believing, peace through the precious blood, purging the conscience thereby from dead works, henceforth to serve HIM. My dear friend, when and how was Christ revealed in you? If you are not born again you will ye to hell, as this faithful Christian lady said to the old scorner.

The Kilmarnock Blacksmith.

Abridged by T. W. M.

PHILIP SHARKEY was a blacksmith at Kilmarnock, a parish and town of Ayrshire, in Scotland. He had been educated as a Romanist. After he had grown to manhood he became an infidel in his opinions, and a profligate in his habits. To use his own words, he had been “for three and fifty years the devil’s honest servant.” His character may be guessed at from what one of his companions said to his biographer. “Ah!” he said, “I see through you; you want to convert me; but try your hand on Sharkey; he’s a merry one, and you won’t go without your answer from Phil.”

After two or three years’ effort to bring Philip Sharkey to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” for salvation, he one day said to the earnest minister, “Man, you make me miserable. Yet don’t speak to ither folk that way, do you?”

Shortly after this, God, in His sovereign mercy, plucked this poor sinner as a brand from the burning. One morning the minister found him in his workshop with opened mouth and enlarged heart praising Jesus, and asked, “Who was speaking to you, Philip?”

“There was nobody speaking to me at this time; but I’ll tell you’t a’. On Tuesday morning, after my breakfast, I took my Bible, and read a wee bittie o’ the third chapter o’ John. Weel, as I was reading there was an awful’ thoeht took a hand o’ me; it stanged me just like a bee, an’ put me that I couldna read only main. I saw that Nicodemus was a guid man, a saint beside me, and yet even he couldna be saved unless he was born again; and my conscience said to me, ‘What’ll come o’ a dyvour (a worthless fellow) like you?’ I kenned I had tried to be good and, though I hadna manged it yet, I expected to manage it some time; but to be born again born owre again, I had ne’er tried that. I had ne’er thocht o’ that ava’ (at all), and didna un derstan’ boo it was to be dune; and yet, unles I was born owre again, I couldna see the kingdom o’ God. I was dumbfoundered, an’ ha’ena mind whether I let the book fa’, or flung it frae me; but I got rid o’t, and geed out to shake aff the fear and trouble that it had brocht on me.

But it wouldna shake aff. ‘Hoots!’ said it’s a’ nonsense.’ But something in my heart Said, It’s no nonsense, but a’ true.’ I gaed into the smiddy, and began to work, and tried to Forget it; but no, it grew waur and waur, till I oulna bear’t. I never was in such a state in my life. If ever onybody had a taste o’ hell it was me on Tuesday, staunin’ wi’ the hammer in my haun before the studdy there, an’ the sweat breaking on me in perfect horror. There was hell opening it’s very mouth afore me, an’ there was I just ateppin’ into ‘t; an’ a’ that I had been loin’ for three and fifty years was only heapin’ up sin on my ain head. ‘Oh,’ said I, ‘if I never, never had been born!’ It was awfu’! I couldna bear’t; so I creepit doon on my knees in the Corner, owre among the coals there, (it’s a brave while since I was on my knees before,) and cried out for mercy.

“Weel, I believe I got it. When I was on my knees saying I dinna ken what, a strage licht filled my mind: I saw things clearer than ever I lid afore; na’, things I never saw afore. I had aye kent I was bad enough, and had aye ettled (intended) to be better some time; and though I had never managed it yet, I blamed mysel’ for no being earnest enough, and thocht that the neat time I tried I wad pit out a’ my pith (strength), Ind mak’ a richt reform. But I never saw till I was on my knees there that it was a’ far past that already; that, even though I could mak’ mysel’ better, I wouldna be a bit nearer the nark, for I was lost already, and a’ my strivings, reform or no reform, couldna alter that. But clang wi’ this I saw anither thing: that salvation was a’ settled tae for me by the Lord Jesus; hat afore ever I had sinned ava’, He Himsel’ had ta’en the sin, and suffered for the sin, and sae completely settled salvation for me, that naething was left for me to de but just thankfully to tak’ Him at His offer. Oh, man, hoo my meant grippet at it! and I rose filled wi wonner, that the Lord Jesus wad hae onything to de wi a creator like me. It’s wonnerfu’! but it is the blood of Christ that cleanses from all sin. If I was in hell afore, I hae been in heaven ever since. I never was happy till noo, an’ I believe that I hae never stoppet praying nicht nor day tin’ syne. I prayed a’ nicht yestreen in my dreams. But ye’ll no tell onybody.”

“What! Philip, are you ashamed of the Lord Jesus?”

“No; I was nane ashamed o’ Satan when I served him to my sin sorrow, and do you thin I’ll be ashamed o’ my Saviour? no, no; but to tell you the truth I’m no just sure that will staun’: wait a wee, an see. I have mony a time tried to be guid, but it hae wore off in a day or twa; an’ oh, if this should wear awa’ te! But I hope no, for I never felt onything like this: but I’m a puir weak creatur’, an’ if I canna de the cause ony guid I wadna like to de ‘t ony ill.”

But Philip could not keep the good news to himself. One day he asked, “Hoo comes it that folk pray sae different free what they used to do? Lang syne a’ prayer used to be the dullest thing I ever heard, but noo it’s a perfect treat.” The answer was, “The difference is less in the prayer than in yourself.”

Six weeks after his conversion Philip Sharkey took cold, and four months after that he died. During the whole of his illness he delighted in perusing the Bible. His favorite text was, “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.”

Not long before he died his wife said, “But, Philip, are you no fear’t to dee? I declare I’m fear’t when I think o’t.”

He replied, “No, Peggy, woman, what wad I be fear’t for frae a man that de’d for me?”

“But, Philip, have you never any trouble at all when you think about your sins?”

“No, I canna say I have: the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin, Ye see the view I tak’ o’t is this: God says it, and I just believe it. There are some men so true that I would actually lippen (trust) my soul to their words. Indeed, they micht be mista’en; and so I wadna like to stake my soul on their judgment; but I could at least lippen my soul to their truth. No, no they would not kenningly deceive a puir creatur’ to his eternal ruin. Weel, then, is the Lord Jesus waur than them? Ye ken He canna be mista’en; and is His word no to be trusted as weel at least as the best o’ men’s?” Here wet the rock on which Philip built― Christ’s blood and God’s word.

Another passage of Scripture to which he constantly referred was, “Thou art my hiding place.” “It’s wonderfu’! most wonderfu’! my hiding-place! mine! I used to hide free God, but noo I hide in Him. I used to be fear’t fot Him; and noo a’ my comfort is to be beside Him.”

His confidence never faltered. It was all based on free, full grace, through the precious blood of Christ. One evening a neighbor of his who was ailing in body, and also exercised about his soul, said to him, “Yes, Philip, I believe God is willing to forgive me; but you see I’m bound to be terribly scourged, I have been such a sinner.”

Philip’s reply was, “No, no, man, that won’t do. Nane o’ ye a’, ye ken, hae a richt to speak about sin an’ scourgin’ like me. But my comfort is that the Lord Jesus took a’ my sins, an’ was scourged Himsel’ for them eighteen hunner years since. It’s His scourgin’ gets them forgi’en to me. As for this illness o’ mine, I look on’t as God’s dealin’ wi’ me in love for my ain guid.”

Philip’s end drew nigh: it was perfect peace. The last time his friend saw him he was sorely distressed in body, but calm in soul. With great effort he gasped out, word by word, slowly and painfully, “When―ever―I breathe―my―last― here― I just― drap― drap― into― Christ’s―arms.” He clearly wished to say more, but could not. He took his hand, gave it a gentle squeeze, smiled with a happy smile, and glanced upwards. Shortly after he fell asleep in Jesus.

The Glories of the Lord Jesus.

An Extract.

“THERE is nothing more fruitful in glorious luminaries than the epistle to the Hebrews. It is an epistle of untold glories, and of inestimable value to the conscience of the awakened sinner. It is the title of my soul to breathe the atmosphere of heaven itself; and if I do not do so shall I put a cloud on my title because my experience is so poor?”

Did you ever present a little distinctly to your soul the glories that belong to the Lord Jesus? There are three forms of glory that attach to Him: moral glory, personal glory, and official glory. From the manger to the cross was the exhibition of His moral glories. In “these last days” the Lord is exhibiting some of His official glories, and by and by He will exhibit more of them, as in millennial times. The prophets of old spake of His sufferings, and the glories which should follow―not glory. But His personal glory is the foundation for every one of these. This is a grand subject for our constant meditation―the glories of the Lord Jesus, from the womb of the virgin to the throne of His millennial power. All through life He was exhibiting His moral glories. The scene for these is past now, and He has taken His seat in heaven; but that has only given Him an opportunity to display others. The four gospels give me a view of His moral glories here in the epistle to the Hebrews, I see Him seated in heaven now, in a constellation of official glories. In other writings we get His coming glories. Whenever you see Him, you cannot but see Him in the midst of a system of them. In chapter 9 and 10 you get what He was doing on the cross, the foundation of every one of His present glories. In the first eight chapters we get a varied display of the conditions of the Lord Jesus now in heaven; and now as the sustainer of all these in chapters 9 and 10, we have an account of the perfection of the Lord on the altar.

Do you ever make “these last days” a subject of thought? Why is the Spirit entitled to call the age through which we are passing “the last days?” We shall have other days after these? Why, then, does He call them the last days? Beautifully so―because God rests in what the Lord Jesus has accomplished, as thoroughly as He rested, at the close of creation, in the perfection of His own work. It is not that, in the unfolding of the economy of God, we shall not have other ages; yet in the face of that, the Spirit does not hesitate to call them the “last days.” In all the Lord has done He has satisfied God. He perfects everything He touches and makes it eternal, and God does not look beyond it. Everything is set aside till Christ it brought in, but there is no looking beyond Him― “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today and forever.” Now the moment I get God resting in anything I get perfection; and the moment I get perfection, I am in the last days. God hat reached satisfaction, and so have I. Christ may be unfolded in millennial days; but it is the very same Christ that we have now. Shall I get Moses then, or Joshua? They are all (treated in the light of Christ) “beggarly elements.” Al give place, one after another; but Christ being introduced to the thoughts of God, God rests it Him; and when you come to see where you are you are in God’s second sabbath―and see how one thing exceeds the other! The rest of the Redeemer is a much more blessed thing than the rest of the Creator. In Christ you have got perfection―the rest of God―and you are in the “last days.” Now when we come to chapter 9 and 10 we see Christ, not properly or characteristically in heaven, but on the altar. The glories that surround Him now have been given to us one after another―the glory of the priesthood―the glory of the Purger of our sins―the predestinated Heir of the world to come―the Apostle of Salvation―the Dispenser of the Covenant that never gathers age to itself―the Giver of the Eternal inheritance―these are the glories of “these last days.” In chapter 9:10 we see the cross that sustains them all. How blessed it is to track from Matthew to John a path of moral beauty. Was the Lord Jesus in office here? No; He was here in subjection. When I have looked at Him thus, I am invited to look upwards. Is it one traveling in moral beauty I see there? No, not that specially; but it is One who has been seated at the right hand of the Majesty with an oath, in the very midst of glorious beauties―One whom the satisfied unrepenting heart of God has seated there. It was the testing purpose of God that seated Adam in Eden. It is the unrepenting heart of God that has seated Christ in heaven.

And now we come to read the perfection of His work as Lamb of God―as the grand foundation of all these glories―He would not have perfected His moral glories here, if He had not gone on to the cross and died there. He would not have had His official glories in heaven if He had not gone on to the cross and died there. When the Lord Jesus was hanging as the Lamb of God upon the accursed tree, and over His bleeding brow was written the inscription in every language, “This is the King of the Jews,” they sought to blot it out; but God would not have it blotted out―He would have the whole creation know that the cross was the title to the kingdom. The inscription. The inscription that Pilate wrote on the cross, and God kept there, is very fine.

Supposing that the cross sustains the glory, according to the inscription, now tell me what sustains the cross itself. Is the cross without a foundation? The secret comes out in these chapters. As the cross sustains your hopes, it is the person that sustains the cross. His personal glory is the sustainment of the cross. If He were less than God manifest in the flesh, all He did was no more worth than water spilled upon the ground. Of all the mighty mystery of official, millennial, eternal glories, the cross is the support, and the person the support of the cross. He must sustain His own work, and His work must sustain everything. This is just the argument of these chapters. There was a vail hanging between the place where the priests ministered, and the mystic dwelling place of God. That vail was the expression, that that age gave a sinner no access to God. Were there not sacrifices? Yea, there were, and God’s altar was accepting them. But they were “gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience.” Beautifully, then, at this point, He comes to your heart, and demands a note of admiration. “For if the blood of bulls... sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”

Supposing we inspect the Old Tabernacle, and see the beggarliness of all its elements—that the blood of bulls could not bring you into the presence of God; and from the beggarliness of all that, look at the satisfyingness of the blood of Jesus, will you not exclaim, “How much more shall it not purge our consciences!” That is the way you are to come to the cross―laying doubting’s and questionings aside, and losing yourself in admiration. The thing the Spirit does is to take you gently by the hand, and lead you up to the altar at Calvary, and tell you who is the victim that is bleeding there. None but one who was personally free could say, “I come to do Thy will.” Have you any right to a will? Has Gabriel, or Michael? To do God’s pleasure is their business―but here was One who could offer Himself without spot to God. “How much more,” then, shall such a sacrifice purge our consciences, and introduce us at once to the living God? That entitled me to say, that while we look at His glories, His official glories, we see that the cross is the sustainment of them all. But if the soul does not know the personal glory of the Lord, it positively knows nothing. That is the secret you get here. He for whom God prepared a body, through the Eternal Spirit, satisfied the altar. Yes, satisfied the brazen altar, before He went into the sanctuary, to do the business of God’s Priest. And atonement flows from satisfaction. If I find out that Christ’s sacrifice has answered the cravings of the brazen altar, I see that my reconciliation is sealed and settled for eternity. The epistle to the Ephesians tells you to stand upon this, and look round about you, at the glories of your condition. The epistle to the Hebrews shews you the glories of Christ’s condition, in the compass of about 300 verses. What a world of wonders is opened! You sustained by what He has done; and what He has done sustained by what He is.”

J. G. B.

Clinging to the Rock.

SEE those shrubs and wild flowers, they grow among precipices and crags, but are in no danger because they cling to the rock. The little bird also seeketh safety by flying into the clefts of the rock. Sinners are perishing; but they may flee from destruction by fleeing to the Rock Christ Jesus. It is to this end that the Gospel addresses itself to sinners. You are a great sinner, then flee to the Rock; for you have need of a great salvation. You have multiplied transgressions: then flee to the Rock; for Jesus has promised to multiply pardons. You cannot repent: then flee to the Rock; for Jesus is exalted to give repentance and remission of sins. Yet have no faith: then flee to the Rock; for the Saviour is waiting to give you the faith you need.

As the shrubs are in no danger, though growing in dangerous places, because their roots cling to the rock, so believers are at all times secure because they cling to Christ by the roots of a living faith. The wild flowers are weak and fragile, but their support is strong. None are so weak as Christians, yet none are so secure, because they cling to the Rock of Ages. They we many dangers; the rushing flood passes by and over them; but they are safe, because the Rock to which they cling is everlasting, never to be moved.

The shrubs may be severed from the rock; but no believer shall ever be severed from the Rock Christ Jesus. Saints can never be separated from Jesus, to whom with a living faith they cling, because Jesus will never be separated from them. Their safety is wholly in the Rock to which they cling.

Unconverted sinner, thou canst not cling to Sinai; for its sides are hot with the wrath of God! Thou canst not stand on the precipice of a broken law, nor on the shifting sand of creature merit, nor on the quicksand of thine own resolutions, nor on the treacherous soil of thine own exertions, either present or future. Thy secret and thine open sins have made the ground slippery, and soon thou wilt slide down the precipice of damnation into the pit of hell if sovereign grace arrest thee not. May the Holy Spirit be pleased to lead thee to the rock of salvation, and enable thee to cling by faith to the finished atonement of Jesus. “Its only as thou clingest to the Rock of Ages that thou art safe from all danger. T. W. M.

Familiar Letters From a Father to His Children, on "The Times of the Gentiles."

No. 12.

MY DEAR CHILDREN, ―I have not said a word to you as yet about Rome, the capital of the fourth monarchy, to which in the course of history we are now coming. Remember that Alexander the Great died in the year 323 B.C., and that Rome was founded B.C. 753, so that she had been in existence more than 400 years, and, I may say, had become great, and yet had she never been interfered with by Alexander. It is said that once he had remonstrated with her by an embassy, concerning the piracies allowed upon her coasts, by which Greek commerce was molested, and there are some grounds for believing that, on the occasion of his last visit to Babylon, when he was waited upon by ambassadors from all the known potentates of the globe, those from Rome appeared amongst them; but nothing is known for certain. She had been engaged in making room for herself on the Italian peninsula, and Alexander had been ten years in the East, far away from the stage of European politics; and as to that Greece which he had quitted, only intent upon preserving his interests there. Rome had not yet come into contact with Greece, nor had she engaged in any strife outside of her own peninsula. Carthage, as a great maritime power, had been more the object of dislike to Alexander; but the, originally a colony from Tyre, had drawn off from any attempt to assist the mother city when attacked by him.

Rome had just finally conquered Latium, in her internal wars, when Alexander began his first military enterprises against the Illyrians, and his conquest of Thebes. She had as yet to conquer the Samnites, and a few nations which were still maintaining their independence in the Roman peninsula, before she acquired the sovereignty of all Italy. She had been for some time governed by magistrates, called consuls, and her internal organization was already complete, so far as that the functions and rights of each component in the state were defined; whilst the usual jealousy between these parties, as is common in civilized nations, had already been the occasion of proving what superior minds she had given birth to. Rome, therefore, was growing great, and was becoming ambitious, although the marvelous career of Alexander in the East, according to the purpose of God, drew all eyes to him. Thus in implicitly believing all that the Scripture has said about the universality of the existing monarchy, facts would be against us if we supposed that there was no other authority in existence. As the kingdom of Lydia apparently kept its independence in the time of Nebuchadnezzar so Rome was free and enlightened during the sway of Alexander. If the monarch of Lydia had confronted Nebuchadnezzar, or the legions of Rome had battled with Alexander, there can be no doubt that they must have succumbed Alexander’s empire, some years after his death was divided into four― “the beast had also foul heads.” (Daniel 7:6, 8:8.) The events connected with these four heads form some of flu most perplexing and entangled parts of our history. Before Rome had absorbed these four kingdoms into herself, a period had elapsed from firs to last of nearly 250 years. Now Daniel 2 and 7 make the fourth empire directly to succeed the third, without noticing the career of the four heads into which the third resolved itself, while Daniel 8 deals with these four (at all event, two of them), in order, no doubt, to show the connection which the Jews did and will yet have with two of the four kingdoms which arose on of Alexander’s empire. I must, therefore, touch upon what happened with these four divisions of Alexander’s vast empire after his decease, and show you how Rome absorbed them. Immediately after his death, division was made of thy empire among a great number of his generals; but only as viceroys to his half-brother Aridoeus, a person of weak intellect, on whom the crows devolved, with reserve to a son of Alexander’s expected to be born. But these ambitious men soon quarreled among themselves, and there was to master-mind nor central authority to control them. Fourteen years after Alexander’s death the last of his children was murdered, and then, when obedience was no longer claimed, even nominally, to the blood of the conqueror, they began each to assume the diadem for himself.

After a battle at Ipsus, in Phrygia (301 B.C.) between Antigonus, who wanted to assume universal authority, on the one hand, and Seleucus, Ptolemy, Cassander, and Lysimachus, four of Alexander’s great generals, on the other, the empire was divided among these four, and thus Daniel 11:4 came true― “His kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven, and not to his posterity, nor according to the dominion which he ruled; for its kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others resides those.” Two of these kingdoms, that of the north, Syria (the Seleucidæ), so called because it lay north of Judæa, and of the south, Egypt (the Ptolemies), because it lay south of it, occupy a prominent place in Daniel 11, as connected politically and geographically with the Jewish people (whom those kings alternately possessed and persecuted), and with a willful king (Daniel 11:36), who is to rise up in days not yet come to pass, and through his attack on them bring the judgment of God upon himself. The other two were Macedon, on the west, and Thrace and part of Asia Minor on the east. From Daniel 7:6 we find the third beast had four beads; we are not, therefore, permitted to begin the fourth or Roman empire till these heads are absorbed into it. As to Macedon, beginning with Cassander, the new kingdom existed about one hundred and thirty years, at which time the last king, having entered into a struggle with the Romans, graced a Roman triumph, and Macedon became a Roman province. The kingdom of Thrace, in the east, was eventually, with a capital at Pergamos (where afterward was one of the Apocalyptic churches), bequeathed by the last king to the Romans, and a praetor had his seat there.

With Egypt and Syria the case was different. Their history, until they fell into the hands of the Romans, is a more prolonged one, and interwoven on both sides with Jewish affairs, as I have already told you.

In Daniel 11, it would appear that, down to verse 20, we have the account of the wars between the Ptolemies and the Seleucidæ. At verse 21, Antiochus Epiphanes appears as king of the north. He is execrated in history as a tyrant and persecutor, especially of the Jews. His career is, perhaps, pursued to the last verse of the chapter, when he comes to his end. But inasmuch as in verse 31 a time of trouble is depicted in connection with “the abomination that maketh desolate,” which “abomination of desolation” is spoken of by the Lord (Matthew 24:15) long after the death of Antiochus, as a marked epoch of the latter days, it is impossible to doubt that this persecutor was only a type of someone else, and that the history rather dwells on that king of the north who is to arise in the latter days, during the time of “Jacob’s trouble.” (Jeremiah 30:7.) Hence we see why the kingdoms of the north and south are introduced as parts of the Grecian monarchy, because out of one of them―that is apparently, out of that part ruled over by the Seleucidæ―a mighty persecutor of the Jews is to arise. These kingdoms must, therefore, yet have a future existence, when it is a question of the Jews in the latter day. As to their past history or the time when they were absorbed into the Roman power, the following is a short account of Syria and Egypt. Syria flourished under the Seleucidæ, especially under Seleucus, the first king, who had a long reign, and built many cities. His successors carried on continual war: with the Ptolemies, to whom, in the partition of the empire, Palestine had been allotted, but which Seleucus had invaded and taken. Thu: it was a kind of battle-field for the contending parties, and it has been supposed that Dan. 11:1-21 relates the history of these wars until the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, whose history it taken up, but, as I said before, principally as a type of the destroyer of the last days. The ships of Chittim (verse 30) is the interference of a power from the west, that is Rome, in one of his attempts upon Egypt. It is an historical fact, and interesting as being the first account we have of the power of a people in the west of Europe, who were afterward to subjugate the world. Meanwhile the Jews, under the princes of the Maccabean family, asserted their independence against the tyranny of Antiochus Epiphanes, and maintained it for above 100 years, when they fell under the power of Pompey, the Roman general, who took Jerusalem B.C. 63, and ever afterward these kings received their investiture from the Romans. A year or two before this event, the Romans, under the same general, had conquered Syria. Three of the four kingdoms into which Alexander’s empire broke up have now been disposed of. The fourth―Egypt―during its existence, was better ruled, for the most part, than Syria. Its politics were interwoven with those of Syria, and the poor Jews suffered from both. The Ptolemies encouraged learning, and accumulated at Alexandria the largest library in the world, amounting, as some say, to 700,000 volumes―in manuscript, of course, as printing was not known; but the copying of manuscripts was then as regularly followed as an art, and for a livelihood, as printing is now. This library existed in great part until the time of the Mahometans, when one of their caliphs (A.D. 640) destroyed it, saying that, having the Koran―Mahomet’s religious book―every other learning was useless. The last kings of the Ptolemies degenerated. Civil dissension entered the palace. They became at first protected by the Romans; but on the death of the last queen (Cleopatra, B.C. 30, and 294 years after the decease of Alexander), Egypt was converted into a Roman province.

We have now arrived at the last, or Roman empire, ―the fourth beast of Daniel―the iron rule―a part of which we English people constitute, ―to which we belong. I will say a few words about the character of that people, which, during the time it preserved its original elements, stamped its impress on the world as it was conquering it. Its rise was from small beginnings. Their poets and romancers loved to trace their origin to Æneas, as he fled from Troy. In the very first germ of their history, we find a strong national or popular element, such as we never hear of in Babylon or Persia, if it ever existed in Greece; for in this country individuals might rise and become prominent in the state by an intellectual superiority, and thus introduce new forms of government or new eras of thought; but there never was in Greece that strong national or iron will, which, whilst in its native strength, before it became debased or mixed with clay, gave laws to the world. During the twelve years that Alexander had been attracting the eyes of the world to Asia, the Romans had been elbowing a place for themselves in the Italian peninsula. Although their city had been founded as early as 753 B.C., that is 150 years before Nebuchadnezzar, yet so small was its importance, that it made no figure in the world till after the death of Alexander. After a struggle of nearly five centuries, she became (about 266 B.C.) master of the whole of Italy. Then her foreign wars began. Sicily was first wrenched from the Carthaginians. This latter was the great maritime power of the day. Originally a colony from Tyre, settled on the north coast of Africa, near the present Tunis, she became gradually possessed of Sicily, Sardinia, and Spain, and had emporiums of trade all over the known world. Her internal policy was in contrast with that of the Romans. She did not give the right of citizenship to the inhabitants where she settled, nor identify them with her interests. As with the English in India, her armies were commanded and officered by Carthaginians, but it is doubtful whether they served in the ranks. A struggle had long been foreseen between the two powers, which came off in what have been termed the first, second, and third Punic wars. These wars lasted from B.C. 264 to B.C. 146. The second was carried on under the direction of Hannibal, one of the greatest generals which this world ever produced; but his single abilities were unable to cope with an united power like the Roman. May we remember our object whilst we read of the rise and fall of these empires, viz.; that history with God is only noticed where it connects with His Christ, and so with His earthly family the Jews.

Your affectionate Father,―.

The God Who Paid the Debt.

An African on the coast of Africa, who fell much concerned about his soul, applied in various directions for help, all which did no good. He was so distressed in his mind, that he went wandering about from place to place, without meeting anything to comfort him. One day, as he was sitting solitary on the beach, some English sailors came ashore to get water. As they were rolling the cask along, one of them heard the moaning’s of the poor African, and going up to him said, “Hallo, shipmate! what’s the matter with you?” The African began to tell his tale of woe, in broken language, but was hastily interrupted by the sailor exclaiming, “Oh, I see what’s the matter with you; you must go to England, and there you’ll hear of the Christian’s Ged who paid the debt.” These words were spoken in a careless manner; but they made a deep impression on the mind of the African, who determined to proceed to England.

He traveled a great many miles, until he came to an English settlement, where he got leave to work his passage over in a ship that was lying there. During the voyage he would frequently approach one sailor and another, and say, with great simplicity, in a plaintive tone, “Please massa, you tell me where Christian’s God, dal pay de debt?” The seamen, who, it appears were all irreligious, only laughed at him, and concluded he was mad. The ship arrived at London, and the African was put ashore at Waping. Having no money to receive, he wandered from street to street, and whenever he could catch a single passenger, he would stop and say in the most melancholy manner, “Please, massa you please tell poor African man where Christian’s God, dat pay de debt?” Some told him to go about his business, some gave him money, and others, supposing him to be deranged, passed on: but he met no one to answer his question.

In this manner he continued to stroll about, as devoid of comfort in England as in his own land and frequently would he steal down some by place, and give vent to his soul in accents like these: “Ah! me no hear of Christian’s God, dat pay de debt; me walk, walk, day, day, but me no hear. White man tell me in Africa, go to England, but me no find; me go back, me die here.” He saw some people on Sunday going into a large house, which he concluded was the temple of the Christian’s God; he followed them; he heard a sermon, but he heard nothing of Christ. It was all unintelligible to him, and he still remained the subject of despondency, and still went about mourning. A gentleman accidentally overheard him one day, while he was complaining to himself of his unsuccessful inquiry after the Christian’s God. He spoke to him, and directed him to go to such a place that evening, and there he would hear of the Christian’s God. He went, and heard a sermon by that gentleman on the suretyship of Christ, in which he described sin as a debt, and Christ as paying it, and the price He paid, even His own life’s blood; and that He was ascended up to heaven, and had sent him (the preacher) to say to all, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Long before he came to the close of his sermon, the Spirit of God had been pleased to touch the heart of the poor African, and to enlighten his mind. He started up in the pew, but without making a noise, and in a whispering tone was heard to say, while he clasped his hands together, and tears ran down his cheeks, “Me have found Him! me have found Him! the Christian’s God, dat pay de debt!” After the meeting, the minister had some further conversation with him, and was rejoiced at the state of his mind. An opportunity was afterward taken to send him to Africa.

Dear friends, do any of you know that you are sinners? Do you know that you have displeased God—disobeyed His commands, and forfeited His love and favor? Do you feel sin, like a heavy burden, resting upon your heart and conscience? Oh! go to Jesus; He made a full atonement for sin; and if you will only believe in Him, He will forgive all your sins, remove the burden, and cancel the debt, and you can then say:

“My sins on Christ were laid,

He bore the mighty load;

The ransom price He fully paid

In groans, and tears, and blood.”

"Praying for It for Twenty Years."

“ABOUT two years ago,” says a servant of Christ, “when I was coming out of the preaching service that had been held at the Victoria Theater, I saw an old man looking very unhappy. So I said, My friend, you are not happy. ‘No,’ he replied, ‘I am not.’ I added, ‘You are not saved.’ ‘No,’ said he; I have been praying for it for twenty years.’ What, I said, praying for it for twenty years! Let me tell you a story; for you remind me of the circumstance.”

“I saw a gentleman the other day who was paralyzed on one side, and was wheeled about in a Bath chair. As he was out one day, he saw a poor man sitting by the road side afflicted in till same manner, and calling out, Oh, for God’s, sake, give me a hapney! The rich man told his servant to wheel him over to the poor man He did so, and the gentleman held out half-a-crown to the beggar. But the man still kept crying out, Oh, for God’s sake, give me a hapney! He was blind. The gentleman said, Here, my good fellow, is half-a-crown for you. But the poor man was deaf, and still he kept calling out for a halfpenny. The servant wheeled till gentleman nearer, and at last he made the poor man hear, and then he thankfully took the half crown.”

“‘Now, my friend, this is just what you are about. God is offering you salvation as a free gift through the blood of Jesus, and you keep asking for it. ‘What!’ said he, interrupting me, ‘Can I have salvation without asking for it? Of course you can,’ I replied. ‘The gift of Got is eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. He that believeth on Him hath ever lasting life.’ ‘Oh, air, I see it all now. I am bound for glory!’ He went away rejoicing.”

My Father and Your Father.

IN John 20:17 you see the words, “My Father, my brethren, my Father, your Father, my God your God.” In Psalms 22 we get, “My God my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” The time was not very far distant between this time and when He appeared to Mary in this chapter and said, “I ascend to my God and your God.” In the same Psalm, verse 22, we find, “I will declare thy name unto my brethren.”

Now, it appears to me, that it is very important that we should be contemplating our relation to God if we would be fruit-bearing branches. Christ is not ashamed to call us brethren, and says, “My God and your God.” If we would have the branch flourish and bear fruit, the root must be, “My God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

If that is well considered, this will be, “My God, your God.”

In Philippians 4:19 we have another branch, with green leaf and fruit. Remember the root, “My God, my God,” and this is one of the branches. “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” These are all very simple words― “My God, my God,” “My God and your God,” “My God shall supply all your need.” But though the words are so simple we have read, we must remember smother simple word, “Then opened He their understanding.” We should grieve the Spirit of God unless we hearkened to that Spirit in us. Then we shall understand by the Spirit, “I will declare thy name unto my brethren.” “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

The Christian's Home Longing.

John 14.

TEACH that word of thine, O Jesus,

“I myself will come again;”

For its hope within now frees us,

Takes us off from care and pain:

Jesus teach us,

Thou who livest and wast slain.

Love and grief thy heart divided,

As thou saidst, “I go away;”

Telling what thou hadst provided

For the glad reunion day:

“Be not troubled!”

Still we seem to hear thee say.

For to you who have believed

I the Comforter will send;

You can never be bereaved,

Never know the want of friend:

He will guide you,

Dwelling in you to the end.

Precious, too, the word then given;

I for you a place prepare;

In my Father’s home in heaven

Many, many mansions are;

I have told you,

And will soon receive you there.

Blessed home! that home abiding―

Home where Jesus said He’d go;

Home where all His saints residing,

Will Himself unhindered know;

Home, how glorious!

Thither all our thoughts should flow.

Can we, such a home forgetting,

Live as though no promise were;

Earthly joys and griefs regretting,

Pressed with every constant care:

Home, the heavenly!

Let our love be always there.

Of the Comforter said Jesus,

That of me He loves to tell,

Tells us how the Father sees us,

Bids us on His love to dwell;

Blest reminder

Of the truth He knows so well.

Oh, what Spirit He has given

What a needed, perfect Guide!

While we wait the Lord from heaven,

We for whom the Lord hath died,

He is with us

While we in the waste abide.

Soon will fail you circling heaven,

Soon this time of absence flown,

Soon all freed from earth’s last leaven

Soon the Lord Himself will come―,

Come as promised,

Taking all His exiles home.

Notes on the Book of Revelation.

Chapter 17 Babylon.

THE latter chapters of the Book of Revelation bring before us some remarkable instruction in the way of contrast. It seems as if the lines that Satan pursued, and the acting’s of God, were here drawn together, to shew the just judgment upon men, the crushing of Satan, and the establishment of the kingdom and glory of God.

We have previously noticed the devil’s power of mimicry, his artful way of having something outwardly resembling what is of God, by which to accomplish his own evil purposes of dishonoring Christ, and deceiving the world. These things are very manifest in the closing scenes of this marvelous book, and they help us much in the understanding of things as they now are, as well as to what they are rapidly hastening.

In the 17th and 18th chapters, we have a woman and a city symbolically set before us; and in the following chapters we have also a woman and a city. The one filthy, and doomed to eternal destruction; the other holy, and having the glory of God. How unspeakably wide the contrast! Both these scenes were shown to John by an angel, perhaps the same angel, as the description is much the same in both instances. (Compare 17:1 with 21:9.) In the one he saw “the mother of harlots,” in the other “the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” To see the false and corrupt one, he had to go into the wilderness―the place outside God’s presence, her proper sphere; to behold the other, the Bride “dressed in beauty not her own,” he was carried into a great and high mountain, when he saw her descending out of heaven from God. But in both instances we are told that he was “in the spirit” in order to see these things. This is an important point to observe; for it teaches us that we need the Holy Ghost to perceive the workings and devices of Satan, as much as we do to discern the ways and purposes of God. How is it that many are in such ignorance of these things, and judge them matters of no importance? How is it that some persons, who are surrounded with corrupt Christianity, and often hearing of the beauty and glory of the co-heirs of Christ, yet seem never to perceive and grasp them as realities? Is it not because they are not shown them by the Holy Ghost? They may try to grasp them intellectually, and fail. Reason and argument are insufficient for apprehending spiritual mysteries. Babylon is called a mystery; Christ and the Church “the mystery.” God has now revealed them to us, and the revelations are to be received in all simplicity. For this, we need to be “in the Spirit.” These things were shown to John; the angel said, “Come hither. I will shew unto thee.” Let us never forget that the Spirit of truth, who guides into all truth, takes of the things of Christ, and shows them unto us, and it is by faith alone we receive God’s revelation, whether we can understand it or not.

As we have said, Satan is an imitator, so that there are similarities as well as contrasts. God has a bride, Satan has a harlot. God’s people are seated in the heavenlies, so we are repeatedly told that the woman sitteth; the former are raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, the latter sits upon the beast. The harlot is “arrayed” in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold, and precious stones and pearls; but to the bride was granted that she should be “arrayed” in fine linen, clean and white. The harlot holds a golden cup in her hand, to give drink to thirsty souls; but only to deceive and intoxicate―to act upon the senses, having no power to relieve a burdened heart and conscience. It is a bewitching cup. It is full of wine of fornication, making all drunk who take it, and drawing the affections from Christ. It is brim full of wine of filthiness and abomination. But, thank God, there is another cup which souls may drink―a cup of blessing, full of peace, and consolation, and joy for sin-sick, troubled souls; it is the cup of the Saviour’s blood, full of the love of God to sinners, which draws the heart to God, and keeps the heart for God. This “cup of blessing which we bless” cheers both God and man, fills the soul with joy and gladness, and restores the distrustful heart to happy confidence in God. It is the best wine, which makes the lips to speak (Song of Solomon 7:9); it makes the whole soul to enter into the unutterable sorrows of Jesus on the Cross, when “He poured out His soul unto death,” and separates the affections and desires unto God and Christ in the heaven lies, and therefore from this present evil world. It is

“The balm of life, the cure of woe,

The measure, and the pledge of love;

The sinner’s refuge here below,

The angels’ theme in heaven above.”

The harlot’s cup can only gratify the fleshly appetite for a passing moment, and ends in wailing and gnashing of teeth; it stands in widest contrast with the “living water” of the gospel, the pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, which proceedeth out of the throne of God, and of the Lamb.

The woman’s heart and desires are gratified with the kings of the earth; the inhabitants of the earth drink of her intoxicating cup; thus she receives a wide and popular patronage; but those who are with the Lamb are called (let us think of this), and chosen, and faithful. (verse 14.) Oneness of mind may characterize those who are in league with the harlot, as one mind and one judgment should characterize God’s children now; but her doom shall come, and she shall be utterly burned with fire, while the Bride shat shine in unutterable beauty and untreated light In pride and self-esteem, the harlot has long said “I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall set no sorrow,” while the Church is mourning the absence of her loving Lord; yet her judgment and eternal abasement shall quickly come. And while the Church of God now knows tribulation and suffering, and rejection for Christ’s sake, the wicked woman prospers in riches, successful commerce, and abundance of delicacies; yet suddenly―in one hour―shall God’s judgment overtake her; her mirth forever cease, her light be forever extinguished, and her dainty and goodly things forever depart from her. His name will be written in her forehead, “Mystery Babylon the great, the mother of harlots, and abominations in the earth.” But, alas! how unlike God’s loved ones! of whom it is promised, “They shall see His face, and His name shall be in their foreheads.” (chapter 22:4.)

We have already seen the fall of Babylon referred to, both in the 14th and 16th chapters in the 17th and 18th chapters we have detail: of her characteristics. She is presented under two symbols, a woman and a city, and they seem both needed, the one to shew us her principles, the other the results of her harlotry. In the Bride and the city in the following chapters we see the relationship of affection in which she stands to God and the Lamb, and her subsequent display in glory, having the glory of God.

Babylon means confusion―the cunning union of things divine and worldly; the lust of the eye, lust of the flesh, and pride of life, trafficking with the things of God. It therefore has both a religious and civil aspect. It is the old sin of Cain, with a false religion murdering his righteous brother, deliberately going out from tilt presence of God, and obtaining a place of ease, luxury, and influence in the earth. We do violence to truth to limit Babylon to Romanism. It abounds in Protestantism, and in fact everywhere wherever the name of Christ is used to sanction worldliness; or the truth of revelation used for worldly advancement, instead of for the glory of God. This is spiritual adultery; it is referred to by the apostle James when he says, “Ye adulterers, and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity will God? Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” (chapter 4:4.) This is very solemn and searching, and it behooves us to see well to it that we are spiritual, and not carnal, cleaving to the Lord himself with full purpose of heart, instead of to this present evil world. Paul was very watchful on this point in his care over the saints. He says, “I am jealous over you with godly jealousy; for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve, through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:2, 3.)

Babylon of the Apocalyse cannot be a literal city, because we are told that “in her was found the blood of all that were slain in the earth” (18:24); but it is religious corruption, which, like Babylon of old, often takes God’s people captive. It is a wide-spread system: man in the flesh taking up and corrupting the things of God, making himself or the world the object, instead of God’s glory; ensnaring the affections from God and Christ, and filling the mind with earthliness. It began very early in the world, and our Lord seemed to refer to it, when He said to the Pharisees, “Behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them ye shall scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.” (Matthew 23:34, 35.) Oh! beloved in the Lord, let us watch against the spirit of Babylon which surrounds us; it easily and plausibly insinuates itself. What harm is there, says one or another, in going here and there, and seeing this and that? Can you do it in obedience to our Lord? Is it not a temptation to take a sip out of the harlot’s intoxicating cup? Let us feed upon Christ; for His flesh is meat indeed, and His blood drink indeed: this will strengthen our faith and love, and make us abhor instead of taste the harlot’s cup.

“Redouble your precautions, O ye saints!―

Aware of the destroyer! Stop the gaps

Where, entering silently, he spoils the vines.

Be cautious! for your enemy is strong;

To sleepless malice adds perfected craft,

And spiteful certainty of shortening rule;

To know, if ye are Christ’s, your struggling souls

Resist a baffled and defeated foe.

‘Take ye these foes,’ who contrive the woe

Of God’s Jerusalem! expose their craft;

Seize your keen weapons, servants of the Lord,

And sword in hand, yea, in your armor, build

Her walls and fences that are broken down:

The weakest is made strong who cleaves to Christ.”

Those who have to do most with the blood have the greatest peace.

Wayside Incidents.

No. 1. Are You in the Right Road?

AS I was going from Hackney to London, the other day, a young lady stopped the omnibus and got in. After she had been seated some little time, she turned towards me, and said, “This bus is going to Hackney, is it not?” “No, my friend,” said I, “we have just come from there.” She at once stopped the conductor, and told him she had made a mistake, and of course got out. Another young woman, sitting opposite to me, said, “What a mistake, to be sure!” I said, “Yes, there are many who get into the wrong road for heaven, and don’t care about the right one.” She said there were. I felt that she was a sinner like myself, and needed salvation; so, looking to God for His help and guidance, I asked her, “Are your sins forgiven?” She said, “I hope so.” “But,” said I, “why do you hope? why are you not quite sure? There are many I fear who will never get to heaven, who say they hope their sins are forgiven. Now (I continued) I can say my sins are forgiven, because I believe what Jesus says, ‘The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth from all sin.’ Can’t you believe that too?” She did not reply, and I told her she would never know what real happiness was until she took God at His word, and then she might know for a certainty that all her sins were forgiven. “I know I never shall be really happy till then,” she replied. I said, “Well, now, Jesus says, ‘Whosoever believeth on me hath everlasting life.’ Can’t you believe that? And again, ‘And shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.’ Can you believe that? We are by nature dead; but Christ presents life to us all, as a free gift, if we will only accept it. Oh! don’t be found in the wrong road, but be in that which leads to glory and heaven, not that which leads to misery and hell.” As we both got out together, I gave her these scriptures, praying that God would bless them to her: “He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, Hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.” “The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth from all sin.”

Now, dear readers, which road are you in? Oh! don’t sit quietly, and never ask where you are going. Stop, I entreat you, ere it be too late, ―stop and receive Christ as your Saviour, or else you never will know happiness, peace, or pardon. The blood of Jesus Christ is the only thing that can or will cleanse you. Oh! take God at His word, and you are saved at once.

Don’t be like the young woman you have just been reading about, and hope your sins are forgiven, but be sure, and do not rest until you can say, “I know that Jesus has washed away all my sins in His precious blood, because ‘The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth from all sin.’”

The Love of God.

MR. NOTT, missionary in the South Sea Islands, was, on one occasion, reading a portion of the Gospel of John to a number of the natives. When he had finished the sixteenth verse of the third chapter, a native who had listened with avidity and joy to the words, interrupted him and said, “What words were those you read? What sounds were those I heard? Let me hear those words again!” Mr. Nott read again the verse― “God so loved,” &c., when the native rose from his seat, and said, “Is that true? Can that be true? God love the world, when the world not love Him! God so love the world, as to give His Son to die, that man might not die! Can that be true?” Mr. Nott again read the verse― “God so loved the world,” &c., and told him it was true, and that it was the message God had sent to them; and that whosoever believed in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The overwhelming feelings of the wondering native were too powerful for expression or restraint. He burst into tears, and retired to meditate in private on what he had heard. There is every reason to believe he afterward enjoyed the peace and happiness resulting from the love of God shed abroad in his heart.

Divine Teaching.

JEWELL observes― “As the Scriptures were written by the Spirit of God, so must they be expounded by the same; for without the Spirit we have neither ears to hear, nor eyes to see. It is the Spirit that opens, and no man shuts; the same shuts, and no man opens. The same Spirit prepared and opened the heart of Lydia, that she should give ear to and consider the things that were spoken by Paul. In respect of the Spirit, the prophet Isaiah says, ‘They shall be all taught of God.’”

“How is it,” says Mr. Cecil, “that some men labor in divine things night and day, but labor in vain? How is it that men can turn over the Bible from end to end, to support errors and heresies, absurdities and blasphemies? They take not the Spirit with the Word. A spiritual understanding must be given—a gracious perception―a right taste.”

If we are true to God, the world will be sure to cast us out.

The Dying Soldier and His Bible; Or, Prayer Heard.

An Extract.

IN the county of Kent there formerly lived a Christian minister and his wife, who took an active interest in the Sunday-school connected with the parish church. In this school was a boy, the only son of a widow, but who was notoriously wicked. He utterly contemned the admonitions of his Christian teachers, and despised their prayers; yet out of pity for his widowed mother, the clergyman kept him in the school, bore with his evil behavior for eighteen months, and sought by every means in his power to reclaim him. At length, however, be found it impossible to keep him any longer, and was compelled to dismiss him, as a warning to others. Left now to his own evil courses, and disgraced in the eyes of all who were acquainted with him, he only grew worse, and finally enlisted as a soldier. The regiment he was in was ordered to America, as these events occurred during the last American war, and the poor widowed mother saw her ungodly son no more. The infirmities of age, increased by sorrow, were telling upon her, and her days were drawing to a close. She was ready by grace to depart, her hope was in the ever blessed Saviour of sinners, through whose precious blood her sins were forgiven, and her only care now was her unhappy son. She had long prayed for him, and, bad as he was, she still counted upon Him with whom nothing shall be impossible. Well knowing by happy experience the power of the WORD, she resolved to send a pocket Bible as a farewell gift to her erring child; and hearing that a detachment of soldiers was about to follow that in which her own son was, she sought out a pious sergeant, and to him entrusted this, the gift of her faith and hope in the love and power of her precious Lord.

The sergeant, upon his arrival in America, found the widow’s son the very ringleader of the regiment in every description of vice. Taking a suitable opportunity, he introduced himself as the widow’s messenger, adding, solemnly, “James, your mother has sent her LAST present.”

“Ah!” he replied, in a careless manner, “is she gone at last? I hope she has sent me some cash.”

The sergeant replied that he believed the poor widow was now dead; “but,” said he, “she has sent you something of more value than gold and silver;” then producing the little Bible, he added, “James, it was your mother’s dying request that you would read one verse at least of this book every day. Can you refuse her dying charge?”

One would have expected that this last token of a mother’s love would have touched the heart of the prodigal; but he showed no other feeling than that of a too evident dislike, as, taking the book from the sergeant’s hands, he exclaimed in stone of bravado, “Well, it is not too much to ask; so here goes, to begin at once!” and opening the Bible carelessly, his eye fell upon the words, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He had doubtless found, as all such do find, that the way of transgressors is hard.” In spite of the air of indifference and even defiance which he had assumed, conscience was at work, and he was “heavy laden.” The hand of God was upon him; for never yet has the Father forgotten the promise of His dear Son to His own, “Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it you;” and He whose tender heart yearned in pity over the widow of Nain, when her only son lay dead upon the bier, “is the SAME yesterday, today, and forever.” This “only son of a widow” lay “dead in trespasses and sins,” but now “the hour” had come when this dead one should hear the voice of the Son of God and live.

As the bloodshot eye of this sinner fell upon the passage he exclaimed, in a startled voice, “Well, this is very odd! I have opened to the only verse in the whole Bible that I could ever commit to memory when I was in the Sunday-school. I could never for the life of me learn any other by heart. It is very strange.” Then, turning to the Christian sergeant, he asked, “But who is this ‘ME’ who speaks in this verse?” The passage was explained to an awakened ear, and the result was this great sinner’s conversion. From that hour he, who had been the ringleader in all manner of wickedness, became as noted for his Christian consistency and earnestness. The widow mother’s prayer was fully answered. But not long after the above conversation the regiment this man was in engaged the enemy. At the close of the engagement the pious sergeant, walking over the field of blood, came upon the dead body of James. There beneath a wide spreading tree, his head reclining on the little Bible, lay the widow’s son. On lifting the head of the dead man to get at the book the sergeant found it open at the words which had been used in his conversion: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Faithful to His gracious promise, the Saviour had given him “rest” from the moment he believed, and now, through blood, and fire, and death, he had entered into his eternal rest.

The widow was not long separated from her son. Parted for a little while in sorrow, and in seemingly eternal separation from her only child, yet supported by faith, whose eye can pierce the deepest gloom, and see the joy beyond, she now received him again truly “alive from the dead.” What a complete and most gracious answer to prayer! What encouragement to those who may be mourning over some unconverted child or relative! What a warning to those children of believing parents who may be resisting grace! This prodigal was saved, but his life of service was short―his reward cannot be great; and it was through fire, and blood, and pain, that he entered the rest he had so long despised. K.

Does God Love Good Children?

LITTLE Archie was in a terrible passion. He was not often so, and his gentle, loving mother was sorely puzzled. She wisely waited, however, till the childish temper was past, and then taking her little boy upon her knee she spoke to him, while he listened, with the teardrop still in his bright eye, and his little four-year-old face looking penitently up to hers. “Archie, Archie,” she said, “will you not try to be good? God cannot love my little boy when he is in a passion. God loves good children.”

“God loves good children.” I repeated the words to myself, as I sat in the room, and my heart grieved for the little one, and for many, many others. Why will Christian parents, men and women who know the Gospel in its simplicity and power, men and women who are praying, waiting, watching for the signs of spiritual life in the hearts of their children, why will they teach them such fallacies as these?

Christian mothers, did Jesus say to you, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance,” and does He say the opposite to your children? Does Satan not sow enough error in their little hearts that you must help him? Do you not find it hard enough to answer their doubts and questionings that you must add to them that sad misconception, “God does not love me because I am not good.” Do not say they are too young to understand these distinctions, that you will explain them as they grow older. Why not teach the truth at once? The earliest impressions are longest remembered. Only try how their little hearts will melt beneath the thought of a God who loves them even when they are naughty, of a Saviour who died for them even when they did not love Him. Only try it. Give them the true motive. Do not teach them to do right that God may love them, but because He does love them, and, God helping you, your children will live to thank God for mother who taught them not only in love but in truth. “God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8.) R. H. M.

"Mother, I'm Lost!"

“I DESIRE to thank you from my inmost soul for the trouble you have taken with me. But what shall I say to the Lord? Where shall I begin? I’m lost in wonder at the mercy God hath shown me―I who was so wicked―I the vilest of sinners, that at one time would rather have met the devil than you! How many times have I seen you coming, and have jumped over the hedge to escape from you? and not I only: there are many who were like me. But, with me, they can now no longer run away from you. I did so, for I could not bear to hear the words of Jesus; not that they were words of fear. But, somehow, those loving words did not just suit my wicked heart. The devil told me it was not for me. But I have since learned, ‘tis a lie. It was for me, though I did not deserve anything but hell. The hottest hell was my right, for I was ready to knock down anybody who told me about my soul.

My poor mother, after she was converted to God, spoke to me about it; but I told her, if she did not stop, I would floor her; and so I would have done to you, if I could, only I was afraid of you. I knew you were speaking the truth. I knew that it was all true, for the words went right into my soul, and I was wicked. I knew then that if I went right down to hell, it would be better than to have to look God in the face, after He had sent the Lord Jesus to save me.

But, at last, the word came that broke me down. I went home. For three days I was almost mad. I told my mother that I was lost. She fell on her knees and began to praise God for it, for she said, “Harry, you shall be saved. The devil shan’t have you, for Jesus came to save the lost.” So I got up. I took courage and went back to the meeting in the evening, and heard you preach again; and then, on the spot, I found Jesus; and though the devil roared and told me, ‘twas not for me, that I was lost; yet I stuck to the words, Jesus came “to seek and to save the lost.” I believed it then. I believe it now; and, by the help of the Lord, I’ll believe it for evermore. I know ‘tis true, and I am saved―yes, I believe it, saved through the blood of the Lamb. I’ll shout louder than any when I get home, for what Jesus has done for my soul. Hallelujah to Jesus! Praise God for so loving a poor hell-deserving sinner like me! Yes, I can sing―

‘The Lord has pardoned all my sin,

And now to praise Him I’ll begin,

And I’ll not stop forever.’

Yes, bless the Lord, I know I’m converted. I was converted 24th November, 1864. I’ll never forget that day, ―

‘When Jesus wash’d my sins away,

And sent me on rejoicing.’

Yes, I know I’m saved; and my master knows it. My horses and bullocks know it too, for they don’t get any kicks and curses now I give them kind, loving words. Jesus taught me how to love, by loving me, a poor hell-deserving sinner. So ‘tis no trouble for me to love now. I love every one now but the devil; and he knows I’m saved too, for he won’t let me alone. But, thanks be to God, Jesus delivered me from his power; and I hope I shall never wander away from Jesus. I hope to live for Jesus, that I may praise Jesus now and forever.”

Stand up for Jesus!

STAND up for Jesus! spread abroad His fame,

Publish the wonders of His matchless name;

Tell of the riches of His gracious word,

Point to His precious sin atoning blood.

CHORUS―Stand up for Jesus!

Work now for Jesus! work for Him alone,

Bought with a price, and therefore not your own,

Pray, work, and watch, constrained by His love,

And soon a crown you’ll wear in courts above.

Stand up for Jesus!

Fight now for Jesus! taking up the Cross,

Counting the world, and all its charms but dross:

Pursue the conflict, looking to your Lord,

In faith and prayer be strong, armed with His word.

Stand up for Jesus!

Wait still for Jesus! in “a little while”

He shall descend, and greet us with a smile,

Then all in Christ shall meet Him in the air,

With triumph to the Father’s house repair.

Stand up for Jesus!

H.H. S.

Earnestness.

THE late Rowland Hill, in once addressing the people at Wotton, raising himself exclaimed― “Because I am in earnest, men call me an enthusiast. When I first came into this part of the country, I was walking on yonder hill, and saw a gravel-pit fall in and bury three human beings alive. I lifted up my voice for help so loud that I was heard in the town below at a distance of nearly a mile. Help came, and rescued two of the sufferers. No one called me an enthusiast then; and when I see eternal destruction ready to fall on poor sinners, and about to entomb them irrecoverably in an eternal main of woe, and call aloud to them to escape, shall I be called an enthusiast now? No, sinner, I am not enthusiast in so doing; and I call on thee aloud to fly for refuge to the hope set before the in the Gospel of Christ Jesus.”

Fragments.

“WE do not wait for the kingdom to see glories.” Is it no glory for you to have a purged conscience? Is it no glory to be fully entitled to be in the presence of God without a blush? No glory to call God Father? to have Christ as your Forerunner in heavenly places? to enter into the holiest without a quiver of conscience? No glory to be introduced into the secrets of God? If we can lift up our heart, and cry, “Abba, Father;” if we can lift up our heart, and say, “Who shall condemn?” or “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” if we can believe that we are bone of His bone, and flesh of His flesh; that we are part of Christ’s fullness, will anyone say there is no glory in all that?

If it were told me that God had ordained for me, above all other men, that I should live upon the earth several thousand years in peace and happiness, and have all that the heart could desire, should not I say: “That cannot be God’s word; it is too much and too great. Who am I that God should give me this?” How much less dues it enter into man’s heart, that God should give such a treasure as His Son, and with Him eternal life and blessedness! Who can tell how great is its amount? ―Luther.

“Difficulties may come in; God may allow many things to arise to prove our weakness; but the simple path of obedience is to go on, not looking beforehand at what we have to do, but reckoning upon the help that we shall need and End when the time arrives.”

“It is not ‘much strength’ that is the question, but the thing we most want is greater conformity to the position of Christ.”

Life Eternal.

Notes of an Address by J. A. T.

John 17:1-3.

WE have read God’s word in these verses, dear friends, and indeed they are precious cords for us. Remarkable are the circumstances under which they were uttered; singling them out as it seems to me from all the other words of this blessed book, and making them stand alone in their surpassing interest for us. You see it is not God that in this place addresses us, neither is it Jesus speaking to His loved disciples. His words to them have closed with the last chapter. It is the Lord Jesus who speaks to His Father; His eyes, which had been upon His people around Him, are at this moment lifted up from them, and fixed upon heaven, as though He would withdraw himself from all that was going on around Him, and for a little shut himself in with the Father. He speaks to the Father as if none else were by, and you and I are admitted in wondrous privilege to hear His words.

Who amongst us has not his friends? The man after my own heart, to whom I can go, and in the perfect freedom and confidence of our friendship, open my heart, tell him all that touches me, assured of his interest and sympathy. There is no reserve or restraint in such moments as these, but our words are just the expression of whatever is uppermost in our thoughts, and then when Jesus holds converse with His Father, we expect to find Him speaking of that which was next His heart. But oh, what is the subject worthy of such a place as this! Listen! “Those whom thou hast given me,” are His often-repeated words. “The men whom thou gavest me out of the world.” Can you believe it? Yes, poor fellow-sinner of mine, we may believe it. We have received Jesus―we have believed on His name, we are numbered among those whom God has given Him, and this is how He loves us. Oh, read the glorious chapter again, and let your heart beat with joy to know that thus are you remembered before God by Jesus. It is not of Himself He is thinking now, though knowing full well the hours of suffering that were before Him, but of us, for whom He suffered all. Oh, blessed wards! have we not truly said that there is nothing like this in all God’s blessed book.

But listen, “Father, the hour is come;” what hour was that? it was that hour that had been in His thoughts all through eternity; it was the hour for which He was born in Bethlehem; that hour of which He spoke in John 12:27, in that half-suppressed cry. “What shall I say? Father, save me from this hour; but for this cause came I unto this hour.”

Upon the thought, “For this cause came I unto this hour.” That hour for which He had, steadfastly set His face towards Jerusalem. “He who knew no sin was made sin for us.” What a wonderful thought comes to us here! His mind was fixed upon that hour, that was forever to unite the sinner, upon whom He had set His heart, to himself― “Father, the hour is come: glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.” Jesus takes the place of having finished all for which He had come: “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” Having carried out the Father’s will, it only remained now for God to put His seal upon that work, and to raise Him from the dead and give Him glory. The thought next His heart when on earth was, the glory of the Father; and His brightest joy still is, that He will be the glory of the Father all through eternity. In His pierced hands and riven side God finds His greatest glory; God was offended because of sin upon earth. His love had for its object the redemption of the sinner, and the wounded hands and side of Jesus not only tell the love, but also the righteousness of God, who, while He would save the sinner, would not, COULD not overlook his sin, but demanded from His Son, when He took the sinner’s place, that death which was inseparably connected with sin as the judgment due to it; thus Jesus was and is to all eternity the manifestation of God’s glory. And God has “given Him power over all flesh.” He has power over every man, woman, and child here today. He has power in two ways, though it speaks here but of one. You will find both in John 5:21, 22, “The Son quickeneth whom He will, and the Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son.” These are the two powers God has committed into the hands of Jesus, the power to give life, and also the power of judgment. He came in humiliation to give life to sinners―generally, they have despised and rejected Him. God has indeed melted some of our hard hearts, and at last we have received Him as our Saviour, and in Him we have received life eternal. But, alas, there may be some here who reject Him still, and have never taken their place as poor perishing sinners at the foot of the Cross. Ah! the hour is coming when God will have Jesus honored; you have kept Him out of your whole lives, out of your pleasures, out of your society, out of your religion; but, the hour is coming when God will have Him honored, and if you will still reject the Saviour, you must be summoned before Him at judge, and receive your just sentence of eternal separation from God. Oh, that you would accept His salvation, and so never come into that fearful judgment. Jesus gives eternal life to His people. Mark the name ascribed to then here. “Those whom thou hast given me.” We can all understand a gift, it is that by which we oftentimes express affection for a friend; and the more costly we can make it, the more we think it expresses our love.

When God wanted to convey His love to a perishing world, it was as if He sought throughout heaven to find one gem more beautiful than another, the most costly to express His grew love with which He loved the sinner; but suet was the height and depth and length and breadth of that love which passeth knowledge, that no suitable gift was found till His eye rested upon the Sun of His love. His Jesus―His only begotten Son, all His love was centered upon Him, His joy was in Him throughout eternal ages; and yet He so loved the sinner, that He almost forgot the love wherewith He loved the Son, for we read, He spared not His own Son but gave Him up for us all. And some of tit have received that gift, the gift of God to the sinner―Jesus―the expression of God’s love to us.

But, secondly, God wanted to give something to Jesus. If you wanted a gift for a friend you would try and think of what he won’t value most; and when God sought a gift for His Son, He looked for something that He won’t like to have. He knew His mind, for He is one with Himself, and the gift that He chose for Him was one which He knew that He would like above all others.

Oh, my brother and sister in the Lord Jesus you and I are the gift which God has given Jesus. We are now His portion, His inheritance. And now, what God has given Jesus cannot perish. It would be a poor gift for Him should I perish. No. The gift which God gives to His Son must surely be incorruptible, it must he eternal, it can never be lost. We live by and in Christ Jesus, by the same life which God gave to His Son; He gave it to Him that He might communicate it to us, and we are to all eternity he imperishable gift of God to Jesus. And his is the gift of Jesus to those whom God has given Him―eternal life. (verse 2.) But some may say, you are speaking of a privileged class; I know not how I may ascertain if I am one whom the Father has given Jesus; I fear to die, I fear to meet God. Is there no word of comfort for me? Oh, yes there is! Jesus was not thinking only of those before Him; His thoughts went out to the perishing sinner, and He pauses a moment to tell how you may be saved. This is life eternal. He says, that they might know Thee. Is there one here who has felt the burden of his sins? Have you ever felt sin a burden, my fellow-sinner. “No,” you say, “my heart is so dead, it does not feel sin a burden.” But just now you said, as you repeated that opening prayer, that you did, and that you were heartily sorry for them; it was not true then, dear friends. Oh, often do we tell lies to God that we would shrink from saying to a fellow man; it is part of this practical unbelief in God, now so common to be met with. Oh, I beseech you to be honest and true to God; He is not to be trifled with. You say you know you have sinned, but that you are hard-hearted, and cannot feel sin to be a weary load. Well, that’s all you can truly say, and now there is a message for you from God, hard-hearted sinner who cannot feel your sins, a message to you just as you are. Well do I remember the day when I first heard this glorious gospel; for years I tried to render myself acceptable to God, I put away outward sins, I turned good as people say, but I found my heart the same old haunt of every evil thing, and knew I had succeeded nothing in my attempt, for I knew well that God tried the heart; failing in this, then I thought if at least I could feel my sins, I might then be a fit subject for the salvation of God, and so every night I used to write out a list of my sins, and make the catalog as black as ever I could, for I thought that if I could shed even one tear for my sins, it would be a sign of good things to come; but my heart grew harder and harder and so this failed. I began to give up hope but God did not forsake me; I held in my hand, and often spoke to others of the testimony of God as to the exact condition of my heart, and His remedy, but I would not believe it; and still He sent me solemn warnings, but I only turned on the screw of my stern, slavish, miserable, Christless religion still tighter, and went the way of the self-righteous to hell! How I read and taught the Bible, God’s witness against my false religion. How I visited the poor, and thought I worshipped God as I went with His children to the place they were wont to meet, and even took my place with them at the Lord’s table. Oh, false, damnable religion, without Christ. But at last the blind eyes were to be opened. I became ill, and suddenly heard that my illness would probably be fatal; and now, as I looked into the dark future, I found myself without God in the world, without hope beyond it. Hard, horrible thoughts of God crossed my mind, and I said in that awful moment, I have served God, and got nothing; I might as well have gone to the devil openly with these around me. I have studied His word, but I have now nothing but hell before me. I will pitch it from me; but once again I turned over its well-marked pages, for I had been no careless reader of it, and now my eye rested upon the 1St verse of the 2nd chapter of the epistle to the Ephesians, “And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.” I had read it a thousand times, I had taught it to others, but I had never believed it for myself. I had never before seen my condition thus; in truth all my efforts with life or heart were alike vain, for I was DEAD in sin. My hand put to its seal that God’s word was true. Do you believe that this is your state before God, as a corpse powerless to move towards God, or even feel your lost condition? Then, poor sinner, read on in that 2nd of Ephesians, and see how you are the object of God’s wondrous love. I read, believed and was saved. No one from this earth will ever tread the courts above, but sinners who were dead in sins, and who have been brought to life by Jesus; and the message I have for you this day is a gift of LIFE, that becomes mine on the simplest knowledge of God, for it is eternal life to know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.

Weigh well these words. What do they say to us? They tell us that as many as know God have life eternal, but they include also this most solemn truth, that as many as have not life eternal do not know the true God. How solemn for you in this hour, my unconverted hearer! You knelt with us, you sang with us just now. To whom have your prayers and your praises been? If you do not know the true God, then hereby have you been to some false God. You thank God that you were not born in a heathen land and that you never bowed your knee to stock or atone. You thank God that you are not like the poor Roman Catholics who live around you, and whose religion you say is false. They do not know the true God, but neither do you! The God you have been worshipping is not the true God; for you know in your heart you have never received eternal life. But you say, How then am I to know God? Only even as He has revealed Himself. He has done so at different times by different names. If you look at Ex. 6:3, yet will see that “He appeared by the name of God Almighty to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them.’ By the name Jehovah thus did He reveal Himself to Israel. But these names, so blessed as they are, do not speak as the name by which Jesus makes Him known to us: it is “Father;” read 1 Corinthians 8:4. We know that an idol is nothing in the world. To us there is but one God the Father, therefore if you have knowledge of the true God, it is of one who bits brought you into the relationship of a child to Himself. Thus our Father is the Almighty God and Jehovah too; for in all the blessings of a power which sustains, and a faithfulness that knows no shadow of turning. But it is little use talking in distant terms of the Almighty God: till you know Him as Father there is nothing but terror in such a name. But you say, how can God bring me into such near and blessed relationship to Himself? Ah! there is the story of the Cross! God makes peace between the sinner and Himself through the blood of the Cross. God is only to be known as in Christ reconciling the world to Himself: and to as many as received Jesus, to them gave God the right to become the sons of God. (John 1:12.) Jesus is the revealer of the Father. His looks, and words, and works of love alike make known to us God. Look at Luke 15. How wondrously does our God reveal Himself there! as a God who loves the sinner, and whose highest joy is in the salvation of the sinner: in contrast with the Pharisees who murmured that this man receiveth sinners.

These are the thoughts of God about us. He has laid our sins upon His own Son: and He has raised Him from the dead to show that His work has been finished.

Do you believe this? Have you sought to know God by receiving Jesus? If you do not know Him in Jesus, you do not know Him at all. If there is one here bound captive by the devil, “dead in trespasses and sins,” God, who is rich in mercy, now offers you eternal life in Jesus. How may you know it is for you? Is it not for sinners? Then take your place as a sinner, dream not of working yourself into heaven; give up all hope of saving yourself; a broken law is following upon your heels and demands death: England’s law demands the murderer’s death: there can be no peace between the Queen and the murderer. Transgressions and law cannot be found together in peace.

Then you say, how can the sentence of death pass, and I be saved? Jesus has come, and has planted Himself between the broken law and you. You have sinned, and God has said, “The soul that sinneth it must die.” Behold the sword of justice ready to strike, but see, there is Jesus; He has come in love to the sinner, and God has sent Him, and He stands beside you, and He is willing to take your place. Will you not turn your eye from that dreadful law and rest it in fixed gaze upon Jesus? The sword that ought to be plunged into you is plunged into Him instead; the storm has burst upon His head, and you can hear Him say, “My God! my God! why host thou forsaken me?” Oh! sinner, stand beneath the Cross. There is no room for any righteous person there. He came to save the lost. If you be such a sinner as that describes, powerless to do one single thing for yourself, having sinned, and therefore under sentence of death, delay not one single moment, come forward, and on these grounds alone the cup of wrath in the hand of God’s own Son hear Him say, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” But follow Him to the cross, and see Him drain that cup to its deepest dregs of woe. It has been drunk dry by Jesus. He has drained the cup of damnation for you. It is a cup of salvation now. What is there for you to do? Oh! take it as a free gift to you this day. If you be but a poor, lost sinner. “it is life eternal to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent.” God reveals Himself in righteousness and love in the Cross of Jesus; to know Jesus is to know God, and knowing Him you have life eternal.

But you say, Jesus has gone to the tomb, and they have rolled the stone to the door of it, and I can see Him no longer. Jesus has failed to satisfy God on account of my sins. Oh! no; it only seems for a moment so. He lives in the power of an endless life. “If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins.” But He is raised; your faith is not vain, ye are no longer in your sins. See Him stand in glory; your Jesus is there; was He not yours when He died the death that you deserved to die? You have been made one with Him. He is soon to be manifested; then shall every poor sinner who ever looked to Him in faith be found with Him.

Take your place as a sinner. He cannot love the self-righteous. There was no word of love for the Pharisee who came trusting in his own righteousness, but oh! for the poor publicans and signers and for the Pharisee too, if he came down from his proud, self-righteous place; there was love and salvation for them all; and it is for you too, this day.

Do you not see your position? You have sinned; what does God demand? Your death. How, then, can you be saved? Only by Jesus’ death. If you die it is forever and forever; but let Jesus’ death be instead of you. Every claim will then be satisfied, and by Him you can have life and righteousness. To know this is life eternal; it is “to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent.”

Then you, perhaps, say, I may go and live as I like; but Jesus does not say that, and neither do I. I am not now going to speak of the works that will follow when you believe, but I know the change there will be, and the love there will be, when you do believe. Satan often tries to get us to speak of the consequences that follow on believing, and sends away some poor sinner trying to live before he has got life. I leave it here as it is in this blessed prayer of Jesus, “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”

Oh! my friends, salvation is a present thing―it is a real thing. Are you perishing without a care for your souls? May God awaken you to take your place this hour as a sinner! to take one look at Jesus. Jesus said, He that heareth my words, and believeth them, hath eternal life, and is passed from death unto life; and so surely as you have passed from death unto life, the change will manifest itself in you. Come, then, as you are to Jesus, that you may have eternal life.

The Means of Grace.

“GOOD morning, Martha. Have you been out today?”

“Yes, sir. This is Sunday, and I always try to get to church to hear Mr. — preach.”

“Is he a good preacher, Martha?”

“Yes, indeed, sir. His church is so full it is often difficult to get a seat there; but I would gladly stand for hours to hear him.”

“Then, I suppose, you are anxious about your soul, Martha, and want to know how to get to heaven?”

“Yes, indeed, sir, I am; but it is very hard to get there. I am often afraid I shall be lost, after all.”

“After all what, Martha?”

“Oh! sir; you know, after doing my duty, and using the means of grace, and doing the best I can, still I don’t feel one bit nearer heaven, and I sometimes fear it’s no use trying any longer; but they say I must keep on at it.”

“On at what, Martha? I don’t understand you.”

“On at trying to save my soul by getting better, sir.”

“And do you really believe, Martha, that you could save your soul from being eternally lost by anything you could do? If you or anyone else could have done that, then why had God to send His only begotten Son into the world to die for sinners?”

“Of course, sir, I don’t mean that I can save myself altogether; but then, surely, we must all do the best we can, and leave the rest to God.”

“Why, Martha, that’s exactly what Adam did when he transgressed God’s commandment; he sewed fig leaves together, he did the best he could to hide his sin from view, and yet he did not dare to face a righteous God, before whose eyes the secrets of all hearts are bare and naked.”

“But if we only do our best, sir, surely God will have mercy upon us; He is so merciful.”

“What do you call your part, Martha?”

“Why, sir, I always do my duties, morning and night; I go to church regularly; I was baptized; I attend the means of grace once every month; I have a class in the Sunday-school; and I give what I can spare in charity; and I am sure I don’t know what more to do.”

“Oh, I see; you would like to earn salvation! you want to make God your debtor! you will give Him so much if He will only give you your pardon and life in return. Cain thought that a good plan, too; and he did his part’ right heartily; he toiled hard, and offered to God the best thing the cursed earth could produce. But Cain failed to please a holy God, after doing the but he could; for God has said, ‘Without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.’ (Hebrews 9:22.) Now God must be as good as His word, Martha, and you must offer blood to God for sin. Whose death will you offer for your sin?”

“I suppose the death of Christ, sir.”

“Yes, Martha. The Bible says, He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we ARE healed ... ... The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.’ (Isaiah 53:5, 6.) ‘The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.’ (1 John 1:7.) Do you believe this, Martha: Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ?”

“Oh, sir; sure everyone believes in Jesus and yet everyone is not saved!”

“Oh, Martha! there is a great difference between believing about Jesus (even devils believe and tremble) and believing that He has done everything that was necessary for your salvation; that He has satisfied God about sin, and that you have but to trust simply and entirely to His finished work for you, without adding anything of your own to it. Your part is to accept the gift of everlasting life. Christ has pledged Himself to save ALL that come to Him for pardon Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. (John 6:37.) He is able to save you, He is willing. If you believe on Him, He has paid the whole of your heavy debt to God; His own precious blood was the price demanded, and He died instead of you, ‘the just for the unjust, to bring us to God.’ (1 Peter 3:18.) What more is required, may I ask?”

“I’m sure I don’t know, sir. What you say is all very true; but it’s very frightful to think about. I sometimes wish I had never been born at all.”

“Oh, Martha! don’t say that. Think of all the glory that awaits those who are made members of Christ, and children of God. Are you one of those, Martha?”

“Yes, sir; to be sure I am.”

“Indeed. Well, I should not have thought so from your previous conversation. When were you made a member of Christ?”

“In my baptism, sir.”

“Where did you find that written, Martha?” “In the catechism, sir.”

“But I cannot accept as true anything that is not written in God’s Holy Word, Martha, and I am quite sure you will not find that there. For instance, when the Philippian jailor asked Paul, ‘What must I do to be saved?’ he did not say, Go and be baptized, and take the sacrament, and by doing so you will be made a member of Christ’s body, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven; but he said, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.’ (Acts 16:31.) And the Holy Ghost teaches us that he believed on the spot, and was saved, and afterward he was baptized; but not before. So you see, Martha, that water was not a means of grace to him; but faith in Christ was. And faith is the only means that God provides for our passing from death unto life. Hear what Jesus says: ‘He that heareth, and believeth, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.’ (John 5:24.) ‘He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.’ (John 3:36.) ‘These things have I written unto you, that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life.’ (1 John 5:13.) And if you believe that, Martha, then you are born again, and have got everlasting life. I hope you are able to understand me, Martha?”

“Well, sir, I think I begin to see it differently from what I ever did before. What you say is this, is it not? Jesus died for sinners, and I am a sinner, so He died for me; He paid all my debt to God, so I am a pardoned person―Christ died instead of me, so it is His death I can offer to God instead of my own, and I have everlasting life by believing all this, and being satisfied to trust Jesus only. But what about my future sins, sir? I see that the work of Christ is enough to save me, but must I not do a great deal to keep safe?”

“Oh Martha, you have just as little power to keep yourself as you had to save yourself, so you must leave that also to God. He knows that you would lose your new life the moment after you got it if it were left in your own keeping, so He tells us in the Bible what He has done with it: “Your life is hid with Christ in God,” (Colossians 3:3,) where neither you, nor I, nor devils, nor angels can touch it.

“Ah! sir, that’s a blessed thing for me; but am I not to do anything when I find I have done what’s wrong?”

“Yes, Martha; the Bible says we are to go just as little children would to their father, and confess it all straight out to Him. ‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness’ (1 John 1:9.) But we must tell it all to our Father, otherwise we shall feel unhappy and ill at ease in His presence, and He would have to chasten us for it, just as you would your child if it had done wrong, and would not confess to you that it had been naughty; but though you might chasten your child, he would not cease to be your child would he?”

“No, sir, he could not cease to be my child, let him do what he would.”

“Well, Martha, do you think you can trust ‘Jesus only’ to says you and to keep you safe?”

“Yes, sir, that I will, with the help of God, and I’ll not waste my time any more ‘sewing fig leaves together,’ as I see that all my righteousness is after all but filthy rags in God’s sight, and the Lord Jesus likes beat to do everything Himself for a poor sinner; but I should like very much, sir, to go and tell everybody all that you have just said to me; I don’t think I should ever weary of telling such good news to people.”

“Well, go and tell it by all means, Martha! and may God help you in your labor of love; and remember, we do not work to be saved, but we work because we are saved.”

“I dare not work my soul to save,

For that my Lord has done;

But I will work like any slave

For love of God’s dear Son.”

“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. Amen.” (Jude 24, 25.)

A MISSIONARY, addressing a pious African woman, said, “Mary, is not the love of God wonderful?” and then enlarging on its manifestation in the atonement of Christ, he made the appeal, “Is it not wonderful?” Mary simply, but we may add sublimely, replied, “Massa, me no think it wonderful, cause it is just like Him.”

"Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?"

“O WHY hast Thou forsaken me,

My God!” the Saviour cries;

Whilst all God’s holy hate of sin

On that pure victim lies.

Behold, behold Him, sinner, there!

And hear that fearful cry―

“My God! Thou hast forsaken me!”

Oh, canst thou answer why?

All that God was, against His Son

Now stands in dread array;

For holiness, and righteousness,

And truth, must have their sway.

God’s truth says, Every soul that sins

Must die―and Jesus dies:

Both holiness and righteousness

His dying satisfies.

Made sin for us, who knew no sin,

That sinners might become

The righteousness of God in Him―

Standing beyond our doom.

God’s name was honored by His Son;

For in the Cross alone

Was all His character declar’d,

And all His glory shown.

Where was the love, had He destroyed

The whole world in His wrath?

If all were saved in mercy, bow

Would righteousness shine forth?

Now sin is settled―Christ is raised―

All God is, stands for us;

Say, sinner, canst thou answer, now,

Why Jesus suffered thus?

Yes, sin was all the part we had

In that mysterious scene,

And no such hour can come again,

And no such hour had been.

Our Father wow; He will not hide

From us the Father’s face;

The joy of Christ fulfilled in us

We glory in His grace.

J. W. T.

I Am His.

IN times of spiritual conflict, and deep trials of faith, I have always found great help to my soul in pondering three precious and very important truths, distinctly and inseparably set before me in the word of God.

First. That I am His by purpose, “chosen in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world.” (Ephesians 1:4, 5.)

Second. That I am His by purchase, “redeemed with the precious blood of Christ,” and “brought nigh by the blood of Christ.” (1 Peter 1:17.)

Third. That I am His by possession the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. “Ye are the temples of the Holy Ghost.” “After that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.” (Ephesians 1:13, 14; John 14:17; 1 Corinthians 2:12; 1 John 4:13.)

May these considerations be helpful; they have been as a threefold cord, raising my spirit oftentimes upward, and stimulated my heart on wand. I’m seeking to serve the Lord. ―F. H.

Familiar Letters From a Father to His Children, on "The Times of the Gentiles."

No. 13.

MY DEAR CHILDREN, ―We have reached the last or fourth empire of the Gentiles―the Roman, under which we are now living―the iron power. Babylon was the golden city. Silver characterized the Persian. The tribute money from the provinces was paid in that coin. They were talents of silver which Alexander used to find in the Persian treasuries. The Greeks were clothed in armor of brass, and many of their statues and inscriptions were of that metal. The fourth empire is of iron, from the iron calque of the Roman soldier, to the iron bridges, iron houses, the iron railways, the iron cannon, and the iron ships of our own days. “The fourth empire (Daniel 2:40) shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh in pieces, all these shall it break in pieces and bruise.” This has marked Roman power from the first. It had an iron will: it never yielded. Its maxim of power was, Spare the humble, and break in pieces the proud. We see this in all their dealings with foreign nations. In whatever land they took root, they impressed upon its lasting monuments of their character. They possessed our country for 400 years, more or less. Many of our high roads were originated by them, and their fortresses, constructed on the best points for observation and defense, are still to be traced in England, whilst in Scotland they built two solid walls from sea to sea, to keep off the incursions of the Picts. No doubt they had become degenerate and effeminate before the date of the Caesars. This imperial power, superseding the consuls, and overawing the senate, arose from the need of men of genius and courage to invigorate the nation; which had become decrepit and mercenary. The riches which had flowed in upon them from all parts of the known world, owing to their successful wars, had made them fond of luxury and ease, if her power was to continue, it must be by a new form of government; and her first emperors were, accordingly, great men. But their successors degenerated. It was in the reign of the very first-that of Augustus Cæsar―that our Lord Jesus was born He is the One whom God intends to invest with supreme dignity over our earth. He is gone to heaven “to receive for Himself a kingdom, and to return.” “I saw (Dan. 7:13) in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him neat before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him emperor―Augustus―took the throne, there went out a decree from him that all the world (or habitable earth, where civilized men are dwelling) should be taxed (Luke 2:1); and just at this moment Christ, the King of the Jews, was born, and was laid in a manger because there was no room for Him in the inn! as, indeed, there has been no room for Him in the world as yet.

It is this fourth empire which always occupies the attention of Daniel. “Then I would know (7:19) the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass, which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet.” The prophet saw that the restoration of his people, the Jews, would ensue upon its destruction, and this would be through a fearful time of trial, which terminates the history of this age, as to the dominion of the Gentiles. In answer to the question in verse 19, the reply is given in verses 23-26 a crisis of evil is described which issues in the peaceful reign of Christ, and the establishment of the Jewish kingdom.

But I must trace, somewhat rapidly, the history of the emperors, until they passed away and were supplanted by the Goths. There were twelve emperors in all who had the title of Caesar. This dynasty ended A.D. (which letters mean the year of our Lord) 68. Among them was Vespasian, who was elected whilst conducting that siege of Jerusalem mentioned in Luke 21:20. “When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.” The Jews had led a miserable existence ever since they had crucified Christ their King. “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and fun your children,” was beginning to come true. Alto Jerusalem had fallen into the hands of Pompey Judea became the scene of intestine wars, from the ambition of those in whose hands the Romans had left the semblance of government. The dynasty of the Herods succeeded that of the Maccabees; for when Cæsar came into power, he made Anti-pater, an Edomite, the first of the lines who had assisted him in his wars in the east, procurator, or principal Roman officer, of Judea; and this Antipater appointed his son Herod, afterward called the Great, governor of Galilee. Eventually Herod became, by the favor of Caesar, king of Judea, receiving his investiture from Rome. His reign of 36 years was one of exceeding cruelty, although be shewed great ability in maintaining his dignity. It was in the latter part of his reign that Christ was born, whom (Matthew 2:16-18) he immediately sought to destroy. The historian Josephus, who relates his cruelties and his death from a complication of shocking diseases, makes no mention of the birth of Mist, nor of the slaughter of the Innocents; and thus we see how the most mighty events in the mind of God may be transpiring, of which the world, being occupied with its own affairs, takes no notice. Herod was succeeded by his son Archelaus in part of his dominions (Matthew 2:22), and by his son Herod Antipas, by the Emperor’s assignment, in another part, viz., Galilee. It was this last who slew John the Baptist. (Matthew 14) The Philip mentioned in the same chapter was a third brother, and each of them had the title of tetrarch.

It was before Herod Antipas also that our Lord appeared to be judged (Luke 23:7), he happening to be in Jerusalem at the time. The Herod of Acts 12, who “killed James the brother of John,” was grandson of the first, or Herod the great, and had all the three tetrarchies. The state of these kings, and the condition of the Holy Land in general at this time, may be learned by the occasion and circumstances of this king’s death. The (Herod) Agrippa before whom Paul appeared (Acts 25, 26) was the son of the last. In his reign the last war of the Jews against the Romans took place, and Agrippa sided with them, and endeavored to persuade the Jews against it. The war undoubtedly was brought on through the avaricious and bloodthirsty conduct of the Roman procurators or governors, who used their high offices as a means of gain for themselves, and thus enraged the Jews. Insurrections first broke out in Caesarea, which city Cestius, the governor, having subdued, he marched to Jerusalem, and surrounded it. It happened to be the time of the Feast of Tabernacles, when at least two millions of people were within the walls. It is remarkable, as spewing the accuracy of prophecy, that after he had invested the city, and no particular misfortune had happened to his troops, yet he drew off his army, and made a disastrous retreat to Antipatris; whereas he might have taken the city some days before, if he had known the state of anarchy within, and even if he had continued the siege a few days longer it would certainly have fallen; but, in fact, this drawing off his army enabled the Christians who were then within the walls to flee to the mountains of Perea. (Luke 21:21.) Soon after this Vespasian, then only a general, was sent by the emperor Nero to subdue Judea. It was now that occurred that terrible siege begun by Vespasian, and finished by his son Titus, to which the Lord, when the disciples came “to shew Him the building of the temple,” alludes, “Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.” (Matthew 24:2.)

The name of Vespasian brought on this digression about the Jews, and as I am upon the subject, it may not be amiss to tell you what the last king (Agrippa) said of these Romans, when, at a public audience at Jerusalem, he endeavored to dissuade the leaders of the Jews from going to war with them. Having enumerated the countries which had been subdued by them in these words: “All Euphrates is not a sufficient boundary for them on the east side, nor the Danube on the north; and for their southern limits, Lybia hath been searched over by them, as far as countries uninhabited, as is Cadiz their limits to the west; nay, indeed, they have sought for another habitable earth beyond the ocean, and have carried their arms as far as such British islands as were never known before.” Then he says, further on, “Do you also, who depend on the walls of Jerusalem, consider what a wall the Britons had; for the Romans sailed away to them, and subdued them, while they were encompassed by the ocean, and inhabited an island that is not less than the [continent of this] habitable earth; and four legions are a sufficient guard to such an island.” He concludes thus: “What remains, therefore, is this, that you have recourse to Divine assistance; but this is already on the side of the Romans; for it is impossible that so vast an empire should be settled without God’s providence.” This is a speech put by Josephus, the Jewish historian, into the mouth of that Agrippa of whom St. Paul thought not meanly of, saying of him that he was “expert in all questions and customs which are among the Jews,” and acquainted generally with everything going on in the world. (Acts 26:3-26.) The speech has all the marks of being genuine, and it serves to shew, in regard to these empires, that reflecting men could discern the signs of the times; could, in fact, distinguish the hand of God in the affairs of men. Xenophon, the historian, affirms of Cyrus, that he was raised up of God. So does Arrian, of Alexander; and so does Josephus, of the Romans.

When empire was first given to the Gentiles, we find Jeremiah saying to the captives of Judah, “Seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it; for in the peace thereof ye shall have peace.” Ever since that time this is to be our conduct. The Lord Himself said, “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s.” Paul not only exhorted the Church to pray for kings, and to render them their dues, but he even appealed to Caesar to be judged by him at Rome. Do we need any further declaration that that fourth kingdom had set in which was to “devour the whole earth,” and of the conduct of a saint towards it? —Your affectionate Father.

"Communion."

COMMUNION with the Lord!

‘Tis not on earth the scene,

‘Tie on the throne th’ Incarnate One

In perfectness is seen.

The place is in the light,

Midst love ineffable;

Where Jesus,―precious in His sight,

Doth with the Father dwell.

‘Tie there, unveiled we gaze

On light before unknown,

Where eye of angel ne’er was raised,

Or cherubim look’d on.

There, glorious place within,

We commune with our God,

Who sees us as He sees His Son,

Accepted through His blood.

For there before the throne,

‘Tis not what we may be;

But, all according to that word,

“As He is, so are we.”

There we adore the grace,

The vast unfathomed love;

Whilst Jesus tells us of our place

As one with Him above.

O what a height is this,

For soul once dead as mine;

To find in God so great a bliss,

Eternal and divine.

O for the sweetest lays,

That e’er thine ear hath heard;

O for the long, th’ eternal days,

To adore and praise the Lord.

J. D. S.

Words to Believers

No. 5.

“He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it: and he that hateth suretyship is sure.”―Prov. 11:15.

WHO is this generous Surety that has come forward for the stranger? Surely it is Jesus! it is the Son of God. Yes, when we were strangers, — strangers to the covenants of promise (Ephesians 2:12), strangers to holiness and peace, strangers to all that constitutes real blessedness―then it was that Jesus stood for us. When we were “dead in sins” (Ephesians 2:5), when we were “afar off” (verse 17), when we were “without strength” (Romans 5:6), “guilty” (Romans 3:9), “polluted” (Esek. 16:6), and “undone” (Isaiah 6:5), then it was that Jesus undertook our cause. He who is “the brightness of the Father’s glory, the express image of His person” (Hebrews 1:3), in condescending grace stooped down to become the Surety for the stranger. O what love is this! how far above the “manner of man” (2 Samuel 7:19), that He, the Holy One, should be the Surety for the sinner! Man may become surety for his friend, indeed, in circumstances of common daily life, and risk may be incurred for friendship’s sake, but who save Jesus, the God-man, has become surety for his enemy? (Romans 5:10.) Surely none. This is a love that passeth knowledge, that He should be content to “smart” for those who were in arms against Him! ―those who trampled underfoot His government and laws―who hated Him and His! That He should undertake their cause―fulfill the law for them―exhaust its curse upon the tree for them, the vile, the hell-deserving! Yet Jesus has done this. Jesus has hung upon the tree for all who will accept His suretyship, ―for all, however wretched, who will look to Him by faith. (Isaiah 45:22.) None that come to Him shall be cast out (John 6:37), for He is able to save them to the uttermost. (Hebrews 7:25.) He is the Surety of the new, the better testament (verse 22), the testament which brings eternal life by promise, not by law. For who among us has fulfilled God’s holy law? Not one. Which of us can present a righteousness to Him sufficient to meet His approval? None. “For by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Who, then, will venture upon suretyship with it? Who will strike hands with it for justification? Who, like Israel of old, at Sinai’s foot, will undertake to purchase life by his own obedience? Who will say, “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do?” (Exodus 19:8.) Alas for him who stands upon his works for justification! Alas for him who thinks to fulfill the law He that hateth such suretyship, and he alone, is sure. Sure, because he has found a Surety―a Surety in the Son of God. By faith he has heard his Redeemer say, “I will be surety for him (Genesis 43:9), of my hand shalt Thou require him; if I bring him not to Thee, and set him before Thee, then let me bear the blame forever.” Such was the blessed undertaking of our Surety for us, ―for each of His redeemed ones, ―for all who, in the confidence of faith, have cast themselves on Him. He has washed them in His blood, and lives to bring them to His Father’s house in safety. None of them can possibly be lost, for He is engaged for their security. His word, His oath, His finished work on their behalf, all tell this blessed tale. “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and none is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.” (John 10:28, 29.) However weak, however ignorant, however gone astray, however tried, however seemingly deserted, however hopeless in himself, the poor believer must reach home in safety: for the word of Jesus cannot fail. That word by which the heavens were made (Psalms 33:6), ―the word of power by which all things are upheld (Hebrews 1:3), is pledged for the eternal security of each and all His believing people. Let them, then, rest upon it in perfect tranquility, and with perfect trust; for He abideth faithful: He is the same yesterday, and today, and forever.

“Though all things change, He changes not;

He ne’er forgets, though oft forgot;

His love’s unchangeably the same,

And as enduring as His name.”

May that blessed name be exalted more and more in the confidence and joy of His people’s hearts; and in the praises of their lips. Amen.

Christ Fills Our Hearts.

An Address on John 6:5-14. by J. H. C.

THE Lord Jesus Christ asked the question “Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat?” to draw the attention of His disciples to the natural difficulty in that desert place of providing food for such a multitude, and thus to prove them whether they would believe in His resources to supply the need. But the answer showed that the Lord was not understood. It shews the slowness of the heart to believe, and also serves to illustrate the glory of His person and the power of His grace. “Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little.” “There is a lad here,” say they, “which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?” Here we see the littleness, the contemptibleness in the eyes of men, of the means by which He was about to feed them thus typifying Himself as “the bread of life” — “the despised by men.” This incident of feeding the multitude by what was apparently so small and inadequate, introduces the blessed truth which the chapter unfolds to us, that Jesus is “the bread of life,” “the living bread,” “the true bread,” “the bread of God,” which, “if any man eat, be shall live forever.” Now, by this little thing; the five loaves of bread, and the two small fishes, we are told that “they were filled.”

And if you turn to the 16th chapter of Exodus you will find this truth illustrated when the people murmured in the wilderness, as they always did, when there was any possible shadow of an occasion for faith. And God, because He had brought them out in grace (for they had not yet come to Mount Sinai) always answered their murmurings by grace; and when they murmured for bread, He stopped their mouths by raining bread from heaven on them; “and they were to go out and gather a certain rate every day.” The perfect grace which marked the first bestowment of the manna, characterized the gift every day throughout their forty years’ sojourning in the wilderness. The Lord began by showering down from heaven for them the bread, which is a type of Christ, when they deserved to be treated far more severely than the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, upon whom He rained down fire, who yet never had the opportunities of grace which this people had. Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel (6th verse), “At even, then ye shall know that the Lord hath brought you out from Egypt: and in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the Lord; for that He heareth your murmurings against the Lord.” “This shall be,” that is, ye shall know the Lord has brought you out of Egypt, “when He shall give you in the evening flesh to eat.” And “this shall be,” i.e, ye shall see the glory of the Lord, “when He shall give you in the morning bread to the full; for that the Lord heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against Him.” “And it came to pass (verse 13), that at even the quails came up and covered the camp.” Here is the proof that the Lord, the God of creation and providence, had brought them out from Egypt, and that He could feed them with flesh in the desert.

But that was not the greatest thing: they were to see the glory of the Lord in the morning, in connection with giving them bread from heaven. And what did they see in the morning? “And when the dew that lay was gone up (verse 14), behold, upon the face of the wilderness a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, What it this? (margin) for they wist not what it was. And Moses said, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.” The Lord, in the 6th of John, gives the people the bread that typifies Himself as the “bread of life;” and it is said, “they were filled.” There is what satisfies my heart, and may it satisfy your hearts! Christ only is the one that fills our hearts; and the only place where we find He does this is the desert; for there we have nothing for our spiritual affections but His all-sufficient self. In Egypt the people might have the blood to save them, for there it was given to them, but not the bread to fill their hearts till they got into the desert. But in seeing the bread which was to fill them; they were “to see the glory of the Lord.” (verse 7) This was not the ordinary and visible glory of the Lord which manifested His presence in connection with the tabernacle (verse 10), but that glory of which St. John spake, when he said, “And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.” This glory no natural eye could discern only the eye of faith, which saw in the lowly Jesus―lowly enough to be despised and trampled upon, the blessed Son of the Father full of grace and truth, antityping the “small round thing like hoar frost” lying on the earth, which, if not gathered to be eaten, was liable to be trampled upon!

Remark also, in order to heighten and make more conspicuous the grace which gave the manna, so precious in its typical meaning, and that grace might appear exceeding gracious, it is mentioned five times in this chapter (Exodus 16), and that pointedly, that God heard their murmurings against Himself. The greatest gift that God could bestow―His unspeakable gift — was given to murmurers when they were murmuring! When Melchizedek, priest of God and king, blessed Abraham in the name of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth, he brought forth bread and wine. We know what this bread and wine means, even His flesh, which is meat indeed, and His blood, which is drink indeed. Oh, wondrous love of God! The possessor of heaven and earth had nothing better in His possession than His own most blessed Son, and Him He gave to sinners! Bread-corn is braised, and wine is the juice of the bruised grape. Bread strengthens man’s heart, and wine makes it glad. This is our portion forever in Jesus, the Son of the living God! This is the glory of God! But there is another thing to dwell upon for a moment, as being most blessed in a believer’s experience. The Lord said, “In the morning ye shall be filled with bread, and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God.” In feeding them with flesh they were only to know that the Lord had brought them out of Egypt. How much better is it to know that the Lord is my God! But mark the point of experience. It was not when I give the bread, but when ye eat it (“This is the bread,” said Moses, “whist the Lord hath given you to eat”), and shall be filled with it, then ye shall know, &c. &c.

Beloved brethren, let us not murmur against the wilderness. Let us not refuse to meet God there. It is the richest place. If He allures us into the wilderness, it is that He may speak comfortably to us―that He may speak to our hearts. (Hosea 2:14.) And if we will not obey His voice, but will still sit by the flesh-pots of Egypt, let us not be surprised if we lack the happy assurance that “the Lord is our God,” and that we are deficient in the experience that “He satisfies the longing heart, and fills the hungry with His goodness.” Now, to sum up. Let us gather up these precious things connecter with this manna. 1st The absolute freeness of this gracious gift — “I have heard your murmur lags; I will rain bread from heaven for you.” 2nd The smallness and apparent insignificancy of the gift; yet having in it the power of lit and its sustenance―a small round thing like hoar, frost that lay on the face of the wilderness 3rd Its mysteriousness and incomprehensibility―all were ignorant of it, and called it manna, i.e., What is it? This is Christ’s nature and name forever― unsearchable, past finding out. 4th The purpose for which it was given― “This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.” And this bread the Holy Ghost alone can shew, as Moses shewed the manna to Israel. 5th The effect of eating it. “Ye shall be filled with bread, and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God.” 6th.The place where it was given―the desert. Thus, then, the wilderness is the best place for us for food and gladness until the wilderness is over, and the time shall be when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and admired in all them that believe. How blessed it is to know that Christ can fill us, that we may all be filled. And this blessed Jesus, who reveals the Father to us, shall fill our hearts forever with God! We shall be all perfectly like Him when we see Him, for we shall see Him as He is. What a blessed people! O what blessed company we shall be to one another! What friends shall we be to one another! How continually occupied with the endless resources that are in God the Father, and in His Son Jesus Christ our Lord! We shall never want. We shall never hunger. We shall never thirst. We shall be always filled! And we shall love, agree together, and sing the song of happy praise to Him!

What Are You Doing for Jesus

I ADDRESS myself to those who are converted; to those who know Jesus Christ as their Saviour, and who acknowledge Him as their Lord. Such only can work for Jesus. By nature men are spiritually dead, and cannot perform a living work. God asks nothing from the sinner; but commands him to believe in His only-begotten Son, that he may be saved. When we are saved, it is our privilege to become laborers for Christ.

In John 1:36-42, we have an illustration of how we should work for Jesus. John the Baptist, “looking upon Jesus as He walked,” said, “Behold the Lamb of God!” Two of John’s “disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.” “Then Jesus turned and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto Him, Rabbi (which is to say, being interpreted, Master), where dwellest thou? He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where He dwelt, and abode with Him that day: for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two which heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon. Peter’s brother. He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ.”

We should point out Jesus to our neighbors and relatives, saying, “Behold the Lamb of God!” We are often asked to look on sights which are not worth looking at; but we are certain that none, beholding Jesus, will turn away disappointed. Tell your friends to behold Jesus seated on His eternal throne as the Ancient of days; His hands holding the scales of justice, and swaying the scepter of the universe. Call upon them to behold, with admiration and astonishment, the height from which He came into this world to save sinners. Point to Jesus in His humiliation. The distance between our earth and the farthest star is inconceivable; its light, traveling at the rate of one hundred and ninety-two thousand miles every second, which is more than ten hundred thousand times swifter than a cannon ball, only reached us yesterday; but the distant height whence Jesus came to make an atonement for human guilt cannot be measured. See Him cradled in the lowly manger; see Him clasped to His mother’s breast as she flees into Egypt, that she may get beyond the reach of Herod’s bloody scourge, that the Scripture might be fulfilled: see Him as an outcast, without a place wherein to lay His head; see Him bowed down on Gethsemane’s frost-bound ground, while the bloody sweat-drops ooze out from the pores of His body; see Him crowned with thorns, mocked, His back scourged; see Him on Calvary’s Cross, bleeding the blood of thy redemption; see Him as He dies, dies for thy sins, and learn how Jesus loves. Point to Jesus as the highest object worthy of the sinner’s love; as the Deliverer from a worse than Egyptian bondage; as the Rock of Ages smitten for sinners, that streams of living water might flow forth over earth’s desert sands; as the Saviour uplifted on the Cross to save a dying world; as the great sin-pardoner, the Lamb of God. Here is our one subject―Christ Jesus, and Him crucified. If we would successfully work for God, we must do so by pointing sinners to Jesus.

We must spend time with Jesus ourselves, if we would seek to bring others to Jesus. Andrew spent part of a day with Jesus before he began to work for Jesus. If we would be useful to others, we must have an experimental acquaintance with Christ. We must speak of that which we ourselves have tasted, handled, and felt of the good word of life. He who has never enjoyed secret communion with Jesus, has never done any acceptable work for Jesus. Private prayer, meditation on the word of God, and fellowship with Jesus, are the very best preparations for public labor.

They who would labor for Jesus should begin at home. Andrew went first after his own brother, Peter. This is what we must do, if we would be successful laborers for Jesus. The zeal of some persons is like to a castle in the air; it has neither foundation nor endurance. If ever we would be great in the service of Jesus, we must commence by being small. Let us begin with our friends at home, because with them we have the best opportunity; for them we have the most affection; and concerning them we have the highest responsibility.

Great results sometimes follow little causes. Andrew first found “his own brother,” and on “the day of Pentecost” Peter is made instrumental in causing “about three thousand souls” gladly to receive the Word, to be baptized, and to unite themselves with the company of believers. (Acts 2:41, 42.) Jesus, on one occasion, preached to a poor woman who had come to the well to draw water, and shortly afterward many Samaritans are brought to Him by her instrumentality; “and many more believed because of His own word.” (John 4:41.) Let us begin low and aim high, and God will bless out efforts.

Andrew declared joyfully, humbly, positively, and intelligently, the good news that the Messiah had come. “We,” said he, “have found the Messiah;” and lest there should be an, mistake, it is added, “which is, being interpreted, the Christ.” It is in this manner all believers should endeavor to spread abroad a knowledge of Christ Jesus. They should go home to their friends and neighbors, and tell them that they have found Jesus. This is, at once, both their duty and their privilege.

Dear reader, are you saved? If you are, what are you doing for that Jesus who has saved you? May God, in His infinite mercy, stir up all His people to labor for His glory, and lei the salvation of the lost. T. W. M.

Notes on the Book of Revelation.

The Judgment of Babylon the Great. Chap. 17, and 18.

THE former part of the seventeenth chapter gives us the principles of the false woman―Babylon the great; the latter part gives us the interpretation of the symbols.

She is seen sitting upon “many waters”― “upon a scarlet-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads, and ten horns.” Her raiment is purple and scarlet color, and she is decked with “gold, and precious stones, and pearls.” She holds in her band a golden cup, brim full of abominations and filthiness. Abominations in the Old Testament often mean idolatries. (See Deuteronomy 32:16; 1 Kings 11:5-7.) Her outward appearance is thus symbol iced. Her character is, that she is drunken with the blood of the saints, and of the martyrs of Jesus. She is a fornicatress with kings, and she has intoxicated the inhabitants of the earth with her wine. Thus is she both corrupt and corrupting. Mystery is written upon her forehead and her name is, “The mother of harlots, am abominations of the earth.” Her rest is in the world that crucified the Lord of glory. Thy nations are her support. Her repose is in till bosom of the people. Her corrupt heart knows no higher range than self-pleasing, and walking before men, the spirit of the world which is energized by Satan. Her display is in the very things which the Scripture enjoins modest women to refuse, namely, “gold, and pearls, and costly array.” Her great object is to corrupt others by her intoxicating wine. Her enmity to God am to Christ is manifested by her thirst for the blood of the saints, and of the martyrs of Jesus. Such are some of the characteristics of this unchaste woman; and let us never forget that the beloved apostle, at Patmos, needed to be in the Spirit to detect her corrupt character and ways, and so do we. The two evils of the flesh, corruption and violence, mentioned in Genesis 6:12, 13, are seen in full growth in the woman and the beast.

The explanation of the symbolic description of the woman, and of the beast which carrieth her, is brought before us in the eighth am following verses.

THE BEAST. The scarlet-colored beast whirl carried the woman is said to ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition. This shows its Satanic origin and hellish destiny. It has seven heads and ten horns, and may be easily identified with the beast of the thirteenth chapter, which we believe to be the Roman empire in its future resuscitated state. We are told, also, that the beast was, and is not, and yet shall be; thus giving it a past and future but not a present existence. And is not this exactly the fact with regard to the Roman empire? It has been in full energy, and for a long time it has not been known as an empire; but by and by the image of Daniel will be manifested in ten toes, or kingdoms, and the empire be revived, ―only, be it remembered, under special Satanic energy― “it ascends out of the bottomless pit.” But while the beast may thus be recognized as the Roman empire, we must also regard the beast as personified in a man; for the beast is spoken of in both those aspects: and then “the false prophet” will compel all to bow down and worship the beast, and to have his name in their foreheads or hands. Thus we are told again, what has been previously noticed, that this son of perdition will be the object of a world-wide admiration. It is said that “they that dwell upon the earth shall wonder, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast which was, and is not, and yet is.” (verse 8.) None are exempt from this terrible delusion, but those whose names are in the Book of Life. It may be well to notice here, in passing, that the Church is spoken of as chosen in Christ, not from, but before the foundation of the world. The saints who suffer under the beast will not be the Church―the body of Christ; for, as we have repeatedly noticed, we shall have been caught up before these terrible days, to meet the Lord in the air; but, if I mistake not, they will be Jewish saints, and are usually spoken of as in connection with that which is from the foundation of the world.

Some have thought that the seven-hilled city of Rome is referred to, by our being told that “the seven heads upon which the woman sitteth are seven mountains;” and others have gone so far as to state, that, because of this, Babylon the great mast be Popery, as if this wide-spread system were limited to that terrible work. But while Romanism is certainly a large example of Babylon, we may be assured that it abounds also in Protestantism, or wherever the world’s support is resorted to in connection with the name and work of the Lord. It is difficult almost to say where Babylon is not; for when we see the line of demarcation between the Church and the world so obliterated, and remember how perfectly distinct the teaching of our Lord and of His disciples was as to the opposite character of flesh and spirit, the world and the Church, we must conclude that Babel, or confusion, must be wherever the Lord is not wholly followed, His word fully obeyed, His Holy Spirit honored. It is not true, then, to limit Babylon to Popery.

After all, it seems more simple to regard the seven mountains, or heads, as seven Potentates, or form of government; for mountains may be regarded as representative of power or authority, the woman finding her rest in those national authorities. But, however this may be, we are distinctly told immediately after, that “they are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short time.” (verse 10.) That the five kings are five potentates which had passed away before the Apocalyptic visions were made known to John, that one was then in existence, and another was to appear, and continue for a short time, we should be ready enough to admit, for it is obvious; but here again we find this last potentate, whose duration is so brief, attributed to popery. This, however, seems unreasonable, that a system, which has existed for so many centuries, should be understood to be that which only continues for “a short space,” or “a little time” (Alford), especially when this king is put in connection with five other kings which had passed away.

But now there is a remarkable turn given to the description of the seven heads, for an eighth head springs up, which is said to be of the seven, which is the beast―the man of sin, who impersonates the Roman empire, and in his description is identified with it. We are told, “The beast that was, and is not, he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.” And further, we are informed that he, though springing out of the seven heads, will be in league with the ten horns, the kings of the revived Roman empire, the ten kingdoms of Daniel, which are brought upon the scene by and by, but only to continue for a brief period. All that is revealed seems to show us the rapidity with which events follow each other as the day approaches. “The ten horns which thou lamest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.” (verse 12.) These kings are all confederated together, fraternized, as some would say, and it is with the beast, to help on this Satanic man, the son of perdition. What an association! What union! What a combination of human and Satanic energy! Ah! union and unity are common words in our day, and give impetus to principles of action on all sides; but we do well to ask the question, Is the proposed unity with Christ, or against Him? for He said. “He that is not with me is against me.” This is getting more and more manifest, and ere long every individual will have to take his stand as either with Christ or against Him.

As to these kings, we are told, “These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.” (verse 13.)

The Active energy of this confederacy of the beast and kings of the earth is purely against Christ, but, as we might expect, their unity and co-operation only ends in their everlasting shame and destruction. “These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with Him are called, and chosen and faithful.” (verse 14.) The last clause shews us that the Church is with Christ at that time; the words “called, chosen, and faithful” are exactly those used by the apostle in addressing the Church of God.

We need to turn to the book of Daniel to help as in the elucidation of the ten horns. The prophet saw a fourth beast, “diverse from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and behold there came up among them another little horn... in this torn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things. I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit.... I beheld then because of the mice of the great words which the born spake. I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame. ... I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them, until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High: and he time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings which shall arise: and another shall rise after them... and he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and he dividing of time. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be even to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him.” (Dan. 7:7-27.) Thus we see the beast with ten horns, which Daniel saw, remarkably corresponds with the ten-horned beast of the Apocalypse, and the other little horn of Daniel with the eighth king of the Revelation. The saints, too, of Daniel first under the persecution of the great oppressor, and then, when God undertakes for them in judgment, they are brought into the blessing of the millennial kingdom, the hope of the true Israelites. They get into their promised blessing of the kingdom with judgment; we miter our eternal and heavenly blessing by being caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

We are further told, that the kings and the beast will be confederated together against the woman. The many waters on which we saw her sitting in the first verse, are “peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues” (v.15) that is, the inhabitants of many countries. This, is her rest at present; but, if I mistake not, it is already beginning to be disturbed, and they will loon shake her off. They prefer their own carnal liberty and self-will. Their minds will become changed towards her, and they will hate her. Thus nominal Christianity will end in open infidelity. Now most men are pleased with some sort of religion, but ere long they will find their liberty and pleasure only in open defiance of the living and true God. The judgment, however, of this woman, is of God. He makes the wrath of the wicked to execute His own counsels; for God will put it into their hearts to fulfill His will. This is very solemn. If the judgment of God came severely upon apostate Israel, how much more terrible shall the stroke be upon the apostate Church. “The ten horns which thou rawest, (not upon, but) and the beast (see Alford), these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God has put it in their hearts to fulfill His will, and to agree, (or act with one mind,) and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.” (verses 16,17.) Thus we see that this confederacy will hate the harlot, rob her of her riches, strip her of her costliness deprive her of all she values, and eat her up, to advance the kingdom of the beast. All this God will accomplish, in His own time and way for His own glory; and spew that the wisdom of man is foolishness with God, and that He can take the wise in their own craftiness.

THE WOMAN. The symbolic character of the woman is referred to in the last verse, which links us on with the following chapter for she is called both a woman and a city. This shews how entirely symbolic the whole account is, and could not be here understood to be a material city. She is described as having kingship over kings. “The woman which thou rawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.”

Kitty's Joy.

An Extract.

“WHY so happy, little one?” said a lady of the world to a child whose face was shining with peace.

“Because God makes me so; and how can I help it?” said Kitty.

“I wish I were as happy as you” said the lady. “You might be, I am sure,” said the little one “God wants you to be happy, too.”

“I suppose it is because you are so good, that you are so happy?”

“No, indeed, said Kitty;” I am not good at all; I am very bad; and have got a bad heart.’ “How, then, are you so happy?”

“Because God has forgiven all my sins; and He took them from me, and I have been at happy since.”

“Then you don’t care about being good?”

“Indeed, I do,” said Kitty; “I never cared about being good, till I got my sins pardoned; and now that I know that God loves me, I would do anything to please Him. But I did not get pardon by being good; I got it just by going to God for it. God forgives sins for Christ’s sake. ‘This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.’”

1 Thessalonians 3:5.

I KNOW that I, a stranger

And pilgrim, here must roam,

Finding no rest, or portion,

Till Jesus takes me home.

O I’m yearning for the glory!

My heart sinks by the way:

Weeping I cry, “Come, Jesus,

I can no longer stay.”

But He answered, “Be not weary;

Thou canst suffer naught for me

When thou reignest in my glory,

If I tarry, patient be.

Ah! once as a fair witness

The Church for her Lord was set;

But now all lies in ruins,

No stones together left.

Her light is lost in darkness,

And little lamps flicker alone;

Surely their rays are useless,

Since the great light is gone.

But He spake in tones of love,

“E’en though all the darkness fill,

Thy small light is seen alters:

Let it shine in patience still:”

Must not I pine to see Him,

When I think of my cold heart,

That it cannot grasp His love

Whilst I know Him but in part!

How long before the day breaks!

How long before I rise

To meet my Lord of glory

With rapture in the skies!

And the answer came to soothe me,

“Only watch a little while;

All my strength and love is with thee;

And ye wait beneath my smile.”

I bow me to Thy word, Lord,

To labor, sing, and wait;

To watch for Thine appearing,

When the crooked shall be straight:

Knowing that, if Thou terriest,

Thou wouldst have me working on,―

Not murmuring at darkness,

Or, pining to be gone.

Only keep, me close beside Thee,

And hold my trembling hand,

And let me lean upon Thee,

Till I reach my own fair land.

Ah, thus I’ll wait, and love Thee

For Thy gracious delay:

The perils gather round me,

And straiter grows the way.

Though darkness gathers thicker,

And e’en love waxes cold,

May I but stand the firmer,

And tight Thy banner hold.

In patience I gaze upward,

And mine eyes are fix’d on Thee,

Hearkening to catch Thy voice, Lord,

Which will shout ma up to Thee.

A. C. C.

Fragments.

Satan, the flesh, and the world, all say “Fear;” God says, “Fear not.”

Law is like a hedge. It should have kept men within bounds; but if there were no hedge, there would be no transgression.

The believer must first be a worshipper (as Abel); then a walker with God (as Enoch); and then a witness for God (as Noah).

Love for Christ is the law of the Christian’s life.

Why does God allow us to be conquered sometimes by Satan? ―To drive us to Christ.

Those who don’t feed much on Christ, don’t eat much of the bitter herbs.

Though our flesh is as grass, Christ’s flesh is real meat, and His blood real drink.

Nearness to Christ is the way to be near each other.

“There is always strength in looking to God; but if the mind rests upon the weakness, otherwise than to rest it upon God, it becomes unbelief.”

“There are two sorts of religion in the world: one, in which men profess to be saved by good works which they never do; the other, in which men do good works, and yet disclaim all merit from their performance.”

How different were the confessions of Baalam and Peter. Baalam spoke of himself three times as the man whose eyes are open. Peter cried out three times, “Thou knowest that I love thee.” How wide the contrast between seeing and loving, or knowledge that puffeth up and love that buildeth up! It is to be feared, that many who have only knowledge of the letter of Scripture are really like wicked Baalam, not loving Christ, but loving the wages of unrighteousness. God will search this out. True believers can say, “We love Him because He first loved us.”

I have dwelt much upon those words, “Grace and Peace be multiplied,” and I think that something of spiritual arithmetic has been shown to me.

Let me take the figure I alone, it makes but 1; let me bring a cipher beside the 1, and 1 is 10, and another, and it makes 100, and another, and it makes 1000, sometimes by Christ is this 1 to me. I bring my nothingness to Him, and to me His value is increased; and just in proportion as I bring more and more of my unworthiness beside His excellence, just so much is His “grace and peace multiplied” to me.

Truth without love is a poor thing, but love, though it is accompanied by a little truth, is always acceptable.

Whatever murmurings there were, the manna came all the same. The inner man is renewed day by day.

"There Is Another River."

A LADY, walking out one day near a river, saw a man with his coat and hat off, and she thought directly he meant to drown himself. She prayed that the Lord would give her some word to arrest him. Accordingly she walked on until she came up to him, when he turned and said, “A beautiful river, ma’am:” “Yes,” she replied, “but there is another river, a river that makes glad the people of God. Do you know that river?” “No, ma’am,” he said. She tried to speak more, but her tongue was tied, and she left him without another word. She went home to her husband, and told him what she thought, and he sent off some men directly to see if he was still there. No, he was gone, but the coat and hat were in the same place. They dragged the river, but no traces of him could be found. They asked at the police station about him, but no one knew what was become of him.

Twenty years after, that lady was in Baptist Noel’s chapel, and saw a man looking very much at her. She thought, “I know that face; where have I seen him?” Whilst she was trying to remember, he leant over her shoulder and said, “There is another river, do you know that river?” She immediately remembered he was the man she had said those words to twenty years ago. He told her he was going to drown himself, and her words deterred him from it. He had fled to Jesus and found peace through believing.

A Warning and Encouragement to Backsliders.

A FEW weeks since, whilst engaged in my business, a middle-aged person called at my shop and requested me to visit a young man who was dying, and had expressed a desire to see me. I immediately went, and on my entering the room recognized one whom three years and a half ago I had known as a zealous advocate of the cross of Christ; but whose heart Satan had succeeded in drawing away from Jesus, and alluring it towards the world, into which he went step by step, until he grew cold towards God and to His children, and the meetings for prayer and worship which he formerly enjoyed were entirely neglected. He was sitting by the window, which was thrown up as high as it could be, wrapped in a blanket, and supported by his young wife (not 21 years of age), who was fanning him in order to give him as much air as possible. I said, “Well, Joseph, I need not ask how you are bodily, for I perceive you are a dying man; but how are matters standing between your soul and God?” “Ah!,” he said (as well as he could speak from difficulty of breathing), “I’ve been a wandering sheep, and have lost the joy of my salvation; I have sadly grieved Him who loved me unto death, and I want you to pray for me, that I may again realize the cleansing virtue of His precious blood, and be able to sing, as once I could.

“Happy day,

When Jesus wash’d my sins away.”

I knelt down, and after commending his case to the Lord, left. The following day, being Sunday, I called again, and found him in the same position, not having been in bed for several days and nights, but apparently much broken down, under a sense of his great sin in having departed in heart and ways from the good Shepherd. I felt much encouraged, perceiving he had “come to himself,” and spoke of the Father’s willingness to receive, yea, to welcome back the lost son, and the Shepherd’s love and care in seeking until He finds the wandering sheep. I also mentioned his case, for especial prayer, at the meeting of the Lord’s people that day, who pleaded earnestly on his behalf several of them remembering his having taken part in prayer at the very same kind of meeting three years and a half ago. On the Monday I saw him again, and be was then able to say, in prospect of his speedy departure, “O Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, where is thy victory?” and as he leant his head on my breast, I heard him repeat, slowly, but distinctly, the following touching verses―

My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine,

For Thee all the pleasures of sin I resign;

My gracious Redeemer, my Saviour art Thou,

If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ‘tis now.

I love Thee because Thou host first loved me,

And purchased my pardon on Calvary’s tree;

I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thy brow,

If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ‘tis now.

I will love Thee in life, I will love Thee in death,

And praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath;

And say when the death dew lies cold on my brow,

If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ‘tis now.

In mansions of glory and endless delight,

I’ll ever adore Thee in the heaven of light;

I’ll sing with the glittering crown on my brow,

If ever I loved, Thee, my Jesus, tis now.

After a little pause he said, “I shall never have an opportunity of showing forth to the world, by my walk, what the Lord has done in restoring my soul, but I want, through His grace enabling me, to do so, by patiently bearing the sufferings of this little while, and by praising and adoring His blessed name. I asked him before kneeling down if there was anything on his mind he wished me particularly to pray for? He said, “Yes, ask the Lord, if it be His will, to spare me to see my dear christian mother.” (She was expected that evening by the 7 o’clock train.) I did so, entreating the Lord at the same time to give him that patience and submission in the midst of his great sufferings that his case needed, and to enable him to praise Him with his latest breath. About half-past 9 o’clock I called again, and found his mother had arrived in safety; thus was prayer again answered. I saw him twice the day following, but in the evening the meeting was such as I shall never forget. After his temples had been bathed with cold water he appeared a little refreshed, and said he would like to praise the Lord, if we would all kneel down. He began by expressing his thankfulness to the Lord for revealing His love to him again in Jesus; then prayed for each of his unconverted relatives, and, after commending his young wife (so soon to be left a widow) to the care of Him who has promised to be the husband of such, he turned to me with a desire that I should follow on in prayer and praise. After we had risen from our knees, and were standing around his bed, in which we had previously put him, having supplied him with a bed-chair to keep him upright, he asked us what day it was: we replied, Tuesday. He then said, with all the calmness and self-possession of mind imaginable, as though he was only going to remove from one room to another, “shall die tomorrow, and on Sunday you may bury me.” Then, addressing his weeping mother said, “Will you follow me to the grave?” She replied, “Yes,” and after arranging for me to bury him, he sank back much exhausted, but evidencing great pleasure that he had been helped to speak so much at one time.

In calling on him the following day, I found he was fast sinking, and said, “Well, Joseph you are passing through the valley of the shadow of death now. What a comfort that it is after all but the shadow of death. There is no substantia evil in it. A shadow of a serpent will not sting neither will the shadow of a sword kill. Jesus has extracted the sting out of death by dying it the believer’s stead, thus destroying him who had the power of death, being the devil, and, therefore, it is but the shadow for the Christian. Again, it is but a valley, a deep dark valley it is true, but valleys are generally fruitful, and at the valley of death itself is often productive of comforts to God’s children. Then it is a walk, a gentle, pleasant walk. It is said, the wicked art chased out of the world, but the Christian taken a walk to another world, as cheerfully as he takes his leave of this. Then what a consolation! there is no fear of being lost in the valley; that little word through is very encouraging, right on

“To the other side of Jordan,

In the sweet fields of Eden,

Where the tree of life is blooming,

There is rest for the weary,

There is rest for you.”

And the best of all is, as dear old John Wesley said in his last moments, “God is with us.” Ah! he said, as he lifted, up his eyes, “Therefore, I will fear no evil.” I went to see him again in the evening, when he appeared very near his departure, but peacefully waiting the Lord’s time. He wished me to turn him on his right side, and exclaimed at the same time, “O Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, where is thy victory?” in which position he soon after sweetly fell asleep in Jesus.

“The Shepherd sought his sheep,

The Father sought his child:

They followed over vale and hill,

O’er deserts waste and wild.

They found him nigh to death,

Famish’d, and faint, and lone;

They bound him with the bands of love,

They saved the wandering one.”

His remains were carried to the grave on the next Sunday, when the following remarks were made on the Scripture, “Prepare to meet thy God.” (Amos 4:12.)

Beloved friends, if there is one voice more solemn and loud than another, sounding forth from the open grave of one who but a short time since was in the bloom of youth, it is “Prepare to meet thy God.” And if there is one thing neglected more than another, it is this very preparation. There are few persons (comparatively speaking) in the present day who do not in some way or other (either by insuring their lives, or joining some society) make what provision they can for those who may possibly survive them; but alas! God is not in all their thoughts. “What shall I eat, what shall I drink, and wherewithal shall I be clothed?” is the all-absorbing consideration; and if their mind should happen to be exercised about this solemn meeting, Satan immediately tempts them to believe that for a few short hours, when all hope is removed from them of living any longer in this world, will be quite sufficient to make the necessary preparation for meeting God. But, beloved fellow sinners, the devil is a liar, he was one from the beginning; and one of his most successful delusions that he practices at the present time is procrastination; it is the snare of youth the illusion of mature life, and the delusion of hoary age. Oh! my friends, do not be thus deceived; “God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.”

It is recorded of a certain nobleman, who kept a fool, that he once so amused him with his wit that he gave him his cane, and told him whenever he could find a greater fool than himself to bring it back to him. In process of time the nobleman came to die, and, sending for his attendant, bid him farewell. “Where is your lordship going?” asked the fool. “I am going to another world” was the reply. “And when shall you return?” “Oh, I am never to return.” “No!” said the man; “then has your lordship made any preparation for the journey?” “Alas! I have not.” “Then take back your cane,” said the man, for never could there be folly so great as that! And, dear friends, are there not many such, surrounding this open grave at this time, who are in the same condition as the nobleman was? “unprepared,” because unwashed in the precious blood of Christ, and, therefore, exposed to all His righteous wrath, not knowing but that the very words that were uttered to the rich man of old, may be said to someone in our midst this afternoon, “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.” Then, friends, it will be too late to prepare. Oh, do not delay an’ longer. “For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” Verily, every man (the youngest as well as the eldest) at his best state is altogether vanity.” The lawyer will not lose his term, the will waterman will not lose his tide, neither will the husbandman lose his season, and wilt thou lose thy soul, fellow sinner? Oh, prepare at once then, to meet thy God.

And now, dear friends, a word or two about the preparation that is needed to meet God What is it? Is there anything to do?

“Nothing, either great or small,

Nothing, sinner, no;

Jesus did it, did it all,

Long, long ago.”

The blessed Lord has made all the necessary preparations on His part for the sinner’s meeting God, by taking the sinner’s place on the cross thus appeasing God’s wrath and satisfying His justice, by dying there as the sinner’s substitute and shedding His blood. In consequence of which He has opened up a “new and living way” for the poor sinner to meet God, not with shame and confusion of face, but with joy and rejoicing of heart. So that the sinner has nothing at all to do on his part but to believe. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Then will God grant you the full benefit of Christ’s work on the cross. Oh, undone sinner, believe God’s word, and gladly avail yourself of that precious blood “which cleanses from all sin.” Thus meeting God it this world on the ground of the blood of Christ and knowing Him as a reconciled Father it Jesus, there will be no dread of meeting Him it the other; but the soul which has made such a preparation will be able to sing, in the happy consciousness of his being ready, whether thy Master sends for him (as in the case of our departed friend) or comes Himself to fetch him―

“Jesus, the Lord, my Righteousness,

My beauty Thou, my glorious dress;

Midst flaming worlds, in this arrayed,

With joy shall I lift up my head.

Bold shall I stand in that great day,

For who ought to my charge shall lay?

While by Thy blood absolved I am,

From sin’s tremendous guilt and shame.”

J. A. V.

It is easy enough to say that I belong to the heavenly places. Many have been learned in the doctrine. Confessing that we belong to the kingdom to come, because we are in the place of it, and look to dominion over it, after the Judgment on it, would provoke all Satan’s wrath.

The Gospel Feast.

THE Lord Jesus, during His sojourn on earth, taught the people by similitudes and parables. On one occasion, He, as His custom was, when invited, went into a Pharisee’s house to dine. Here He saw a well filled table. A large number of invited guests sitting thereat. The thought seems to arise in His mind, if God had spread this table, and had issued the invitation, there had not been so many guests. When a man spreads his table, and invites his friends to come and dine, they will come, as many as are bidden. When the living God makes a feast, not one that is merely bidden, will come to eat of His supper! The parable seems to have been spoken in answer to “one of them that sat at meat with” Jesus, who “said unto Him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.” This remark was doubtless made by one of that class of persons who wish to get to heaven, and who are ready when religion is talked about, to talk religiously, but who never get any further. Persons who, like Balsam, would like to “die the death of the righteous,” (Numbers 23:10,) but who have no desire to “be found in Him, not having” their “own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.” (Philippians 3:9.) Jesus reminds this individual, and the whole company with him, that men may have the kingdom of God offered to them, and yet, because they willfully reject God’s free gift, be lost forever. “Then said He unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse.” (Luke 14:15-24.)

The gospel of the grace of God may well be compared to A GREAT FEAST. How largely abundant are the provisions prepared. Earthly provisions are by expenditure soon exhausted; but the provisions of God’s love are infinite. The fountain of Jesus’ atoning blood has cleansed all the myriads who are now present with the Lord, so that they are free, perfectly free, from all sin, from every spot, stain, or blemish. That fountain is still open, and myriads more may be cleansed therein from all pollution, may be so completely cleansed, that they shall be “whiter than snow,” pure as the ray of unsullied light, when it first flashes forth from the sun. The Lord Jesus Christ has provided an abundant supply of all things that sinners need for their salvation, and all things are provided gratuitously, “without money and without price.” (Isa. 55:1.) We are all sinful, needy and starving, but God in the person of His Son, has provided for all who believe in His name, everything that sin-laden hearts can wish, or weary consciences require. Christ Himself is the sum and substance of God’s great feast. He is the “BREAD OF LIFE;” all they who come to Jesus shall never hunger; and all they who believe on Jesus shall never thirst. (John 6:35.) Whoso eateth the flesh of Jesus, and drinketh His blood, hath eternal life: for His flesh is meat indeed, and His blood is drink indeed. (John 6:54-56.) The sinner who comes to Jesus, shall have the forgiveness of all his sins, peace with God, justification of his person, sanctification, eternal life, pace by the way; he shall have no want, he shall experience no sorrow, he shall know no necessity, he shall fear no danger, for which he shall not find a suitable and an abundant supply in Jesus. Oh! what rich variety is there in Christ for perishing sinners; here is pardon, peace, holiness, adoption, joy in the Holy Spirit, communion with God, persevering grace to the end, and eternal, glory to crown the whole.

“This is the feast of heavenly wine;

And God invites to sup:

The juices of the Living Vine,

Were pressed to fill the cup.

“Oh, bless the Saviour, ye that eat,

With royal dainties fed;

Not heaven affords a costlier treat,

For Jesus is the Bread.”

At the gospel feast there is much joy and gladness. When the prodigal, son was received back by the father; when he had received the father’s kiss of reconciliation; when he was arrayed in the best robe; when his feet were shod; when the ring was placed on the hand; when the fatted calf was killed; it was meet that they should make merry, and be glad: for he who had been dead, was alive again; he who had been lost, was found. When a believer in Jesus looks back upon what had been his former condition, and considers what is now his present position, he cannot but be joyful in the Lord. There is joy arising from the harmony and oneness which exists between the guests, who are all one in Christ Jesus. There is great joy arising from the delightful intercourse which the redeemed of the Lord hold with each other. Sweet is the fellowship of such kindred minds. There are some who imagine that the gospel of Jesus produces gloom and melancholy. How fatal a mistake! As well might the blind man imagine that light is somber, and the blessing of sight productive of sadness: as well might the deaf imagine that music is only saddening-the gospel of Jesus produce gloom and sorrow! Surely this is a device of Satan to keep souls still in bondage. Reader, believe not the devil’s lie, but believe God’s glad tidings, and you shall know, that

“It is Jesus who must give,

Sweetest pleasures, while you live;

It is Jesus must supply,

Solid comfort when you die.”

“Believing, we rejoice

To see the curse remove;

We bless the Lamb with cheerful voice,

And sing His bleeding love.”

The invitations of the gospel of God’s grace are most broad, and liberal; they are infinitely gracious and free. “Come” says God; “for all things are now ready.” The whole work of redemption is now complete. Jesus has been raised up from the dead, and now “all things are ready.” All who know and feel that they are sinners, ill-deserving and hell-deserving, may now believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and have everlasting life.

“The vile, the lost, He calls to them,

Ye trembling souls appear!

The righteous in their own esteem

Have no acceptance here.

“Approach, ye poor, nor dare refuse

The banquet spread for you;

Dear Saviour, this is welcome news,

Then I may venture too.

“If guilt and sin afford a plea,

And may obtain a place,

Surely the Lord will welcome me,

And I shall see His face.”

Yes, sinner, the poorer the wretch, the welcomer is he to sit down to the gospel feast. None are excluded, save those who by their own obstinate unbelief, willfully exclude themselves. There is nothing wanting on God’s part to insure the full salvation of lost and sinful man. If any sinner perish, the fault is not on God’s side: it is the sinner’s own. The eternal Father is ready to receive all who come to Him by His Son Jesus Christ. The gracious Saviour is ready to save to the uttermost all who believe in His name, and of all who come unto Him, He has declared He will cast out none. The Holy Spirit is ready to lead all who are willing to the water of life. There is in God the Father, Son, and Spirit, an infinite willingness to save the guilty, if the guilty are only willing to be saved. The invitations to the gospel feast are unlimited. They are addressed to “every creature,” and “whosoever will” may come unto Him who is “mighty to save.” There is the amplest warrant for sinners to draw near to God by Christ. The word “COME” is addressed to all who hear the gospel. All who hear the good news, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save shiners, are “BIDDEN,” and to them that are “bidden,” God says, “Come.” Are you laboring and heavy laden? Hear Jesus saying, “COME unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Are you athirst? Jesus cries, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.” Are you poor and hungry? The voice of mercy cries, “Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” Are you dying and perishing? Hearken to the words of Jesus, “Incline your ear, and COME unto Me: hear, and your soul shall live.” None can say, I have no encouragement. I have no warrant to expect salvation. Here is the word of Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that word silences every objector, “Him that COMETH to Me I will in no wise cast out.” May you, dear reader, be able to exclaim,

“Lord, ‘tis enough, I ask no more,

These blessings are divine;

I envy not the worldling’s store,

Since Christ and heaven are mine.”

NOTE. ― The parable of the marriage feast recorded in Matt. 22:1-14, is distinct from that of the “great supper” in Luke 14. The former refers to the rejection of Jesus by the Jewish nation; its primary object is to shew the wickedness and unbelief of the Jews, and the calling of the Gentiles in their stead. Jesus came first unto the Jewish nation, the invitations of the gospel were first offered to the people of Israel; but when they rejected Christ as the long promised Messiah, they became liable to the curse, and the invitations of the gospel were presented to the Gentiles. The latter parable refers to the history of the gospel offer, and the reception it meets with from the Gentiles. Mere bidding to the gospel feast is in itself unavailing! other things are preferred before the salvation provided by Jesus. No sinner of himself will obey the invitations of the gospel; Jesus Himself must bring them in, and compel them by the force of His own love.

Influence.

IT is a terrible thing to be borne away by popular currents. I know nothing more calculated to disturb the serenity of the mind, than having it swept by every wind that crosses the surface of human society. Indeed as one that really knows what man is, what the human heart is, would trust its tides for one moment; and yet nothing is more difficult, in times of particular excitement, than to remain undisturbed, and above the level of surrounding influences. Were we not ourselves human, we should not feel this; and it is a proof of our weakness and inability to sustain ourselves in anything like moral elevation, that we do so feel it. However humbling this consideration may be, for the Christian it is a salutary, one, for it teaches him not to trust in himself, but to rely for strength and peace on the Lord alone, who brings blessing to him out of everything.

The free gift of all things God has bestowed upon His people. But it is with His Son. This unspeakable gift, this Christ, once received, all blessing follows in His train. Towards a lost world this marvelous kindness was directed, the full proof that God himself is Love. But the up-heaving sea of human depravity, rolling itself in madness against that Blessed One, nailed Him to the ignominious cross. Thus was love met by hatred, Divine goodness by human wickedness. Yet was not the love quenched thereby, but shone out the more brightly, surviving death, and such a death; yea, living still to be the plague of death―the destruction of the grave; living in resurrection that man might rise; living in heavenly glory that man might share that glory―might enjoy it through an endless day. This was love eternal, unquenchable, divine love; and Jesus, God’s own Son, is He in whom it dwells. He is the living One―the incorruptible God. In Him is rest, peace, heavenly blessedness, without alloy.

The heart of man is a dark gulph. He does not, himself, see half that is, in it. What fills the world with wrongs, oppressions, cruelties, woes? What makes the world a wilderness to the reflective mind, to the heart that has tasted good, and cannot be satisfied without it? The answer is not difficult to find: it is the selfishness of man that produces misery. Man, in his natural state, is a thorough desolator of the earth he treads on. When I say his natural state, I don’t mean his primitive state, for that was uprightness. His Maker pronounced him good; yea, very good, as all His works were when coming from His hand; and this fact, the goodness of the Creator, is abundantly witnessed by the rain from heaven, the fruitful seasons, the wonderful adaptation of every part of creation to its respective use; heaven and earth alike declaring the goodness, wisdom, power of Him who made them. Man, however, has got wrong, become a moral ruin. Falling from his first estate in Eden, through disobedience to the will of God, he presents, to the unfallen hosts of heaven, the sad spectacle of a lost and undone sinner; yet, so strangely insensible to his condition, so besotted by the wiles of the cruel tempter, by whom he was at first beguiled, that he heeds not, on the one hand, the truth that would rouse him to a sense of his condition, nor the whispers of conscience on the other, that all is not right between himself and God. And here again I would press the exceeding value of Holy Scripture as the oracles of God to man in this condition, the only light, in short, that can guide him or shed a ray of hope upon his soul. I know that these are made effectual to a man’s conversion only through the power of the Holy Spirit, who makes known to man what he himself is, and what God is in the person of Jesus Christ, the one blessed and only Saviour of the lost children of Adam. I am not insensible to the existence of a natural conscience in man, a sense of right and wrong in matters between man and man, often found in a higher degree in one than another. These moral differences I fully own, though how far circumstances may have operated in fostering or repressing them, would be, no doubt, an interesting question. I have met with noble instances of generosity, the fruit of Christian love for the most part, but some, perhaps, where natural kindness and affection prompted the act. One cannot always tell. But these things are the exceptions, not the rule, in speaking of man as he is. The rule is selfishness, and selfishness leads to wrong doing. I have looked at man as a whole, represented in the first man, in the aspect which he presents morally towards his Maker. That Adam was saved eternally (as an individual) from the consequences of the fall, I have not a doubt. God promised the seed of the woman, and His victory over the destroyer; and Adam believed God’s word. This is salvation. Faith in God’s word always is, when it is the faith of the heart, for a lost sinner has no resource but in God’s remedy, and God’s remedy is an uplifted Christ―a Christ crucified in weakness, yet living by the power of God. “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Man universally is in need of this salvation, for as regards the blessed God, there has been a universal revolt from Him on the part of man, the carrying out or development of that fallen nature that came out of Eden, as it is written, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” But we may look at individual men, and here an immense variety of character presents itself. As in external features, no two will be found precisely alike, so each mind will probably have some distinguishing characteristics which will always mark it as being itself, and no other. Of course we know that there are strong minds and weak ones, that the former will leave their impress in very considerable measure on the latter, whenever there is contact between them, and no small part of human history is made up of these effects; but it is not the less true, that individuality remains, and will remain, as I believe, ever. I follow this no further for the moment, but the subject is so interesting so much is involved in it, that I hope (D.V.) to return to it again.

Familiar Letters From a Father to His Children, on "The Times of the Gentiles."

No. 14.

MY DEAR CRILDREN, ―I told you in my last letter how much the Roman character had deteriorated, owing to the great influx of riches in consequence of their successful foreign wars. This deterioration became manifest at the conclusion of the Third Punic War and the destruction of Carthage. At this time a zeal for the republic, which formerly marked the career of their great men, gave place to a sordid desire for self-aggrandizement and power. The wealth possessed by some individuals was fabulous. The senate no longer commanded the respect of the people, as it was evident that their laws were made for their own selfish ends, and not for the general welfare. There were not wanting men like the Gracchi, who were aware of this general decay, and who strove to put new life into the nation; but it was too late. As the republic became enlarged by foreign conquests, decay became more manifest within. All was rotten at the center. Partizan leaders, such as Marius and Sylla, possessed themselves of the power of the state; there was a servile war (that is, a breaking out of the slaves), and an internal or civil war, occasioned by the demand of all Italians to have the rights of Roman citizenship. All this exhausted the resources of the state treasury, although private citizens were enriching themselves, and luxury was on the increase. If, then, the empire was to be saved, the government must be changed: and Julius Caesar, who aimed at an imperial crown, foresaw this; it fell upon the head of his successor, Augustus. Let me, however, tell you, that during this moral decay there never was a time when such powerful minds were in existence, and those minds were cultivated. Poets, orators, historians, were abounding; the arts, too, such as music and painting, were flourishing. This is often the case; the moral feelings being gone, the intellect, unbridled, assumes a gigantic proportion. There was another cause of decline, in that her philosophers were affirming the immortality of the soul, and deriding, or at all events depreciating, the gods, whose existence they respected only as a bridle upon the common people. Preparations were thus made for a new faith, and Christianity arose—a faith which was to act upon the moral feelings and affections, and thus renew the entire man; a faith which, presenting God in the gift of His Son for man’s redemption, satisfied his heart by offering him an object worthy of his worship. The reception of such a religion quickly made an end of idols. Satan was attacked in his strongholds; for the very blessing that affected men’s hearts in the knowledge of the true God, revealed the delusions under which they had been living, and withdrew them from their influence. Hence this great enemy of mar arrayed the powers of the world against the religion of Christ. For the first two or three centuries the Christians lived a very uncertain existence, never really tolerated, and often openly persecuted, until, in the year A. D. 313, Constantine publicly owned the God of the Christians, and persecution was no longer allowed. But before this time, the unwieldy empire had in all about forty-six imperial masters, very few of whom died a natural death, and of whom many were monsters of cruelty and vice. Its proportions were found so incapable of being managed by one man, that, thirty-seven years before the reign of Constantine, it had been divided under four heads, to each of which, but embracing a general unity, was assigned a large territory. Under Constantine the whole empire was again united, and a new capital erected at Byzantium (now Constantinople), ―a place more central than Rome for repressing the attacks on the empire from the Parthians on the east, and the Goths on the west. Constantine died A.D. 337, after having reigned thirty-one years in all, and thirteen and a-half after obtaining the whole empire. He was only upon superstitious grounds baptized on his death-bed. Although his mind had imbibed the Christian dogmas for some years, and many of his laws evidence the humane and softening influences of its truths, yet it may be doubted if his heart ever assented to the lowly faith of Jesus. But, in truth, the professing Church had by this time become very corrupt. Although all that was really good within the empire was from Christianity, yet it must be allowed that Christians had lost the peculiar hope of their calling―that is, the second Advent of Christ, and with it their pilgrim walk. The bishops and ecclesiastical corporations possessed very large properties, and had, by their forgetfulness of the purposes of God towards His earthly people the Jews, appropriated to themselves the promises in the latter part of Isaiah. Thus, when the Bishops were received by Constantine, they used, as of him towards the Church, such expressions as, “Kings shall be thy nursing fathers and queens thy nursing mothers” (Isaiah 49:23) which is evidently a prophecy of the readiness with which, in the time of Israel’s supremacy the kings of the earth shall minister and be subservient to her. In fact, the clergy, long ere this, had begun “to cat and drink with the drunken,” (Matthew 24:49) and were more intent on the assertion of their rights, and in the exaltation of ordinances, than in preaching and teaching Christ. Brilliant exceptions, indeed, there were, but such men were more engaged in the combat against the Arian heresy―a lowering of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ to the level of a created being who had raised its head in the Churches—than in furthering the progress and growth of Christians in their more positive faith. No doubt this fostering of the Church by the “powers that be,” was a sign of her fall. She no longer retained her independence, and minced her doctrines to suit the taste of the ruling powers. But this amalgamation of Church and State, begun in the reign of Constantine, has continued ever since, and its evil fruits are ripening to this day. May you, my dear children, grow up in allegiance to your Lord and Master Jesus Christ, who has bought you with the price of His own blood, and therefore claims your loyal affections. Along with this goes that due and respectful submission to those whom God has ordained to rule over this world. “The powers that be are ordained of God;” but these powers are never supposed to do anything offensive to the conscience of a Christian. If they ask this, it must be declined in obedience to Christ. Such was the test when the Roman empire was a persecuting power: Christians were commanded to do sacrifice to heathen deities, and this being declined, the martyr’s crown was often the consequence.

On the death of Constantine, there was again a division of the empire among his three sons; but the first and the last having died violent deaths, the empire devolved on Constantius. Eventually, A.D. 364, the empire became permanently settled into East and West, under Valentinian and Valeus, with Rome as the capital of the West. Distinct interests arose, and now was the time for hordes of barbarians to crowd in upon and pass her frontiers. In A.D. 376, nearly a million of Goths were peaceably admitted across the Danube, and settled within the limits of the Roman empire. In A.D. 410, the Goths, under Alaric, took and pillaged Rome. From A.D. 433 to 453, the Huns ravaged the empire; and from A.D. 455 to 476, it fell under the power of the Vandals. In this last year, the Emperor Augustulus, being attacked at Rome by Odoacer, general of the Heruli, nominally a part of his own army, assembled the senate, who made a decree by which they solemnly disclaimed the necessity or even the wish of continuing any longer the imperial succession in Italy. Odoacer assumed the crown of Italy, and Augustulus retired to a villa. Thus ended the Roman imperial power in the West. Ever since that time Europe has been divided; that is, split up into several monarchies, each with its own objects; for as the several barbarian tribes made their inroad into the empire they each took their part of it, and erected separate monarchies. Hence arose the great kingdoms of France, Spain, England, &c. But I must tell you how it came to pass that some sort of consistency and order was made to prevail in those countries. From the fourth century, ever since the Christian religion had been taken into public favor, the Bishop of Rome had become a sort of referee in public affairs, as well as acknowledged primate in the professing Church of the West. When the Roman emperorship was set aside by Odoacer, he adapted himself to the circumstances, and taught the half-enlightened barbarians how to rule. In this way he increased his own authority, and still more so when Rome was deserted by the barbarian kings for Ravenna, which left him a sort of headship in the abandoned city. All this time, you must remember, there was still in the East the title of Roman Emperor in the person of whoever was reigning at Constantinople. The first great kingdom which established itself was that of Gaul―the present France. They were called Franks, and were heard of on the banks of the Lower Rhine and of the Weser as early as A.D. 260. Clovis, the first king, reigned A.D. 481. He had been a Pagan, but had married a Christian of the Orthodox (that is Catholic) faith; for at this time Arianism was generally prevailing, viz., a denial of the propel Godhead of Christ. The Bishop of Rome supported the pretensions of Clovis in the interests of the true faith, and in this way also increased his own power. In short, all the kings who established themselves on the ruins of the Roman empire found it to be their interest to play into the hands of the Bishop of Rome, moved at once by superstitious awe of a kind of Divine power residing in the chair of St. Peter, and by the attractive force of Christianity, which, ever in its fallen state, inculcates morality, virtue justice, and order. It can hardly be questioned that, to the presence of the Roman bishop in the hallowed metropolis of the world, when the barbarian nations crossed the Danube and the Rhine and to the skillful use which he made of his opportunities, we owe the settlement and civilization of modern Europe, burdened though that settlement and civilization be, by the recognition of and allegiance to, an ecclesiastical power quite foreign to the mind of God, as set forth in the New Testament, and productive as it has beer of those scandals and corruptions in Christendom which will inevitably bring down the judgment of God, as you will find in Revelation 17, 18. This division of the Roman earth is mentioned in Daniel 2 and 7, and has a very important bearing on events at the close of the times we are living in, and I hope to call your attention to them in my next letter.

Your affectionate Father,

Tell Jesus.

Mark 6:30.

WHEN thy Spirit is depress’d,

When thou art for sin distreas’d,

And thou think’st thyself unbless’d,

Go, tell Jesus all.Matt. 5:4.

Fear not to unload thy grief:

He alone can give relief,

And can make thy sorrows brief―

Go, tell Jesus all.Phil. 4:6.

When temptation tries thee sore,

Though thou scarce canst struggle more,

In His ear thy trouble pour:

Yes, tell Jesus all.Heb. 4:15, 16.

If by doubts thy soul’s assailed,

And thy faith has almost fail’d,

Flee to Him whose prayer prevailed,

And tell Jesus all.Luke 22:32.

If thy way so darksome prove, ―

Hidden be His smile of love,

He can all those clouds remove:

So, tell Jesus all.Isaiah 50:10.

Should thy brother’s footsteps stray

From the strait and narrow way,

Do not thou his faults display,

But tell Jesus all.Gal. 6:1; Jam. 5:16.

When thy earthly joys abound,

Sorrow far from thee be found,

Gladness all thy steps surround,

Then tell Jesus all.1 Thess. 5:18

Joy and gladness ne’er shall bring

Happiness, unless they spring

From thy Lord, thy Life, the King;

So, tell Jesus all.Col. 2:2

When we rest in heaven at last

All our sins and trials past,

And our crowns before Him cast,

Well tell Jesus all. Rev. 4:10; 5:9, 10.

L. L.

The Lamb Taking the Book.

Rev. 5:7.

IS it by His blood the Lamb here prevails to take the book, or the title to the inheritance. The “Lion of the tribe of Judah” is seen in the person of “the Lamb that was slain.” His blood was His title. His blood made Him the purchaser of the inheritance; He is now its redeemer, as the prevailing Lion of Judah. And, consequently, as the Lamb, He is the spring and fountain of all the resulting glories of the kingdom. Extensive virtues of the blood of Jesus! It has been the object of faith―the ground of worship―the title of security―the bond of covenants―from the beginning. By it Abel was an accepted worshipper, and even Adam himself a believing reconciled sinner. By it Abraham had the covenant of promise made with Him. By it the people of the Lord dwelt safe while the sword of judgment gassed over. By it the veil of the temple was rent―all distance between God and sinners removed. By it the trumpet of the jubilee might give forth its gladdening notes; for on the day of atonement they were to sound it. By it the saints redeemed from earth, and seated in heaven, look to return as kings over the earth, in the train and honor of that slain Lamb, whose blood, but whose blood only has all this prevalence in it.

Thus, there is no blessing or dignity, nothing of either grace or glory, which this blood cannot command for us poor sinners; but there is no other price for anything, no other ground or title for blessing but itself. It does everything, and it does it alone. Adam lost both himself and his estate; he became a sinner in his own person, and also an exile from Eden. But the blood of Jesus, God’s Lamb that was slain, restores all.

In Israel, there was the ordinance of redeeming the inheritance, as well as the heir or person. (Leviticus 25) If either an Israelite or his possession had been sold, it was both his kinsman’s duty and right to ransom him and it. Now Jesus has approved himself our kinsman in both ways. The Son of God became the Son of Man, and thus showed His kinsman-nature. He died to purchase us and our inheritance by blood, and thus showed His kinsman-love ... ... The kinsman in Israel had a title to redeem the inheritance; but then he had to do it on condition of discharging the debt that was on it. Jesus has paid a full and more than adequate value, as is here owned; for the book or title to the redeemed possession passes into His hand. But the usurper of the inheritance is still to be removed; the enemies to be made the kinsman’s footstool; and whether the action be that of God, or that of the Lamb himself, the character of the action is equally clear and certain. The action is the redemption of the inheritance flowing from the Lamb’s acknowledged title. The book taken by the Lamb is His title-deed. He has already been the Purchaser of the inheritance, ―He is now to be the Redeemer. ― An Extract.

Brief Notes of an Address on John 16.

WE get here the power the Christian has, and also, dimly, the hope of the believer; though the Lord has set this hope more clearly in the 14th chapter.

In chapter 16 we have a thorough breach in the world with respect to Christians; just the place we are in. We have to go through the world without.

Our tendency is to walk by sight; it was so with the Hebrews.

We have given up all for Christ, and practically have not got Him yet.

All we have in this world is all that Abraham had, all that Christ had―a sepulcher―and it is enough; consequently, where is our position? If faith is not in exercise there is nothing to hinder the power of evil going on; we have to live a life of faith in that which we do not see; not seeing at all the thing which we value, but the very opposite. If the world cannot have you with it, it will be against you. Wherever the conscience of the world is blamed they will not like it; they will either have no conscience, or else be offended.

There are two things which characterize our present position here in contradistinction with that of the Old Testament saints―the presence of the Holy Ghost, and the hope of the Lord’s coming.

The turning point in the world’s history was the rejection of the Son of God; it was the close of all God’s dealings with the world. When He next deals with the world, it will be in judgment.

The prince of this world was the name that Satan got by the Cross. The world under its prince rejected the Lord, and we are called on by Him now to pass through it; and that which characterizes us is that we have received the Comforter. God dwells in the saints, and it is thus He is known. Where there is faith there is a divine certainty.

If the world is convicted of sin, I cannot look for righteousness in it. The place in which righteousness is in Christ.

We are called upon by God to go through this world with the sense that we are in a judged system. We get the things of the Father in contrast with the world, the things of the Son in contrast with the devil, and the Spirit in contrast with the flesh.

We shall see Him again is our only hope in a world with which we have no link or connection. As regards God’s dealings with it, He still for a little while deals with it in grace. All trial of man is over, and judgment follows.

There is nothing true but faith; all else is a lie.

When we see Christ we shall be astonished at, the way we have walked with the world; at the little nonentities that have occupied our thoughts. What faith knows is the only true thing.

We lost everything in this world by mistrusting God, and trusting Satan; now we are called upon by God to trust Him for everything.

The believer may fall in the wilderness, but cannot get back into Egypt, as the Red Sea has closed behind, and prevents his passage back.

Notes on the Book of Revelation.

The Judgment of Babylon the Great. Chap. 18.

IN the last chapter we saw the instrumentality: employed by God in the judgment of Babylon the Great, but here God alone appears al having taken vengeance upon this terrible abomination.

It is not the sin of adultery which is charged upon Babylon, but fornication. Israel was ad dressed by the prophet Jeremiah as married to Jehovah (chapter 3:16); and Ezekiel says, “Thou hast not been an harlot, in that thou scornest hire; but as a wife that committeth adultery which taketh strangers instead of her husband” (chapters 16:31, 32). But the Church is only espoused, having the marriage in anticipation; therefore the sin of those professing to be betrothed to the Son of God, who depart in heart and ways from Him for the hire of the seducer, is fornication, or harlotry. To confess Christ with the lip, while the affections and desires of the soul are going out after other objects, such as the pride, lust, and gain of this world, is the special sin here marked out. Happy those whose affections are so set upon Jesus, as to be able to say in truth, “He is all my salvation, and all my desire.”

“My heart is fix’d, eternal God,

Fix’d on thee;

And my eternal choice is made:

Christ for me! Christ for me!”

Our chapter opens by John telling us that he saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightener with his glory. It was another angel, not the same angel that shewed him the woman and the beast, and expounded the mysteries in the previous chapter. This latter angel makes a terrible announcement: “He cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, Babylon the Great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.” (verse 2.) Such will be Babylon: utterly devilish and unclean, given up to Satan and his hosts, because nations kings, and merchants, through her fleshly lusts have gratified their desires in trafficking with her. Nations drank her intoxicating wine; the kings of the earth found her willing embrace; and merchants heaped up riches through her aid. “For all nations have drunk of the wine of thy wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.” (verse 3.) How easy it is for a man to call himself a Christian, and yet in heart and soul to be of the world! How ready is man to acknowledge God with his lips, while his heart is far from Him! But God must have realities. He will have His beloved Son honored. He is the God of judgment, and by Him actions are weighed. He searcheth the heart and trieth the reins of the children of men, and from Him no secrets are hid. How little, perhaps, do any of us think what is going on all around, through the harlot’s intoxicating cup. The process may be a very gradual one in some eases; but the golden cup attracts the eye; the sparkling jewels and costly attire are strikingly alluring to the senses; and at last the bewitching cup is sipped. Its inebriating effects soon follow, and madly urge the soul to drink again the hellish mixture, which falsely promises both worlds, by utterly confusing law and gospel, Church and world, Christ and Belial. It is indeed, a deadly poison, filling the mind with vainglorious thoughts and self-inflated intentions while it hardens the heart against Christ, and sears the conscience as to the grace and truth of God. Hence deliberate overtures are made to the world for the sake of earthly gain, and her moth-eaten and corrupting treasures are most cordially embraced. “Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.” (Psalms 73:12.) How different are the effects of drinking the cup of blessing of the precious blood of Christ! The more we drink of that cup, the more are we filled with the love of God, strengthened with might in the inner man, comforted and enlarged; we realize, too, the hollow and dissatisfying character of this guilty world, and our affections and longings of soul are drawn toward Christ, and God, and glory! While we drink of the cup of blessing, and contemplate the sorrows of the Son of God upon the tree, our very bowels are so moved toward our living, loving Jesus, that we cannot help exclaiming, ―

“See from His head, His hands, His feet,

Sorrow and love flow mingled down;

Did e’er such love and sorrow meet?

Or thorns compose so bright a crown?

“Were the whole realm of nature mine,

That were an offering far too small;

Love so amazing, so divine,

Demands my heart, my life, my all.”

The testimony of this angel is followed by another voice out of heaven to God’s people: for, as we have before seen. God will have a people in the earth at that time, whom He will sustain, and bring through the fiery trial, the “great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” (Matthew 24:21.) The voice says: “Come out of her, my people, that ye partake not in her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” (verse 4.) And if true then, for saints having an earthly calling and hope, how far deeper the obligation of those who are one with a rejected Christ, holy brethren, and partakers of the heavenly calling. Here seems to be the peculiarly solemn bearing of these chapters on us. The book, we know, is prefaced with the promise of blessing to those who read it, or hear, and keep those things which are written therein. Nothing can be plainer than the path marked out for the members of the body of Christ, of separation from all the rapidly growing principles of Babylon the great. It is high time to move onward, in obedience to our Lord Jesus. It is pleasant and interesting to consider the various details of the prophetic truths which God has so mercifully revealed; but if they do not lead us to action, may we not fear lest the light that is in us be darkness? May the Lord help us. It is very solemn to stand in the bright light of the sure word of prophecy. There is such a thing as having fellowship in others’ sins, and we are warned concerning it by this voice from heaven. We dare not be neutral. Neither can we act as mere individuals, for we are members of one body―the body of Christ. We either do or de not have fellowship with sins. The sin of this harlot is very black; it is heaping up, already piled very high, and will quickly reach unto heaven, and then God’s judgment must come. Are we in any wise partakers of her sins? Have we folly come out of her? God says. “Come out.” Have we heard and obeyed this word of the Lord? Let us not forget that Jesus said “He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; and he that loveth me, shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself unto him....If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not, keepeth not my sayings.” (John 14:21-24.) Let us, beloved, ponder the path of our feet. Let us search and see to what our hearts are attached. Is it really Christ we are serving? Are we giving Him His rightful place as our Lord, and acting worthy of His wondrous friendship? Are we minding earthly things? or are things above occupying our affections and desires? The iniquities of Babylon, so grievous in God’s sight, are ripening for special judgment. Very soon it will be said, “God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double.” (vv. 5, 6.)

Self is Babylon’s prevailing principle. How, unlike the meek and lowly Jesus, who pleased not Himself, but could always say, “Not my will, but thine be done.” “I do always those things which please Him.” The Church of God, too, is spoken of as subject unto Christ; and true discipleship consists in denying self, taking up the cross, and following Christ. Babylon is not like this; ―self-love, self-seeking, self-reliance, and self-exaltation, mark her till her time of utter abasing come. Then it will be said,” How much she hath glorified herself and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her; for she said in her heart (how solemn!) I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

THEREFORE, shall her plagues come in one day―death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire; for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.” (vv. 7, 8.) When God judges, He shows Himself to be the Searcher of the heart. He knows what is underneath many a burning lip, and is able to judge righteously. And in Babylon, where there was luxuriance and extravagance, He brings “famine;” Where the heart boastingly said, “I shall see no sorrow,” He brings “death;” and makes the one who in self-exaltation said, “I sit a queen, and am no widow,” to feel the bitterness of “mourning.”

The suddenness, violence, and final character of the judgment, are clearly pointed out. So sudden, that we are told “her plagues shall come in one day.” “In one hour is thy judgment come;” “in one hour so great riches is come to naught;” “in one hour is she made desolate.” Like the other judgments, when men are saying, “peace and safety,” then sudden destruction cometh; or, as in Belshazzar’s infidel feast, while the thousand lords and princes were merry with wine, praising the gods of gold and silver, and filled with the excitement of the royal revelry, “in the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote against the wall.” (Daniel 5:15.)

The violence of Babylon’s desolation and destruction is shown by a mighty angel, “who took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city, Babylon, be thrown down.” (verse 21.) Ah, when God’s wrath is kindled it is full of fury, and will be a fiery indignation which shall devour His adversaries.

As to the final character of the judgment, this is many times alluded to in this chapter. “No man buyeth their merchandize any more.” “The fruits that thy soul thirsted after are departed from thee, and all things dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all.” Babylon “shall be found no more at all. And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, shall be heard no more at all in thee: and no craftsman of whatsoever craft he be shall be found any more in thee: and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee: and the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee: and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee.” (vv. 21, 23.) We are elsewhere told, that “her smoke rose up forever and ever.” (Chap. 19:3.)

Such is the fearful and everlasting doom that awaits this false religious system, this Christless Christianity of the present age. But let us now look at the persons who had fellowship with her iniquity, and therefore received her plagues.

1. The kings of the earth weep and wail when they see the smoke of her burning. Their misery is great, when they think of that great city, that mighty city, and the abundance of her luxuries.

2. The merchants of the earth weep and lament also, because all this money-getting traffic is suddenly come to an end. “The merchants ... which were made rich by her, stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, and saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls! for in one hour so great riches is come to naught.” (verses 15-17.)

3. The shipmasters, and sailors, and traders by sea, weep too; “they cast dust upon their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness!” (verse 19.) Such are some of the distresses of those who are found associated with Babylon in that day. They seem, while on this earth, to be literally weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth.

But we must not pass over the long list of merchandise that characterizes this great city. There are twenty-eight things enumerated, and they are arranged in seven classes. The first is a list of ornaments, ―gold, and silver, and precious stones, and pearls. The second class is costly and showy attire, ― “fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet.” The third class is elegant and costly furniture, ― “all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble.” The fourth class is perfumery, ― “cinnamon, and odors, and ointments, and frankincense.” The fifth class is food, ― “wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep.” The sixth class, splendid equipages, ― “horses and chariots.” The seventh class, men’s bodies and souls, ― “slaves, and souls of men.” (verses 12, 13.) It is evident that this catalog presents what the lusts and pride of men in all nations most seek after. Gold stands at the head of the list, because that is of the most value man’s esteem, and the souls of men at the bottom of the list, because the soul is of the least importance in man’s account. Do we not see here some of the real acting’s of nominal Christianity? hence salvation is the last thing that is considered; but, with true believers, the soul stands highest in the scale of importance, and the present possession of eternal life is the starting point.

We have purple and scarlet in this list, but no blue, for blue is typical of that which is heavenly, and according to God. The blue canopy over us tells us that, and we read that “the heavens declare the glory of God.” There is nothing of that which is above in Babylon: it is earthly, carnal, and devilish, and its scarlet color, like the color of red earth, is in keeping with it.

But further. In the midst of all this misery on earth at the desolating judgment of this harlot, the heart is relieved by the mind of heaven being introduced, and its warrant of rejoicing over it all. (verse 20.) The true rendering of the verse is, “Rejoice over her heaven, and you saints, and apostles, and prophets; for God hath judged your judgment upon her.” This is an important point to notice. The order is the same as in Ephesians,—apostles and prophets, and not prophets and apostles. Had it been the latter, there might be some doubt as to whether Old Testament prophets or New Testament prophets were meant. We see also that they are associated with saints, which exactly corresponds with those who are Christ’s at His coming, and caught up to meet the Lord in the air. The heavenly saints, therefore, are above, while Babylon’s judgment is going on in the earth; and they rejoice, while those who have been associated with the harlot instead of with the Son of God, are weeping and wailing. All this, as we know, takes place before the Lord comes out of heaven in flaming fire, to judge the world in righteousness. It is a blessed feature in the apocalyptic writings, that when the soul is saddened at contemplating the visions of God’s judicial vengeance, we are every now and then reminded that our place is above, on thrones with the Lamb. Even now, as risen and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ, we can sing,

“He comes; for oh! His yearning heart

No more can bear delay;

To scenes of full unmingled joy

To call His Bride away.

Thin earth, the scene of all His woe,

A homeless wild to thee,

Full soon upon His heavenly throne

Its rightful King shall see.

Thou, too, shalt reign. He will not wear

His crown of joy alone!

And earth His royal Bride shall see

Beside Him on the throne.

Then weep no more! ‘tis all thine own―

His crown, His joy divine;

And, greater far than all beside,

HE, HE HIMSELF is thine.”

With all Babylon’s greatness, revelry, and mirth, the awful conclusion of her description is, that “in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.” (verse 24.) Does not this solemn history remind us of our Lord’s warning to those who profess to be His servants, and yet find companionship with the enemies of the Lord? “But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My Lord delayeth His owning; and shall begin to smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; the Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for Him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint bin, his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matt. 245:48-51.)

The Burden Bearer

“Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee.” Psa. 55:12.

A MAN and a little boy about five years old, ―possessing the self-importance and self-will which are often seen in childhood, ―were walking homeward from a certain town; the former carrying a parcel. Presently, his little companion said, “Please let me carry the parcel?”

“Oh, no; you are not strong enough.”

“I can carry it very well, I’m sure,” said the child, too eager to play the man.

My dear child, ‘tis too large for you.”

“No, no; please to let me have it?”

“I tell you it is too large and too heavy for you!”

“Oh, no; I can carry it. Please let me have it?” using his best endeavor to lay hold on the parcel.

“Very well; you have determined it. The parcel is no burden to me, but I tell you again―it is too large and heavy for you; but as you will have it, here it is!”

For about a minute he carried it most manfully.

“Ah,” said his friend, “you don’t mind what the people at the windows say of me! For aught you know, they may say: ‘What a shame! see―that little, weak boy is carrying a large parcel, and the strong man’s hand is empty!’ but you would have your own will.”

The little boy turned the too heavy burden over to the other arm. His friend appeared not to notice this, but said: “Nothing short of your own will, you know, would satisfy you!”

He then turned the conversation. Back went the burden to the other arm again; but pride made no complaint. His friend talked of this and that, the relatives and friends of the child, the weather, and so on; while the little wearied one changed perpetually the self-imposed load from arm to arm. At last he said:

“It is very heavy.”

“I told you so before you took it.”

“It is very heavy indeed!”

“I told you it was too heavy, and yet you would have it.”

“It is very―heavy―too heavy; will you―please―carry it?”

“Surely I will! Why did you not ask me before?”

This occurred nearly twenty years ago. To this day the story serves to discipline the man who had the burdened child for his companion. It has helped him for these years to consider that it is better to roll the lightest burdens at once on God, who is the willing, the gracious, burden-bearer, than carry heavy burdens one’s self to God’s dishonor.

It is one thing to be a ready servant of our heavenly Master; another, to carry burdens which “devour our strength,” and which He never puts upon us.

"How Much Owest Thou Unto My Lord?"

Luke 16:5.

TREMBLING, and weeping sore, I dared no answer frame,

For the debt He laid before me was more than I could name;

Low at His feet I fell; in anguish there I lay:

“Judge as Thou wilt, O God! but I can nothing pay;

For I have naught in which Thy holiness can rest;

And I have naught Thy righteous judgment to arrest;

I can pay nothing, and Thy wrath on me must fall.”

Then Jesus spake, “Weep not; I freely pardon all.”

Close to His side I press; I lean upon His arm;

Naught to my charge is laid, and none can do me harm;

This pardon and this peace I owe unto my Lord,

Who blotted out what was against me with His blood.

And now I fain would pay this debt of His free love,

By giving Him my life, my gratitude to prove:

But when I thus would serve, I find I ne’er can show,

By this poor love and stumbling walk, how much I owe.

Therefore, my soul, in patience, waits till He shall come,

Who is Himself the brightness of my unseen home;

Then I shall gaze upon Him, all His love shall know,

And by my Lord’s fair beauty, learn how much I owe.

Forever my soul’s joy shall go forth to His praise,

And love and gratitude shall hallelujahs raise;

Forever His redeeming, mighty love He’ll show;

Forever I’ll be learning, how vast the debt I owe.

A. C. C.

On Worldly Conformity in Dress.

IT is surely matter of lamentation that, among many Christian women, there is apparently so little exercise of conscience in reference to worldly conformity in dress. With too many the question is not, what saith the Scriptures? What saith the claims of the gospel? or What saith conscience? but simply, What saith the world of fashion? and by that they seem governed. If they do their own will without regard to God’s will, this is the very essence of sin. When the Spirit of God enlightens the conscience, and the commandment is seen to be “exceeding broad,” then do we discover that even “the thought of foolishness is sin;” that “whatsoever is not of faith is sin;” that “he that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin;” and that much that is “highly esteemed among men, is abomination in the sight of God.” The Bible is not so much a book of rules as of principles, and to act contrary to any one of these divine principles, is to transgress God’s law, or in other words to commit sin, for “Sin is the transgression of the law or lawlessness.” It is written, “Be not conformed to this world;” but in respect to dress, how many act as if the command had been directly opposite. Line of separation between themselves and the world there is very little, if any! now, thus to act is to sin against God. We are commanded to “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” But too many give undeniable evidence by the sacrifices they make to obtain the world’s gaudy trappings, that they do indeed love these things, and this is to sin against God. We are told to deny ourselves, and all “worldly lusts,” to walk as strangers and pilgrims, as delivered out of this present evil world, to do all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the glory of God. Now, not to regulate our lives by these holy principles, is to sin against God.

But not only have we these and other plain general distinctions, God our heavenly Father has condescended to give us special and particular instructions on this point. He expressly commands, “that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; but (which becometh women professing godliness), with good works.” (1 Timothy 2:9.) Again, by the apostle Peter, in language no less clear and emphatic: “Whose adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. “What an easy and what a reasonable requirement, and yet by many professing Christians totally disregarded! and to do this is most plainly to sin against God. But it is when viewed in connection with the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ that this forbidden “costly array” is seen to be “exceeding sinful.” “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us; we ought to lay down our lives (not only our childish vanities, but even our lives) for the brethren. But whoso hath this world’s goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?” Viewed in this light, how obviously is it sinful to spend money, and that not our own, but the Lord’s, (for we are only his stewards) on so unworthy an object as that of winning the admiring gaze of a Christ-rejecting world, while Jesus, bearing in his body the marks of the bitter agony he endured for us pleads the cause of his poor sorrowing and afflicted members. Have we tasted that the Lord is gracious, and can we thus requite His love? “The fashion of this world passeth away:” soon, and we shall have done forever with earth’s vanities. In view of heaven and eternity, we see the folly of the “gold, and pearls, and costly array:” in view of the cross and the glory, we see their exceeding sinfulness.

“Oh! from the world’s vile slavery,

Almighty Saviour set us free;

And as our treasure is above,

Be there our thoughts, be there our love.”

The Gospel by John and the Apocalypse.

THE book of Revelation is the glory, not of the bosom of the Father (John 1:11), but of the throne of God. (Revelation 1:14.) It is the effulgence, not of Him who lay in the one place, but of Him who is to inherit the other.... If the bosom have comforted us, may I not say, the throne may now elevate us―if we stand in grace we may learn judgment.

The gospel by John conducts us to the Father’s house; our path there ends, as the path of children in that home of love. But the Apocalypse by John gives us the action that clears the earth for the kingdom and the glory, and gets the golden city ready; and our path here ends as the path of heirs in that place of glory. For both are ours―the joys of children, and the dignity of heirs; the home of the Father, and the throne of the Son.”

Inside the Veil: Outside the Camp.

Heb. 10:19, 13:15.

THROUGH thy precious body broken―

Inside the Veil.

Oh! what words to sinners spoken―

Inside the Veil.

Precious, as the blood that bought us;

Perfect, as the love that sought us;

Holy, as the Lamb that brought us

Inside the Veil.

When we see Thy love unshaken,

Outside the Camp.

Scorn’d by man, by God forsaken,

Outside the Camp.

Thy lov’d Cross alone can charm us;

Shame doth now no more alarm us;

Glad we follow, naught can harm us,

Outside the Camp.

Lamb of God! through thee we enter

Inside the Veil.

Cleansed by Thee, we boldly venture

Inside the Veil.

Not a stain; a holy nation;

Ours is such a full salvation;

Low we how in adoration,

Inside the Veil.

Unto thee, the homeless stranger,

Outside the Camp,

Forth we hasten, fear no danger,

Outside the Camp.

Thy reproach, far richer treasure

Than all Egypt’s boasted pleasure;

Drawn by love that knows no measure,

Outside the Camp.

Soon Thy Saints shall all be gather’d,

Inside the Veil.

All AT HOME―no more be scatter’d―

Inside the Veil.

Naught from Theo our hearts shall sever;

We shall see Thee, grieve Thee never;

“Praise the Lamb!” shall sound forever,

Inside the Veil.

E. S.

The Training of Children.

(Mr. Hake has just published a most valuable little book, price on this subject. The title is, “How shall we order the Child?” We most earnestly recommend it to every Christian parent, and to any others engaged in training the young. It may be had of the publishers of “The Evangelist.”) The following is a brief summary of the contents: ―

“FIRST. Through the Holy Scriptures, and by the grace and teaching of the Spirit of God parents are to learn and know the will of God, and to bring up their children, from their infancy, after such a manner, that they may understand that, as the parents get blessing through honoring and obeying God, their heavenly Father, so the children are certain of blessing through honoring and obeying their earthly parents.

Second. There are two great rules for the training of children: Let the parents have no will but God’s; the children, none but that of their parents under God.

Third. Should not the parent say, my child is God’s loan to me, as if God had said, “Take this child and nurse it for me.” My child is a gift from God, to serve as a mirror to me; it may be, to shew me much of my own ignorance, pride, selfishness, self-will; to help me to humble myself before God, and so the better to fulfill the parent’s obligations.

Fourth. We cannot be too diligent in learning through the Scriptures, for ourselves, and the rood of our children, the ways of the Lord Jesus Christ. His kind deeds, and words, and faithfulness. As we look to Christ, we are conformed to Him; and in that way we obtain ability from God to train our children.

Fifth. The Word being our Guide, the Spirit of God our Teacher, and Christ our Exemplar; we, walking in His steps, shall maintain and cause to grow the child’s love and confidence. Patience will be tried and rewarded, and by exercise increased.

Sixth. Parents will do well to remember that they are fellow-heirs of the grace of life, who should walk together in the narrow, yet blessed path, of training their children, communing with. God, “minding the same thing;” carefully, yea, with godly fear, avoiding the manifestation of the slightest difference of judgment before their children.

Seventh. The order of God is, that the son should honor the father and mother. The parents must rule, that they may serve. True heavenly love and godly rule are inseparable.

Eighth. If, to avoid present trouble, we yield when we ought to command, we sow the wind, and may expect to reap, in after years, the whirlwind. Nevertheless, whatever the age of the children, whatever the distress from disobedience, it is never too late to get the help of the Lord. Pour out your hearts before God―He is the Almighty―the All-wise. His hand is not waxed short. His compassions never fail.

Lastly. The end we have in view is the present and everlasting happiness of our children; our heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is, that they may be saved from the world’s fellowship, as well as from the world’s destruction; and that God may be glorified, not in their salvation from the wrath to come only, but in their becoming friends, and faithful witnesses for God, and good soldiers of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

To sanctify God in your hearts, is to give credit to God for all His love.

God’s way of salvation is hearing, believing, having (John 5:24) ―not doing, praying, or feeling. Conviction is a discovered sinner―conversion is a discovered Saviour.

Little Katie.

“ONE day in December, 1863, a woman, going into Mrs. G―’s house, was attracted by the appearance of her daughter Katie, a little one, then apparently not more than four years old. ‘Whose little child are you, my dear?’ she asked. Katie looked up gravely in her face and replied, ‘I am Jesus’ little child;’ adding, that Jesus took up little children in His arms and blessed them, and that whoever believed on Jesus would be His child, and she was going to be that. The woman was not a little surprised at the answer her question had elicited; but the mother broke out in praise of the mission school, saying that formerly, when the children were going to one of a different denomination, they cursed and swore, and no one could keep a halfpenny in the house for their stealing; but now it was all different, and if little Katie heard any one swear, she would reprove them.”

One more anecdote of Katie. ― “A few days ago, as the teacher was giving religious instruction in the day-school, she asked the children this question: ‘When should we prepare for death?’ Some answered, ‘In the day of health;’ others said, ‘Now.’ ‘And, continued the teacher, how should we prepare for it?’ ‘I think, Miss,’ said little Katie, it is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Little children should believe on Jesus. Little children may die. The earth is still fresh above the grave of another whom I knew. An infant almost in years, she yet loved to hear of Jesus, and would talk of being in heaven. Her last and favorite hymn was one with which most of you are familiar―

“One there is above all others;

Oh, how He loves!”

I saw a copy of this sweet hymn lately in the handwriting of little Katie’s mother. This verse was especially marked:

“’Tis eternal life to know Him;

Oh, how He loves!

Think, oh think, how much we owe Him;

Oh, how He loves!

With His precious blood He bought us,

In the wilderness He sought us,

To His fold he safely brought us,

Oh, how He loves!”

Little Y― was removed suddenly. Dear children, are you ready, should death summon you away this year, this month? If you ask when you should prepare, hear the reply from mission scholars: “In the day of health” ― “Now!” And if you inquire how you shall prepare, let little Katie’s answer he remembered: “It is, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.” Ah, how terrible if Romanist mission children should rise up at the last day to condemn any of you for rejecting the way of salvation! I trust, however, dear young friends, that many, very many of you are “looking unto Jesus!” I could tell you of a dear little girl, seven years old, of whom I have lately been hearing, who is daily telling others of the dear Saviour she has found. Remember, Jesus does not wish you to go to heaven alone. Remember, also, that He wishes to make you instruments for blessing to many, whom, perhaps, in this life, you may never see. He has said, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” (John 15:7.) Come then, dear children of His, to a throne of grace, and praising Him for His mercies in the past and the present, plead for an abundant blessing upon others.”―An Extract.

The Sinner and the Finished Work.

“MORE and more the blessed Spirit, by the truth, shewed him his sin, his danger, his utter helplessness. Then it was that he said to one deeply interested in him, ‘It has come to this, that if the Lord Himself do not save me, I must perish.’ Ah! put one work before that poor burdened soul, you might as well ask him to fly to heaven. Perhaps, during those solemn days, some may have told him more about faith than about Christ; as if it were first faith and then Christ that we have to do with. Remember, O sinner, that your first business is not with faith, but with Christ. Perhaps he might be trying to do that thing called believing; as if he were first to believe, and then go to Christ instead of at once, in his worthlessness, coming to the Saviour. He was brought low, and soon that word was fulfilled in his experience― ‘I was brought low, He helped me.’ Many a time and oft, I doubt not, he had cried from the depths, ‘Lord, save me; I perish.’ But the hour of his deliverance was at hand. He beheld the Lamb of God; he saw the finished work in all its sufficiency; he looked to Jesus, and was saved; he looked to Him, and was lightened. The true light shone; he was ‘light in the Lord;’ and from that day ‘in God’s light he saw light.’” ―An Extract.

IT is our happiness that Christ is ours. It is our security that we are Christ’s. The causeless hatred of man, and the causeless love of God, met on the Cross―love triumphed.

The law found in Christ the obedience it required. The broken law found in Christ the judgment it required.

The Evangelist: Volume 2 (New Series)

Table of Contents

Are You Upright

Whosoever.

What Is Faith?

On the Fruit of the Spirit.

Familiar Letters from a Father to His Children, On "The Times of the Gentiles."

Words to Believers.

"Does You Love Me, Mamma? Does you like me?"

Why Weepest Thou?

How Donald Succeeded.

The Happy Hindoo.

John 14:3.

Notes From a Scrap Book.

Your Name in the Will.

Sacramental Efficacy so Called.

Praise the Saviour.

What Is Wanted.

Notes on the Book of Revelation.

Christian Converse.

Last Words of Departed Saints.

Spiritualizing Scripture a Stumbling Block to the Jew.

Readings for the Young.

"May I Be Sure, Mamma?"

The Death of a Young Soldier.

Present Salvation.

That Precious Word "Whosoever."

Let Us Serve Christ.

"He Is Our Peace."

"What Saith the Scriptures?"

Notes on the Book of Revelation.

Service and Waiting.

A Word to the Tried and Suffering Saints of God.

Genesis 15:13, 17.

Believers' Meetings in Dublin.

Familiar Letters From a Father to His Children, on "The Four Empires."

Readings for the Young.

A Child of Ten Years.

Peace With God.

Familiar Letters From a Father to His Children, on "The Times of the Gentiles."

Workhouse Visits.

"He Was Wounded for Our Transgressions."

Notes on the Book of Revelation.

Dublin Believers' Meeting.

Notes of an Address by Mr. J. Townsend Trench.

Words to Believers.

"Always Weary."

Scripture Customs.

1 Thess. 4:16, 17.

Readings for the Young.

Extract From an Address by Richard Weaver, on "The Rest of Heaven."

My Child Born Again.

A Gospel Hymn.

"Is Not This a Brand Plucked Out of the Fire?"

Religiousness Not Faith.

Familiar Letters From a Father to His Children, On "The Times of the Gentiles."

The Closed Door.

No Partings Yonder.

Words for Believers.

Service.

What Is the Gospel?

Always Triumphing in Christ.

Notes From a Scrap Book.

The Martyrdom of John Huss.

Notes on the Book of Revelation.

The Power of the Cross.

Readings for the Young.

To Young Men.

Rest for the Guilty.

"Will You Meet Me in Heaven?"

"It Is Not for Me."

The Blood Shedding of Jesus.

The First Commandment.

An Anchor to the Soul.

"Thy Sins Are All Forgiven."

God Commendeth His Love.

Looking Back.

The Chief Corner Stone.

"I Am Vile."

Notes on the Book of Revelation.