THE EARTHEN VESSEL,

AND

Christian Record.

The Planting of Churches, the Experiences of Believers, the Saviour's Promise.

A FEW WORDS FOR THE COMMENCEMENT of 1868.

IF during the three and twenty years which have passed away since THE EARTHEN VESSEL was first issued, we have rendered any essential service, instrumentally, to the churches of Christ on the earth, then are we thankful to the Great Author and Giver of every good and perfect gift; and if still the Lord will spare and employ us for His glory, in the smallest measure, none would be more gratefully devoted unto His service; for therein has been realised by us more silent, sacred, and substantial joy than in any, or in all, the other departments of labour wherein, for more than fifty years, we have toiled and suffered in this wilderness below. Between mountains of trouble on the one hand, and valleys of despondency on the other, we thus far have come. Close behind us is the deadly foe: on either hand are rocks insurmountable and terrible to behold; before us rolls the great deep sea of untraversed space. What a day may bring forth we know not; but, as we sit down to pen these few introductory lines, the question which Jesus put to the two blind men, is echoed in the inner chambers of a heart almost overwhelmed with grief

66 BELIEVE YE THAT I AM ABLE TO DO THIS?"

And with a faith, trembling and sharply tried, we will respond, "YEA, LORD:" for unto the uttermost we know He is able to save.

Prophetic writers multiply. Predictions of the immediate future abound,—a brief review of them would fill our pages; but it has been our mercy to have the Word of the Lord read to us, from time to time, by a secret voice which, we trust, first called us into the faith and fellowship of THE SINNER'S FRIEND; and as that word abideth for ever, so in the knowledge and dispensation of that word would we continue, until our work and our warfare shall for ever cease.

Leaving all other themes, let us cast our thoughts for a moment into

B

the contemplation of three branches of the revealed will of God, which are, and will be, THE SAME, until this Gospel kingdom shall be completed, and the glory of the Lord be more clearly revealed.

I. THE PLANTING OF CHURCHES FOR THE INGATHERING OF THE REDEEMED is a work progressing most rapidly in our time. Has not the Church for centuries been inspired to obey her glorious Master's injunction, when He said, "Pray ye the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth LABOURERS into HIS harvest? Certainly she has. And is not that prayer receiving showers of answers in many parts of the world, in many nations of the earth, in almost every nook and corner of this modern Goshen, this land of Bibles, this thickly-studded forest of churches and chapels, this favoured but sinful Great Britain of ours? Even churches of truth are rising on every hand; and the good men who are willing to labour cannot be said to be few.

There is a beautiful pattern of the quiet, the humble, but most certain manner in which, in all times, the churches of Christ have risen on the earth. It is the history of the rise of the Church in Corinth. How was it brought into existence? The Holy Ghost, by Luke, the penman, says,- "Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth."

Did the great Apostle of the Gentiles send a man before him to make proclamation that "St. Paul was coming to Corinth to preach the Gospel?" Nay. Did he enter Corinth in pompous style? Nay. We think he walked in as a pilgrim; and having no possession of this world's wealth, having to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow, he first traversed the Corinthian streets, seeking to find employment at his trade. How amazingly humble was the Apostle's commencement of his ambassadorship here! After a while he "found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus. lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla (because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome); so Paul came unto them; and because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought; for by their occupation they were tent-makers." As a kind of journeyman to Aquila, then, did this great apostle commence his career in Corinth. With his host and hostess he repaired to the synagogue every Sabbath, and gradually, carefully, but successfully, did he begin to break up the fallow-ground, in order that the good seed of God's truth might take root and bring forth fruit, in the conversion of not a few to the faith of Jesus.

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THREE WORDS indicate the mode of Paul's procedure. (1.) "He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath." After this gentle appeal to their hearts, (2.) he " PERSUADED the Jews and the Greeks:" he ploughed deeper into them, and laboured to lay fast hold upon them. By and bye" Silas and Timotheus came from Macedonia, and joined themselves to Paul, so that it is said, he was pressed in the spirit,”—a stronger power of grace entered into him; and boldly he "TESTIFIED to the Jews that JESUS WAS CHRIST." Openly and fully, faithfully and with great clearness, he preached unto them the Gospel of the grace of God. Violent opposition ensued. Awful blasphemies were uttered. Dangers and deaths surrounded Paul and his companions. At length he arose; "he shook his raiment; and he said unto them, YOUR BLOOD BE UPON YOUR OWN HEADS; I am clean-(blessed and happy is the man who can thus acquit himself in the ministry): from henceforth I go unto the Gentiles."

Now commences Paul's work in that direction assigned unto him by the Lord himself: he was truly "the apostle of the Gentiles.”

Close to the synagogue was 66 a certain man's house, named Justus." This man worshipped God; and here Paul was received: here he preached. Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, and many more believed and were baptised. But while the Gospel kingdom was yet weak and tender in this city, Satan and his agents threatened to destroy Paul, and all who followed the Lord through his ministry; so that the apostle was about to flee away. And, in the night, while fears were perplexing and disturbing him, the Lord spoke to Paul by a vision,-" Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace, for I am with thee; and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee; for I have much people in this city." And there Paul continued. There a Christian church was planted; and there elect vessels of mercy were gathered in. Let our brethren who toil all the week, and then go forth, instrumentally, planting and feeding the churches of Christ on the Lord's-day, from all this take courage; for by these apparently humble means doth Jesus plant in the wilderness his cedar trees and myrtle trees, " plants of the Lord's own right hand planting, that He might be glorified." No happier man can be found on this earth than is the honest, the humble, the devoted itinerant preacher of Christ's Gospel. He labours for six days to earn the bread that perisheth, and on the best of all the seven goes forth to preach unto the assembled villages the bread of eternal life. From such pure, and holy, and self-denying evangelistic labours, has arisen, and will arise, many of the churches, which, like little gardens of grace, are a blessing to multitudes here, preparing them for the eternal glories which surround

"The Lamb in the midst of the throne."

What hosts of little churches we could refer to which during the last twenty-five years have risen, taken root, and are growing and spreading on every hand. This work goes on. The Lord be praised!

II. The second branch of that religion which is revealed in the Bible, and which will continue the same in all ages of the Gospel dispensation, falls under the heading of "THE VITAL EXPERIENCES OF BELIEVERS IN JESUS CHRIST," and which are variously described both in the Old and in the New Testament, especially in Job, in the Fsalms, in all the Prophets; in that sermon the Saviour delivered on the mount, where the "blessed ones" are said to be "the poor in spirit," "they that mourn,' "the meek," " they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, "the merciful," "the pure in heart," &c.; and by Paul in the seventh and eighth of the Romans, as well as by the other apostles.

But the thirteenth Psalm, in a few verses, contains a volume of experience, which will be found to correspond with the severe internal trials, as well as with some of the reliefs which a true and genuine faith brings home to the heart of all who are born of God, and who, in the furnace of affliction, are meetened for a kingdom of glory, which was prepared for them from the foundation of the world.

Divide that thirteenth Psalm into three parts. (1.) It expresses a fourfold state of soul-trouble

"How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? for ever?"

"How long wilt thou hide thy face from me?"

"How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily?"

"How long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?"

These four troubles meeting in the soul at once, and continuing a long time, render its existence here most terrible and dreadful to bear. We must not attempt to define the appalling miseries which result from such agonising distresses. They are not known even to believers; but many, in a measure, have, or have had, bitter experiences of them all. Then (2ndly), there is that emphatic prayer, Consider, and hear me,

O Lord my God: lighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death." The Spirit of adoption; there claims for the soul its relationship to God, although the darkest clouds hide from it the smallest manifestation of His love.

The Spirit of adoption, at length, pours forth a fourfold exercise of a strong and indestructible faith. "But, I have trusted in thy mercy: my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation: I will sing unto the Lord, because He hath dealt bountifully with me."

Thus, one of the darkest nights of sorrow is turned into an anticipated morning of joy.

We have received some homely verses from one who signs himself "A Poor Sinner" (Warboys), which we have felt certainly to flow out of a soul which has travelled in the deep places before referred to :

O, could I reflect on the past,

And groan with a sense of my sin,
Then prostrate myself in the dust,
And yet be a stranger to Him ?

Or, could I His mercy implore,

And trust in the merits of Christ;
My good and my bad deeds deplore,
And yet be a Balaam at last?
Oh, no! Sure this never can be,
Though sin and old Satan unite,
To darken my soul on the road,

And hide my dear Saviour from sight.

III. THE SAVIOUR'S GREAT PROMISE is another abiding mercy for all the ransomed of the Lord. We lately visited an aged saint, who has been in his bed many years, but is now close to Jordan's narrow brink. As we sat beside his dying couch the Saviour's word was precious to us "I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you." This promise contains two things, which only the spiritually living in Jerusalem can realise. (1.) They daily find there is no comfort, no sacred peace, no solid joy, but in the presence of their Lord. Let Him leave them and either Satan's delusions, or the deepest despondency, beset them; but, in the fulfilment of His promise, as realised after His resurrection, there was PEACE spoken-there was provision made; for He not only gave them a large multitude of fishes, but when He called them to "Come and dine," they found the fire and the fish and the bread all ready; and the declaration that He would never leave them, afforded the richest consolation. And this river of peace has never altogether ceased to refresh the followers of the Lamb.

Whatever changes time may bring, whatever desolation sin may spread abroad, Zion shall for ever live; out of all her tribulations she shall arise, and, in the presence of the Kingdom of the Lord, behold Him face to face, and with Him dwell for ever.