The man who stood almost alone in direct opposition to the Sandemanian heresy was a glorious old disciple of the name of Thomas Jones. This man, whilst many succumbed to John Richard Jones' power, stood against his teaching, "As an iron pillar strong, Steadfast as a wall of brass.” Looking at Thomas from various standpoints, we consider him to have been a most remarkable man. His knowledge of the Bible was extensive, and his love to its glorious truths was deeply rooted, and hourly became intensified to the end of his pilgrim journey. In the year 1850, he mounted homewards, from Rhydwilym in Carmarthenshire, and has left behind him a sweet savour, a delightfully refreshing fragrance. Men used to designate him whilst living, "the light of the north!" We thank the able biographer of Christmas Evans for his deeply interesting account of this saintly man. It did us good to read of his humility-his firmness and love. We pray that the Lord of the harvest would, if consistent with His divine arrangements, raise up many more such men to cheer by their example the ministers and members of the Welsh churches. What a heart-enlarging and soul-comforting thought it is after reading the lives of "heroes departed," that the Father in heaven can bury His ablest workmen without interrupting the progress of His work. Whatever human instruments may be needed in order to gather redeemed sinners around the blood-stained cross, or to counteract the hell-fire agents of the chieftain of the pit, he will most assuredly raise up, and qualify for their work. Were every man among us who are now trying, however feebly, to "commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God," to be wrapt in the cerements of the grave to-morrow, He who has all power in heaven and on earth, "Would light a thousand more We look to see restored This ruined earth and Heaven. In a new world His truth to prove, A world of righteousness and love." 1 Thess. iv. 17. "And so shall we be ever with the Lord." "Amen, so let it be; Life from the dead is in that word We part with our readers this month, "Nearer, dearer, bonds of love, To our Father's house above. Letters from the Heart. 1 A LETTER ADDRESSED TO MR. J. INWARD, Minister of Zoar Chapel, East India Road. DEAR BROTHER,-Find space for the following: useful many times, and the reading of which has it is from one to whom the Lord has made me humbled me in the dust, but encouraged me also in the work of the Lord. Some hold the notion that hearers should never tell their minister the use the Lord has ministerially made him, lest it puff him up with pride. I must say I never felt thus by such a relation yet, but quite the reverse. I have always been humbled thereby; and to all such I would say, encourage your minister by imitating the example of the dear sister who sent, out of the fulness of her heart's love towards the efficient agent (God) and the instrument (myself), the following lines. more or less J. INWARD, Poplar. DEAR AND MUCH-LOVED PASTOR.-I hope you will pardon the liberty I have taken in addressing a few lines unto you. I have long thought and desired to tell you a little of what the Lord has done for me by your instrumentality since you have been at Poplar (to say nothing of what He did by you for me, ere you came here). I feel constrained to say that mercy and goodness has indeed followed me. The Lord has, by your ministry, raised my soul up into such a confidence in Himself, that I feel, come what will, my faith has a firm hold of the fact, that He will abide faithful; He canGod is dependent upon none of us. When our own Wells, Foreman, Jones, Banks, concerned about me, and my everlasting not deny Himself; and that He is more Spurgeon, and a host of others are all silent welfare, than I am very often (in feeling) in death, perhaps better men than concerned about myself. Well might we them will spring into their vacated pulpits Oh "To whom shall we go?" &c. at the bidding of Omnipotence to proclaim how blessed did I hear you Jesus and the resurrection, until the last vessel of mercy shall rise, God-vivified, meaning the two sermons I preached from the words quoted]; and how sweet they from the dunghill of debasement and pollution to be arrayed in righteousness di- were to me and these, I think, are more so, vine-then, and not till then, the spirit-coming to Him, but it is the perpetual "To whom coming," not at certain times stirring cry shall be heard, "Behold the Bridegroom cometh, go ye forth to meet Him!" Yes "According to His word any of say, therefrom motion of the soul wending ever its way to Him; and yet He is never weary of us; unless it was with our sins, and they are enough to weary the devil himself. Isaiah xliii. 24. O what should we do without that precious, precious sacrifice, the LORD JESUS CHRIST? O draw me-draw meto this, saith my soul. "I will run after Thee." Dear pastor, while sitting and hearing His precious word through you, it seems to come so direct from the Lord's own dear lips, that for the time, all physical strength seems gone: His goodness seems to so overshadow my soul that at such times I feel altogether overcome. He does enable you so minutely to enter into my case, and to bring the Gospel, and the things thereof, down to where I am from time to time, that I am compelled to say, "Lord, is it possible? Lord, is it possible?" Oh, it must be entirely of Thee, for Thy servant does not know where I am or what I am; but Thou dost; yes, Thou dost. I do not think that there has been one single time that I have heard you but what I have gleaned something for my soul's benefit. Never did His word prove such a blessed reality as it does now. O for a clearer understanding therein! O, how blessedly and beautifully have you been enabled to open up what has hitherto been comparatively hid from me, previous to your coming here; namely, the great love of His heart. You have sometimes laid His heart right open to my soul's view and feelings; I have been enabled to go to Him in (to me) a new character; namely, as my Father, and I have felt that great as He is, I dare be free. O, what a blessing to be brought to know somewhat of the love that reigns in His heart, which sin, devils, nor all the vicissitudes of life, can never change. "His love no end, no measure knows, From one eternal source." Nor can anything make Him alter one sentence that love hath, in love, spoken. How precious these words have been unto me: "Come unto Me," &c. O what condescension; is it not wonderful, He does not say come to my angels, even of the highest order; nor yet His own sent servants, although we cannot do without them, and love them. No; but "Come to Me." O for grace to come, yea, to be coming continually. Dear pastor, I am passing through a most peculiar, yet severe trial, just now; and one which I dare not name to any one; one which is of such a crushing and weighty character, that I seem all but overwhelmed; nevertheless, my faith has hold of this word, "He performeth the thing that is appointed for me, and many such things are with him" although the way is rough, it is nevertheless right. These words are so consoling to me: "Fear not, be strong, and of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart;" and again, "I am Thy shield, and Thy exceeding great reward;" and again, "I will be with thee," &c.; and again, Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you;" but to conclude. Dear Pastor, I am constrained to say, "Behold, what manner of love," &c.Yours affectionately as ever in the Lord Jesus. [NOTE.-Most of the scriptures quoted and reterred to in the above the writer has heard me preach from, and which have been made to her a great blessing.-J. I.] HATH GOD FORGOTTEN TO BE GRACIOUS? EVIL consequences, not designed, have frequently originated in forgetfulness. This can be said in reference to man, not so, however in regard to God; He never has forgotten anything: we, therefore, could not be persuaded to believe that His first act of forgetfulness would be in reference to His own dear people. No! let us rather hear what God the Lord will speak, for it will be peace to His people; but let them not return again to the folly of imagining that He will ever be unmindful of the objects of His special love. The mother may forget the offspring of her womb, but I will never forget thee. This, then, is conclusive. has not forgotten to be gracious. question is momentous, but not decidedly gloomy, the silver lining appears bordering on it. Mark, it is a question, not an assertion; an inquiry, not anticipating a doubtful issue, but rather the confirmation of the mind in the glorious reality that its contemplations are in reference to an allwise and unchangeable God. And from this the believer draws his consolation and his good hope through grace, imparted by the Holy Spirit by means of such suggestions as these,- He The 1. He cannot forget His own gracious covenant which He made with Jesus Christ His Son before the foundation of the world began. A covenant well ordered in all things and sure, and which was so delightsomely contemplated by David shortly before he yielded up his spirit; Job likewise when in the very deeps of trouble, derived comfort from this source, "I know that my Redeemer liveth; and the apostle St. Paul, in the serious anticipation of a martyr's death, exclaims, "I know in whom I have believed." grace is a fixture with God, and by His Spirit He makes it so in the hearts of His people. The covenant of Here are no contingencies; hence He cannot, "JEHOVAH!" I am He that was; I am He that is; I am that He that is to come. Or thus, "I am He that was in eternity, choosing a people for Myself; planning, salvation. I am He that is in time, preparcovenanting, and decreeing their everlasting ing salvation for them, bringing it to, con Join to confirm the wondrous grace; Eternal power perforins the Word, And fills all heaven with love and praise." 2. Can God forget His own dear Son? Can He cease to remember His engage-ceiving it on, and perpetuating it in them ments with Him? "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." Ever mindful of the necessitous condition of His dear people, and having bestowed on them the best, the richest boon that heaven possessed, shall He ever forget the gracious errand on which He sent Him forth from His own bosom? While here on earth He was ever an object of His Father's remembrance. He was heard in that He feared, learning obedience by the things which He suffered; and of this the highest possible testimony was given when the voice from the excellent glory was heard by the beloved disciples, saying, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased:" and in connection with all that Christ did and suffered on earth, was the Father's gracious remembrance of His children. And now exalted to His glorious throne, and as the High Priest of His church which He has purchased with His own blood, He lives in the Father's constant remembrance; and because of this His dear people shall for ever live there also. THE name of the Lord! Who can tell the sweetness of that name when it falls with power on the soul of a poor guilty sinner, with "I am the Lord that healeth thee?" And, yet, how many thousand times has that precious sentence been spoken to the hearts of sin-burdened, Satan-haunted, conscience-smitten, but blood-redeemed ones! And, forthwith in the joyful experience of their souls, sin has been put away, Satan cast down, conscience silenced, salvation enjoyed, and the name of the Lord exalted. The name of the Lord! Who can comprehend it—written as it is in ten thousand characters? In all creation's works, on every page of Divine revelation, and in every phase of His people's experience. Well may the Jews say that, "Neither men nor angels can pronounce it." For in it is embodied all that He is, "Yesterday, to-day, and for ever." till time with them shall have passed away. "To learn His name, to see His face, THE NATURE AND EFFECTS OF FAITH. BY JOHN BROWN, A.M., CONLIG, IN the conduct of those Egyptians who feared the word of Jehovah (Exodus ix. 18-21) we have a good illustration of the nature and effect of faith. Faith in the testimony of God is always followed by effects, corresponding in their nature to the nature of that particular truth which is believed. The Egyptians, in the present instance, believed the threatening of God with respect to the plague of the hail; and the effect of this belief was, that they housed the cattle from the impending calamity. Their faith wrought by fear, and led them to avoid the threatened danger. So, if the same degree of faith was exercised by the sinner in the threatenings of God, with respect to the eternal damnation of the wicked, the effect of his faith would be terror. His faith, too, would work by fear, and lead him anxiously to enquire where he might flee from "the wrath to come." And if the same degree of faith were exercised again by the convinced sinner in the "exceeding great and precious promises" of the Gospel, the effects of his faith would be peace. Faith in this case would work by love, and produce in the believer "the peaceable fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God." Faith in all these cases is the same, considered in itself; the difference is in the object. Faith in the threatenings of God, whether these relate to time or eternity, will not save the soul, not because of any defect in itself, but because it does not terminate in the saving object. The mistake is not in the manner of believing, but in the thing believed. The true reason why ungodly sinners set their mouth against the heavens and blaspheme the God that made them, is because they do not believe the threatenings of God's word in any sense, however much they may impose upon themselves, or whatever they may say to the contrary; and the true reason why the great mass of professed Christians exhibit none of the fruits of the Gospel in their spirit and deportment is, not because they believe the Gospel Ar ALL-they are "children in whom there is no faith." And the true reason why the real disciples of Jesus exhibit so little of the spirit of their Master is, not because of any error in their manner of believing, but because of their weakness of the faith; for as the effects of our faith will always correspond to its object, so the abundance of these effects will be in proportion to its strength. We ought, therefore, particularly to examine whether our faith be right, as to its object-whether we have obtained "precious faith in the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ"-"the righteousness of God," which like a spotless robe is placed "upon all them that believe," and thus covers all their sin. And as God "deals to every man the measure of faith" which he possesses, let us pray to the Lord to increase our faith; for in proportion to the clearness of our knowledge of Christ, and the strength of our faith in Him, will be our comfort, our purity, and joy. THE OFFENCE OF THE CROSS. THE following is the letter referred to under the above title in our August number. It was written by a young man, member of the Baptist Church, Bridgnorth, to a student of Springhill College, near Birmingham, who, supplying for a Sabbath at Bridgnorth, and preaching from the text, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" made it his business to caricature the ministry of faithful men who preach the doctrines of the cross, asserting that, if they may be said to preach a Gospel, it is a "niggard Gospel," and that they savagely reprobate all who cannot pronounce their "canting Shibboleth." A beautiful vocabulary of rhetorical gems might have been picked out of the neophyte's orations, shewing how far the Gamaliels of the present day get a-head of the Blairs and Jamiesons of the past, and how the lowest slang can be sanctified for pulpit use when the preacher would bemud the men whose doctrines he hates but cannot disprove. What this poor divine vended as Gospel is a something placed at the option of all, but securing the salvation of none; a liberal scattering of offers of grace with puling appeals to the deaf and dead to accept those offers; a heterogeneous mixture, like the witch's cauldron, but not a cup of cold water or a crumb of living bread to allay the hunger and thirst of Zion's poor. God have mercy on the churches if this be a sample of the cookery at our boasted seminaries of parson preparation! We are very uncharitable, no doubt, in denouncing such rubbish; bu our charity for Bible truth must never give place to charity for the errors of mistaking men. A great demand is made on us by some well-meaning folk to aggregate in a religious union. A religious union forsooth! A union with men who malign us as Antinomians, and, which is worse, abnegate the sovereignty of God, rob the Saviour of His covenant rights, and try to level the walls which enclose the garden of the Lord. One of the alumni of the Independent College in Lancashire has lately perpetrated a book, entitled, Miscellaneous Essays, Critical and Theological. Our readers will be amused at the bombastic splutterings of the "Rev. W. Kirkus, LL.B." He will be much flattered by being named here, for he does his best to get his name up every where. Besides, we shall advertise his essays, which are miscellaneous" enough in all conscience. Then it is only a quid pro quo; for has he not advertised the VESSEL in his learned tome? The Rev. W. Kirkus, LL.B, deposeth thus: 'Time was when disputes on subtle and mysterious doctrines were confined to scholars and divines; they are now by religi ous newspapers brought into every family and cottage. Perplexed parents discover that their little children have suddenly ripened to such theological maturity, that they can pronounce an unhesitating sentence on the orthodoxy of some learned professor, or of the minister to whose congregation they belong. Even their very servants, though perhaps barely able to read and write, have learned from The Record or THE EARTHIEN VESSEL, to solve those mysteries which St. Clement, of Alexandria, or St. Athanasius, or St. Augustin would have approached only with profoundest medi tation and most childlike prayer to the Father of Lights." If the Rev. W. Kirkus, LL.B. is received as an authority in his own circle, and if that circle bear any proportion to his selfesteem, we shall have an enormous demand for the VESSEL, for he states that "the area of religious controversy has been continually widening," which he in part attributes to us, and even children and servants who read our pages become able to criticize learned professors, and solve mysteries which even an LL.B. is evidently ignorant of. We hope he will go on to read the VESSEL, and that God will so bless its contents to his poor bewildered soul, as to deliver him from scholastic conceits, and bring him to the place where Mary sat-at the Saviour's feet, where, we fear, he has never had humility to sit; then we may hope he will in time attain to the degree of many of our servant readers, who know they have passed from death unto life, and by precious faith in the blood of the Lamb, can read their title clear to mansions in the skies. Having paid our respects to our learned patron, we move aside for our young friend's letter. liciously or ignorantly, into what is repulsive or grotesque in our own pulpit, and by an entire stranger, whose bitterness sufficed to banish the ordinary instincts of courtesy and good taste, to say nothing of the charity that thinketh no evil and vaunteth not itself. Will you then wonder that in the first flush of indignation I should have followed you to the vestry to remonstrate with you in a friendly way? You say Calvinists are almost, if not quite, opposed to the proclamations of the Gospel's glad tidings. To the superficial and unthinking, it may so appear; but a well-educated man, like yourself, ought at least to have made himself better acquainted with the subject, and have avoided the always poor and ungenerous mode of setting up a man of straw. And why should you stigmatise that as a niggard Gospel which scruples to pronounce absolution of sin where there is no consciousness of it in the soul?—which shrinks from the responsibility of sending immortal souls on in the false and delusive hope that they are made whole, clean, free, accepted by an unintelligent assent misnamed Faith? Is that, Sir, a niggard Gospel which exhibits the whole race of mankind as being far from God, in blindness, enmity, and spiritual death; in the awful captivity of Satan? That Gospel which teaches that new life must be ward for deliverance from the weariness of sin imparted before any aspiration will arise Christand the heavy labour of Satan's yoke. How, on these premises, shall we exhort to mere resolve Every godly Calvinist hails with sincerest joy that of itself may re-resolve and die the same? any indication that Divine grace has operated in any degree-in any direction. Yes, we do rejoice when any dark and benighted soul is pointed by Evangelist to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. You accuse us of SIR, It would not become me to address you on spiritual pride. Is it spiritual pride to examine the subject of your sermons of last Sunday were ourselves by scripture evidence to see whether it not that "my Father's business" is somewhat we bear the mark of sonship, and to rejoice in concerned. I allude to the unwarrantable attack the proof when we find it? Is it spiritual pride you made on the Calvinistic caricature you de- which maintains that such and such things are picted in such lively colours. Fain would I essential not merely as items of a creed, but as hope that fair, calm, and charitable reflection matters of experience; and that, without these, will convince you that the monsters of your inwe may reasonably fear the good work of condignation do not exist in reality; but, assuming version has had no genuine commencement? some dozen of such to have been listening to God the Father's purpose of election, God the your zealous abuse, do you expect such means to Son's substitution and suffering to redeem, and wean them from their "canting Shibboleth," or God the Spirit's renewing and sanctifying work to clear the (for you) too narrow way of life from in every chosen soul are the great points of Caltheir disagreeable intrusion? But let us dismiss vinism-the Calvinism we profess and plead for, the hobgoblin alike unworthy of attack and de- but on which, I think, you must have been misfence. I am much mistaken if I do not detect in informed. I have therefore ventured thus much you a deep-seated dislike-perhaps hatred-to in hope that you will receive it as the protest of those doctrines which recognize the sovereignty one no way unfriendly to you; actuated by no of God, the depravity of man, "lacking the power other motive than a desire that looking further to will, the will to do;" which ascribe the cominto "the perfect law of liberty," you will mencement of spiritual life to God; which ex- modify your opinions of us, and of the teachhibit the work of salvation as a complete work, ings we approve. All I ask of you is fairness: planned by inscrutable wisdom, and carried out neither you nor we can do anything against the by Omnipotent love; which speak of the "elec-truth, and there is scope for us both-you with tion of God" as a flock, of which not a lamb is your Shibboleth and me with my Shibboleth, to be missed or torn from the Shepherd's hand; without our killing each other at the passages of as a winnowing of wheat, of which not a grain is Jordan. I am, Sir, yours very truly, to fall upon the earth so as to be lost. I would June 16th, 1863. ask you, Where is the stupidly presumptuous fool you told us of who assumes to pick out "the Lord's hidden ones," and to say which are elect vessels and which are not? Are not the wheat TO THE REV. MR. GRAY. and the tares to grow together until the harvest? It has been the lot of those who hold and love mians, from Paul himself downwards. (Rom. iii. 31; iii. 8.) They have had to encounter the misconception of the prejudiced, the suspicion of the timid, the calumnies of those who hate but cannot disprove the arguments the Bible supplies, and the downright enmity of the natural religionist; so that we are accustomed to be "everywhere spoken against" without the camp. But we have had to witness the things we revere and esteem held up to contempt, ma these positive doctrines to be decried as Antino 66 R. H. Strange Tales by John Ashworth." Published by Bremner and Pitman. This volume is full of facts illustrating the life and labours of one of the most useful of men, doing more good than thousands of those pretended pious people who surround our modern churches and chapels. John Ashworth is a noble specimen of evangelical and practical charity: "Go and do thou likewise," is written in his soul by the finger of God. |