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yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." Heb. xii. 11.

"The bud may have a bitter taste,

But sweet will be the flower."

The beginning may be with weeping; the end shall be with rejoicing, for this poverty of spirit equals contrition of spirit to which so many promises belong.

Now whatever contrition of spirit may be, the blessing of God is with it; the greatest favour of heaven accompanies it. "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O Lord, thou wilt not despise." This verse of the 51st Psalm is stated thus in Psalm 34, "The Lord is near unto them that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as are of a contrite spirit."

We see from these passages that God accepts, as an agreeable sacrifice, contrition of spirit; that He will be near unto, save, and watch over such: "To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my words." Isaiah lxvi. 2.

This contrition or poverty of spirit brings down all high looks, it brings down "every high thing," or conceit, of our wisdom, strength, or riches, and it brings down everything that is esteemed by the world, until the world is accounted less than nothing and vanity.

The poor in spirit, at the beginning, is of all men most miserable, for the world can afford no satisfaction to such, and heaven is so holy that he cannot, dare not so much as lift up his eyes to it; and sin is so heavy on his conscience that he can scarce make an effort to relieve it, for "Heaviness in the heart of a man maketh

it stoop" indeed. This subject, though plain to him that understandeth, is not always so to every one that even meditates on it, and sings,

"The Lord will happiness divine
On contrite hearts bestow,

Then tell me, gracious Lord, is mine
A contrite heart or no?"

But, those who are longing, and are desolate, and mourn to God, are on the way, not only to know what contrition is, but also to enjoy the blessedness resulting from it.

We have seen that poverty of spirit equals contrition of spirit, what then is the meaning of the word contrition? Attrition is the act of wearing down, or wearing away, by rubbing one substance against another, and morally the terror-striking law, bearing upon the hard heart, cause remorse and that grief which arises from fear; and this fear hath torment, torment that reduces and brings down to despair and death; but contrition is the law in contact with the spirit of man, under the operation of the

Holy Ghost. The voice of words, and the darkness, fire, and smoke, terrify and alarm, but there is the SPIRIT which quickens the man. With the terror of the law there is the Holy Spirit implanting the incorruptible seed which germinates with hope, and so the hard heart is softened and turned Godward with a desire, a petition, a cry for pardoning mercy; and thus contrition is "godly sorrow," which worketh repentance that needeth not to be repented of. And he who is the subject of this repentance, does not repent of it, though the vision, the wished for vision, tarry.

But, it may be asked,-Why is this poverty of spirit so acceptable to God? Why should He take pleasure in a wounded spirit? Why is humbleness and contrition of soul so magnified? I answer, because God delights in mercy, and this is the condition which can receive it. God's Spirit, by the chemistry of heaven, dissolves the rocky hearts; it flows down at God's presence; it acknowledges His presence, which is incorporated with it; IT IS CONTRITE. "For as the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for those by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God," Heb. vi. 7, so similarly the face of the moral earth is renewed, similarly God renews a right spirit in man! And then it is no longer so contemptible a thing as just now it seemed, it is a spirit adorned with that which in the sight of God is of great price. It is a meek and quiet spirit, a spirit of chastity and temperance, one that has put on the Lord Jesus Christ, learned of Him, and reflects His spirit.

But this will be further seen, as we discourse on

II. THE STATE. "Blessed are the poor in spirit." The present state of the poor in spirit is a blessed one. It is so because the divine influences from heaven have produced it; the light of life shines upon it; effectual calling animates it; and sufficiency of grace sustains it, and among the many good things springing from it, in its possessor, I see

1st. Satisfaction. Such is the capacity of the human spirit, that no earthly possessions or attainments can bestow that happiness which leaves no desire unfulfilled. The favoured psalmist intimates that mortality swallowed up of life alone can satisfy such a spirit. He says, "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness." Psalm xvii. 15. But there is a satisfaction experienced here, a satisfaction in kind though not in degree; a satisfaction, for instance, similar to that experienced by him who knows he is in the right way, in opposition to one who knows not whither his

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feet are hurrying him; there is satisfaction ing eyes to this source only, beating his in having a single eye, and that eye fixed breast and saying,

upon the right object. "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe, and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God." John vi. 68, 69. This satisfaction arises from the certainty that prayer has been answered. This is a great source of satisfaction. That you have prayed, and that God has heard and answered you, is a greater satisfaction than a hearty reception, and thorough appreciation of all the external evidence that has ever been adduced in proof of the reality of divine things: it is the witness of heaven in your soul to the truth of that written in the Word of God.

God's mercy flowing down through Christ Jesus, and tasted in answer to prayer, is a soul-satisfying portion; and the weary soul that has been refreshed by it, though he be drawn by the force of indwelling sin from it, will seek no other source of renewing. He will turn his ach

"Wretch that I am, to wander thus
In chase of false delight!

Let me be fastened to the cross,
Rather than lose the sight."

He who drinks of the water which Christ

gives, shall never thirst for any other. He who has drunk here, desires only larger and more frequent draughts from the Fountain of Life.

Such a soul has the dew of heaven upon it, has life in it, and a satisfaction that nothing in the world can equal.

To you, my fellow creatures, to you, seeking souls, to you who are saying,-Who will shew us any good? I to none, to nothing, so satisfactory as an say, I can direct answer to this prayer, "O satisfy us early with thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days." Psalm xc. 14.

(To be concluded in our January number.)

The Surrey Tabernacle Expositor.

EXPOSITION OF REVELATION X.

BY MR. JAMES WELLS, MINISTER AT THE SURREY TABERNACLE, BOROUGH ROAD,

"And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud; and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire." This book of the Revelation must not be understood as recording events that take place one after the other, as here placed, for the writer is led to take up a certain subject, he goes on to the end of that subject, and then comes back again to the beginning of the Gospel dispensation, and takes up another feature of that upon which he had to write. Hence in the preceding two chapters, the 8th and 9th, he had enlarged upon the judgments of God, and the calamities that should attend the progress of the Gospel, that is calamities upon the enemies of that Gospel. Now here he is led back to the resurrection of Christ. This mighty angel means the Lord Jesus Christ, and his coming down from heaven does not here mean His personal coming, but His mystical coming, His spiritual coming, His coming by the Gospel. And He is here called "a mighty angel;" that is a mighty messenger. Remember the word "angel means a messenger; Jesus Christ is a mighty messenger; He speaks with such power as to bring the dead to life; He speaks with such might as to set the prisoner free; He speaks with such power as to bring peace into the conscience; He

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And what is this cloud but His people? They are a cloud of witnesses, they all bear testimony of what He has done, and so He comes in a cloud of Old Testament witnesses, He comes in a cloud of New Testament witnesses, and His people are brought in to form a part of that cloud of witnesses. "And a rainbow was upon his head,"

To denote that His message is peace; the rainbow is the token of peace. And we all have much to trouble us within, and some have much to trouble them without; so that the tidings of peace which are by Jesus Christ, are always acceptable to the people of God.

"And his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire."

Of course His face being as the sun, denotes the brightness of His presence. And

if He is pleased to grant us His presence to-day in a spiritual sense, then the rays of glory from His face will warm our hearts, will lighten our eyes.

"And his feet as pillars of fire,"

To denote the purity and majesty of His steps; that He steps forth with purity and throws a light upon the path of His people. with majesty, and that every step He takes "And he had in his hand a little book open; and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left

foot on the earth."

This little book I take to be the Gospel ; the Gospel is called a little book because it is but a sample of the greatness of the glory yet to be revealed; but what is hereafter to be revealed will be in entire accordance with what is now revealed. There will never be anything revealed contrary to that perfection that is in Christ, contrary to the eternity of God's love, or contrary to the Sovereignty and riches of His grace. I take the little book, therefore, here to mean the Gospel. And this book is said to be open, because the Jews had closed it, they had closed the Gospel, and had substituted in place of the Gospel, human tradition. But now that the dear Saviour hath ascended up on high, He openeth the little book unto His disciples. This is what I understand, then, by the little book.

"And he set his right foot upon the sea, and his

left foot on the earth;"

As a sign of His universal dominion; all power by sea and by land, in heaven and in earth, all lodged in the Saviour's hands, all concentrated in Him. And how encouraging this is; it is one of those revelations of the person of Jesus Christ that wonderfully endear Him, that He hath universal dominion. And if the Lord were to say to Satan, There's one of my Jobs, or one of my Joshuas, or one of my people; now if you can take that sheep into a place where I have no power, then he may be lost. But there's no possibility of Satan dragging, or his servants dragging, any one of the people of God into a place where the Saviour has

not entire dominion.

"And he cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth; and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write; and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not." Now as I go along I just throw out my own opinion, that's all, upon these ambignous Scriptares. I take the seven thunders here to be the voice of God's law, and they are called seven to denote completeness. And when God takes a sinner in hand, these thunders sound in that man's ears, in that man's conscience, in that man's soul, until that sinner is driven to entire self-despair;

that's the work of the seven thunders, to drive a sinner to self-despair. Such was the work of the law upon Saul of Tarsus; sin revived, and he died. The law has nothing thus but thunder. And then when John was about to write these thunders, he

is commanded not to write them, but that the Holy Ghost, convincing a poor sinner they are sealed up; that is, those threatenings that are brought into the conscience by of what he is as a sinner, they are not to be written against you, they are not to be confirmed. They speak to you in the landemned, but your condemnation is not to of condemnation, and you feel conguage be confirmed; you feel as though you were lost, but your lost condition is not to be confirmed; you feel as though you must go to hell, but such a destiny is not to be confirmed. Write not the seven thunders against that poor sinner, for they are sealed up! And how are they sealed up? By the dear Saviour being made sin for us, by the Saviour being made a curse for us, by the Saviour taking the bitterness of death; hereby the thunders are taken away, and there is nothing left but the voice of the turtle, nothing left but the still small voice, nothing left but that voice of love and mercy that shall bring such an one from under these thunders, and bring him into that land of peace where the flowers appear on the earth, and where is heard the voice of that Beloved that charms our sins, and guilt, and sorrows away, and makes us happy in His presence. Such I believe to be the meaning and mind of the Holy Spirit in these seven thunders. I do not encumber my remarks with the opinions of men, as to these seven thunders, because they are all of the learned kind, of the literary kind, what we want is something spiritual; and the great object of the Gospel is to find out sinners, and turn them into saints; the great object of the Gospel is, after it has turned them into saints, to sustain them, and after it has sustained them, to give them an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

"And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer."

You know Dr. Cumming says it should read that "time shall not be yet." I am fully aware the Greek word er, here translated "no longer," is sometimes rendered by that term; but, with all due deference both to the Doctor and to his learning, I must say I prefer the rendering which our translators have here given, that "there

should be time no longer." And time was no longer; not mundane time was no longer, for that continues, and God alone knows when that will end: no man knoweth when that will end. But old covenant time did end; Jewish time did end; Levitical time did end; the Jewish national dispensational time did end; Christ sware that Jewish time-for that is evidently the meaning, at least that is my view of it, should be no longer. The Jews tried to perpetuate their temple, but they could not; they tried to perpetuate their nation, but they could not; they tried to perpetuate the Levitical dispensation, but they could not; Christ had sworn that that time should be no longer, and so that time is gone, gone for ever, and Christian time takes the place of Jewish time, and to Christian time there is no end: "He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there

shall be no end."

fection, will sound to all eternity; it has
begun to sound, it will never cease. You
cannot get to heaven without it, you could
not be happy in heaven without it; it will
sound for ever and for ever. And it is the
great sound, the joyful sound, the glorious
sound, sounding forth what God has done;
the great trumpet of the jubilee, bringing
millions of sinners to eternal glory.
there are many other prophets and circum-
stances in the Old Testament I could bring
forward here, but I must not occupy your
time by so doing, to which these words
refer.

And

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"But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel," And the voice which I heard from heaven spake when he shall begin to sound,"

And you know when he did begin to sound; the seventh angel here means the angel of perfection, the messenger of perfection; when he, the seventh messenger or seventh message, shall begin to sound,"The mystery of God shall be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets."

unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey."

"And I took the little book out of the angel's
hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth
sweet as honey; and as soon as I had eaten it,
my belly was bitter. And he said unto me"-
Here is the explanation, you see,
"Thou must prophesy again;"-

Now this is true in the experience of every minister, and of every Christian. That man that receives the truth, knows that Now I will not say anything cross to you, truth to be sweet as honey; that man that but I think that if some of you were allowed receives the truth must have some after to have no dinner to-day until you found bitter experiences in consequence of receiv out in the Old Testament that seventh ing the truth. You receive the truth in the angel that completes the mystery here re-sweetness of it, and then you have the bitferred to, it strikes me your bread and terness to come; but that bitterness will cheese would get very cold before you would not last for ever; the bitterness will by and be allowed to eat it; it strikes me so with bye go off, and there will be nothing but some of you. And yet the matter is very sweetness left. plain and very simple. You have nothing to do first but to look at the imagery,trumpets, seven trumpets; you have nothing to do but go to Jericho, and there you will find the seven priests with seven trumpets, and you will find that when they sounded the seventh time, down fell the wails, and they obtained the victory, the enemy was put to flight, and Israel had possession of the promised land. Now take it spiritually; -when Jesus Christ died he said, "It is finished;" down fell the territories of hell, What a mercy, friends. Literal miracles down fell sin, down fell Satan, down fell were stayed when the apostles died; but death, down fell tribulation, and the mystery what a mercy for us the Gospel was not of redemption was completed, the mystery stayed, that the grace of God was not of eternal salvation was completed, the vic-stayed, that the salvation of God was not tory was completed. And so that seventh stayed, that this glorious Gospel travelled angel then began to sound, and has been on, and is with us now. sounding ever since, and will sound down to the end of time. It is finished, it is finished, it is finished, is the language of the Gospel down to the end of time. And this seventh trumpet, this trumpet of per

Bless the Lord for that; to prophesy here means to preach, to testify; "Thou must prophesy again,"

"Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.”

That has been the case, and we hope and pray it may yet be so more and more.

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BY MR. WILLIAM LEACH, OF PLUMSTEAD TABERNACLE, KENT.

"Awake, and sing, ye that dwell in dust." Isaiah xxvi, 19,

WE may give three applications to the words of the text,-applying them in the first place to those whom the Lord calls by His grace. If we are among the called, we occupy a middle place, as it were, in what is recorded in the 8th of Romans-" Whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate. Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified." But how are we to know that we are among the called? We may know this by the change we have experienced, by comparing what we now are with what we once were, in regard to our conduct, our desires, our pursuits and pleasures. And then we may find evidences of our calling in the word of God. Take one text, "The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him, in those that hope in His mercy." (Psalm cxlvii. 11.) There is very little experience, it may be said, in this text, and yet there is a great experience in it too; for if the fear of the Lord is implanted in your heart so as to make you anxious to escape His frown, and to enjoy His smile, causing you to hope in His mercy, and to feel that there is no hope for you but in that- then this is an evidence that you are one whom the Lord has called by His grace. We have first a condition referred to-"Ye that dwell in dust." This implies prostration. Man is entirely prostrated by the Adam fall; the idea is quite an erroneous one that we are placed in this world in a state of probation: Adam was, but he fell, and we fell in him, so everyone enters the world under the curse. It has been a question how long Adam continued in the holy, innocent state in which he was created; it has been thought by some that he fell on the day of his creation, and it is my opinion -of course, it can only be an opinion-that such was the case. The words in the 49th Psalm-"Nevertheless, man being in honour abideth not;" may be translated"abode not a single night;" which words, being referred to Adam, are in favour of the supposition that he fell on the day he was created. "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." (Rom. v. 12.) There is not only prostration implied by dwelling in dust, but degradation also. Man had a crown of honour and of dominion put upon his head when he was created, but he has lost that

crown. He alone was formed in the image of God, and it seems as though a consultation was held concerning his creation;when light was created, "God said, Let there be light; and there was light;" but when about to create man, He said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea," &c. But Adam fell, and now we are in a state of degradation. The Psalmist calls it our low estate-" Who remembered us in our low estate." The Lord said to the serpent, "Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life." And so it does move in this way; though it is supposed before the fall it moved in an upright position. The serpent does not literally feed upon dust, but the words were also spoken to that old serpent the devil, who in the form of a serpent tempted our first parents to sin, and the language as applied to him, may signify that from that time he was plunged into a deeper state of degradation than he had before been in.

And are not all men in their natural state feeding upon dust? One is pursuing the empty pleasures of this life-he is feeding upon dust. Another is seeking after earthly fame and honour-he is feeding upon dust. And another devotes himself to heaping up riches, but they likewise are dust-dust. O into what a state of de

gradation has man fallen, thus to be feeding upon dust!

Again, death is implied. Man by nature is not only prostrated and degraded, but he is dead-"dead in trespasses and sins,"so being in a state of entire helplessness. If persons are brought to feel that this is their natural condition, then there will be a death-blow to all Arminianism and dutyfaith: those who are thus taught of the Lord will not be able to hold and teach these things; all thus taught will say with the apostle-" By the grace of God, I am what I am." Now the Lord comes to the man just where he is, in the dust, when He calls him by His grace, and addresses him -"Awake, and sing." These words imply divine quickening, and a resurrection; the man, before dead, is quickened into a state of consciousness. Now, how is it with you? Have you experienced a change? I do not ask you how long, or how deep your convictions may have been; but are you brought into a state of consciousness, so that you are led to cry to the Lord-to groan, it may be,

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