Gospel; and thrice blessed are they who have eyes to see. Every one saw not this star: the moles, bats, and owls who have no eyes of their own may think us blind in following the star; because they can see nothing revealed by the word, they think we do not. But we see in Jesus all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, though once they were hid to us. Follow, then, the Gospel. But mind it is the Gospel; and if it lead you not to Jesus, and Jesus only, as the sinner's All, have nothing to do with it.

SUNDAY, APRIL 23RD.-TAKING POSSESSION.

"There remaineth yet very much land to be possessed."-Joshua xiii. 1. SOME people seem to have as much religion as they want, and hence they make no progress in the knowledge of divine things; they have got, we hope, over Jordan into the land of Gospel freedom; but they have not gone through its length and breadth, and descended its wells and mines, nor ascended its hills. How sad is it for a minister never to have a new idea, and the people to be quite satisfied with the old ding-dong, jog-trot things when "there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed." It belonged to Israel by right-not that they deserved it any more than the Canaanites, but their God had given it to them, and, therefore, it was theirs" a land of hills and valleys, fountains and deeps, a land of wheat and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates, oil olive, milk and honey." Arise, then, O Israel, and possess the land! Let this scripture teach us the vast extent of our privileges. In one sense we have obtained much, but there is more in prospect; there is nothing like godliness; its voice ever is, "Thou shalt see greater things." There are beauties in Christ we have not yet discovered; there are glories in the plan of salvation we have not yet seen, and in the word of truth are treasures yet undiscovered, and fruits in abundance to feast the soul! Many a battle has yet to be fought and victory won, and it may be many a wound to be received, but the future possessions of the soul will more than compensate for all.

The subject should lead us to a diligent and prayerful search of the Bible. There and there only can we hope to find our possession. God's ancient worthies were "mighty in the Scriptures." But then we need the Spirit's teaching. He is the great Author of divine revelation, and He alone can cause us to understand what is written; that is, spiritually: Reader, may the Holy Ghost make thee to possess the land. Amen.

SUNDAY, APRIL 30TH.-POOR OLD BETSEY.

"The love of the Spirit.-Rom. xv. 30.

A MINISTER once said to a poor member of his flock, "I understand you do not approve of my ministry." "I do not profit by it, sir," said the poor woman. And the pastor, to test her knowledge of divine things, asked, "How many persons are there in the Trinity?" "Two," was the reply. "There," exclaimed the indignant shepherd, "a pretty thing for you to find fault with my preaching, and you do not know how many persons there are in the Godhead." "There used to be three, sir," said poor old Betty, "but since you have been with us I have heard so little about the third, that I thought may be there are but two." Would that the above were an isolated case!

Much may be said about spiritual influence, and the Spirit of God as an agent, and yet no clear idea given of Him as a Person. We hear of the love of the Father and of Christ the Son, and right that we should, but at the same time remember all the work of the Holy Ghost is a work of love, and He must be a person to be capable of love. Reader, art thou a Christian? Then thou owest very much to "the love of the Spirit!" In love He quickened thy dead soul, opened thy blind eyes, led thee to the feet of Jesus, helped thee to believe, and took up his abode, not only with thee, but in thine heart. Yes, every believer is the temple of the Holy Ghost. How dark, and dead, and dirty He found the house-little like a fit dwelling for so holy a Being. O what love of the Spirit. How hateful to Him is every sin, and sinful propensity. Yet he never leaves those whom He loves; but is the Comforter, Teacher, and Remembrancer, guiding them into all truth, and bring to their mind the words of Jesus: "He also helpeth our infirmities, and maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." Beloved, think, then, on the love of the Spirit, and forget not that of the Father and Son, and may the blessing of the. Three One God be thine. Amen.

DEAR CHRISTIAN BROTHER,-The enclosed lines were written at the close of a severe conflict, in which my feet had well nigh slipped. I thought that their publication in the EARTHEN VESSEL might, through the Spirit, encourage at least one of the many conscience-stricken ones, who scan so eagerly its pages every month for "a scrap of comfort," as I have heard them express it, and help them to realize the perfect safety there is around them, when, all frighted and guilty as they are, they crouch in abject poverty and shame-facedness "Under the Cross." 'Tis not only at the first that we need the screening blood;-it seems to me that guilt is more burdensome and aggravated after having been once forgiven; nor is the grief for the sin itself at all lightened by the knowledge that God has pledged Himself to forgive us again. I am young, but it is so, is it not? It is eight years since I first knew "my election of God," from the fact, that the Gospel came to me "not in word only, but in power," and, from bitter experience, I affirmed that there is no anguish so deep as that which goes with the broken cry for the fresh application of the blood of our wounded Lord, knowing that He will pardon.

M. A.

Strong was the fearful temptation that tried me,

Power from the strong one unasked was
denied me,

Yet in the strength of the promise I hide me,
Under the cross.

There shall the sweet words of pardon be
spoken,

There shall the cords of my anguish be broken,

CROSS.

I of heaven's favour shall get a fresh token,
Under the cross.

Justice e'en now for my doom is appealing,
Hark from the white throne the sentence is
pealing,

"Strike if you dare while the sinner is kneeling,

Under the cross."

Tears of contrition that sentence is bringing,
Yet the full life-tide of joy is upspringing;
Oh, can ye wonder that now I am singing,
Under the cross?

True when the light of the morrow is
dawning,

Tears may return and the foe's subtle
fawning,

Yet I shall ever be safe as this morning,
Under the cross.
Keep me from sinning, O God, I implore
Thee,

Give of Thy strength to the weak one
before Thee,

Jesus, my Jesus, I love, I adore Thee,
Under the cross.

There would I be while the love-light is
gleaming

Out of Thine eyes, and the life-blood is
streaming
Over my conscience.
dreaming

Oh! who could be Under the cross?

There would I be when earth's comforts are flying,

There, when the young heart forgets all its
sighing,

Keep me, Ŏ holy One! living or dying,
Under the cross.

M. A. MEARS.

The Surrey Tabernacle Expositor.

EXPOSITION OF REV. XI. 19, AND XII. 1–5.

BY MR. JAMES WELLS, OF THE SURREY TABERNACLE, BOROUGH ROAD.

As what I have to say on the first Sunday morning in every month in a way of explaining the chapter we read, is at present printed in THE EARTHEN VESSEL, I feel disposed to continue a little longer perusing this Book of the Revelation, reading a portion from time to time, hoping that it may draw the attention of some good men to it, that we may be more familiar with the contents of this Book.

As I omitted the last verse of the preceding chapter on the last occasion, I will just notice that as I go along. It reads thus :

"And the temple of God was opened in heaven; and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament; and there were lightnings and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail."

Now by the temple here, I understand the true Church of the blessed God; that Church is the Lord's dwelling place; and this temple, the true Church of God, had been closed; the Pharisees had closed it; they shut up the true Church of God against men, entered not in themselves, and hindered those that were entering. There were plenty of ways then, as there are now, and ways, too, very easy, to get into the false church but the true Church, the true spiritual character of the Old Testament Church was closed. John saw that the Saviour, that the New Testament dispensation, would open this temple again; and so John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus Christ they opened the true Church of God. Hence John the Baptist said, "Think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father," and so on. So, as you are aware, he goes on in that chapter laying the axe of truth at the root of every false confidence, and showing that the temple of the Lord is a spiritual temple. So that here John saw the temple, that is the true Church, that had been closed- opened. And he says:

"And there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament,"

This ark is a symbol of the covenant of God, and must be understood here not in the Jewish but in the Christian sense, and then it will mean the everlasting covenant. And that Church that hath not in it God in covenant, that Church that hath not in it the new covenant, that Church is not the Church of God; for the true temple of God was thus marked by having in it this everlasting covenant. And this includes a great deal more than at first sight appears. To have the ark of the covenant, was to have the mercy-seat; and so to have the new covenant, is to have the mercy of God. To have the ark of the covenant, was to have the high priest; so, to have the new covenant is to have Jesus Christ, the Mediator of that covenant. To have the ark of the covenant was to have the sacrificial service; so, to have the new covenant is to have the sacrificial, the substitutional work of the Lord Jesus Christ. To have the ark was to have the pot of manna; so, to have the new covenant is to have bread of everlasting life. To have the ark of the covenant was to have Aaron's rod that budded; so, to have the new cove

nant, is to have the priestly power of the Lord Jesus Christ. And to have the ark of the covenant, was to have the tables of the law resting in perfect quietude in that ark; and so, to have the new covenant, is to have Jesus Christ the end of the law, the law for ever silenced as to its having any penalties against the people of God. Thus, then, this true temple of God is distinguished by what it contains. And if you bring this home

to individual experience, it will still stand good; that every Christian is led into the new covenant, that every Christian is led into the priesthood of Christ, that every one taught of God is led into that eternal mercy that is by the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then it is said,

"And there were lightnings."

This seems to some very mysterious; but the Old Testament, together with other parts of the New Testament, will explain the meaning. What is the meaning of that Scripture in the ninth of Zechariah, "That his arrow shall go forth as the lightning?" What is the arrow there but his truth, that goes forth as the lightning, that convinces one sinner and another sinner of his condition as a sinner? These are the lightnings that proceed from the ark of the covenant.

"And there were voices"

in this temple. What voices? The voices of the Prophets had been silenced, and the voices of human tradition had been put in their place. So the Apostle Paul, in the thirteenth of the Acts, saith, "They knew not the voices of the Prophets," and "they fulfilled them in condemning him," that is, the Saviour. In the true Church of God there are heard

the voices of the Prophets-not the voices of uninspired men—but the voices of the Prophets, from the first to the last, and the voices of the Apostles as well, But then there were

"Thunderings."

Certainly. Does not the Lord say of his ministers that they are to be sons of thunder? And does not the minister sometimes so speak as to bring a dreadful sound into the soul, and conscience, and heart of the sinner, and that his testimony is like thunder; the man is awakened, he feels that in God's eternal truth there is a tremendous power, a majesty, and an awfulness.

"And an earthquake."

Well, what of that? An earthquake, figuratively, means a revolution: and what greater revolution can any man under the heavens undergo than that of transition from death to life? When a sinner is convinced of his state, and God is about to sweep all his false confidence away, first his soul undergoes a revolution like an earthquake. An earthquake is alarming: and so the sinner, when his false hopes are swallowed up, and he fears he shall be swallowed up, there is something alarming. So saith one of old, "Let not the pit shut her mouth upon me." I can see nothing so difficult in these Scriptures myself. But here is

"A great hail!" Certainly. If you are brought into the true temple, brought to receive the everlasting covenant, and know something of real conviction, something of the majesty of truth, something of the voices of the Prophets, then there will come the great hail. What is the great hail?

Sometimes the hail in this Book means the judgments of God; but here I apprehend the hail to mean the tribulations of the people of God; great hail-great tribulation. So you read in the seventh chapter, "These are they which came out of great tribulation." It is true we know comparatively little of this; but had you have lived in the time of Pagan Rome, or in the time of Papal domination, you would not have been at a loss to know what is meant by this great hail. You would have known then what this storm meant; you would have known then what these tribulations meant; and when your soul arrived at heaven, you would well have known what is meant when it is said, "These are they which came out of great tribulation." That is the

way I take that verse.

We now come to the twelfth chapter.

"And there appeared a great wonder in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars."

The heaven here spoken of, in which the woman appeared, can be, I think, nothing else but the Christian dispensation, called the kingdom of heaven. Some have supposed it means heaven-the heaven of glory; but if it mean the heaven of glory, then how does that accord with the same woman a little farther on in this chapter, being found in the wilderness? If, therefore, we take the heaven to mean the Gospel dispensation, then the two will stand together; as it is perfectly clear that these two things must be understood spiritually.

Then where does the great hail, spoken of in the last chapter, drive the woman to? This great hail, you observe, is connected with the temple of God, with the Church of God, with the people of God; and where would you expect to find the Church after this? Why, says the devil, I hope in hell, or on her way to it; I hope I shall find her turning her back upon what she has professed. So far from this, the storm drove her just where she likes to be. The very next thing we hear is, she is clothed with the sun, walking in the moonlight of the Gospel, crowned with twelve stars. That is where our tribulation will drive us to. Those storms of hail, those tribulations that blast your gourds, take away your earthly hopes, and earthly props, and earthly sympathies, and earthly comforts, what do they do? Why they make you feel that there is nothing, after all, that can really stand by you but vital godliness, and you will have to say

"Blest be the storm that drives me nearer home."

Happy for us, let our troubles be what they may, if the Lord so overrule them that they have this effect-to drive us into the sunlight of God's presence, into the moonlight of the Gospel and into the star-light of prophetic testimony; there shall we rejoice, and bless the Lord that He would not suffer us to settle down in that which was delu. sive, but brought us thus into the light of His presence.

"And she, being with child, cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered," which, of course must be understood spiritually. Would you not understand the Apostle spiritually, when in the fourth chapter of Galatians he says, "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again, until Christ be formed in you," a figure of speech to denote the earnestness of the Church in bringing forth Christ Jesus the Lord? What is our labour from time to time, but to bring forth Christ Jesus?

That is my