the writer from the mass of pious and strict evangelical professors; very careful and troubled about many things, and in that very circumstance manifesting the want of perception of the glory of the one thing needful. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh and the pen writeth. Is there a syllable in her letter, from beginning to end, upon the one glorious theme of heaven, and the only theme worthy to occupy the redeemed on earth? Perhaps, according to her views, that is a subject which may be laid aside where there is professed agreement on it. Yet professed agreement to the plainest statement of the truth is now carried so far by many, that the hollowness of their profession is chiefly discoverable from the circumstance, that their minds and their tongues are occupied about every thing else of a religious kind, rather than it. Her ready reception of every imputation against the disciples-down to that old reproach of sinning that grace may abound-is another very ungodly symptom. Her indiscriminate language about the pleasures of the world is most like the religion of the world-one of the highest pleasures of many. I suppose she is too "spiritually minded" (according to her views of spirituality) to take any pleasure in any of the same objects with the world. Probably she will call that a sneer at one adorning the doctrine of, &c. &c. I cannot help it some of the imputations she retails against us are bad enough; but indeed I hope we shall be better employed than in defending ourselves against them. Her question about B is a very black one. Of course, before she would join the apostolic church at Corinth, she would have taken care to ascertain that the man who had been guilty of incest was not with them; indeed, she seems quite too good for a church of Christ. She hopes for a pleasing account of us, and our great improvement, from you: and what is the pleasing account she looks for? Not that we are standing fast in the faith, and in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, rejoicing in hope of God, and in nothing terrified by our adversaries, &c. but that we are not frequenters of balls and plays, and do not hold the possibility of being spiritually-minded in a ball-room. Of course, if Mr. V- chose to give a ball in his house, and to require her attendance, she would lose all her spirituality and become carnally minded; or, more probably, she would be labouring to maintain some devout and religious frame of mind while the fiddles were playing; and little aware that in that very pious effort (on which her peace of conscience would hinge) she was really under the influence of that carnal mind, which (in its most religious form as well as most irreligious) is enmity to the only true God. I hope you will not gratify her with the account she looks for; for I fear it would be but gratifying her religious flesh. She gravely observes, that she could not join any church holding such principles as she imputes to us. I wish her distinctly to know, that we could not receive any professor of the mind of which she appears from her letter to be. I shall rejoice to find that she turns out such as you think her whenever she does, I am sure that she will see I have not written too severely. : CL. TO J. L Oct. 1830. STRIFE is placed in such a connexion in Galatians v. and elsewhere, that I conceive those who will persist in striving about words to no profit, and agitating questions that are not for godly edifying, should be put away from our fellowship, and avoided just as much as those who walk in any other of the acknowledged lusts of the flesh. How rapidly, my brother, are the wheels of Providence revolving! Behold, he cometh with clouds!" and we may almost hear the distant sound of his chariot-wheels. Is there not "upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity, men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking for those things which are coming on the earth." How blessed that we are called at such a time to look up and lift up our heads, for our redemption draweth nigh. How blessed to hear the first-born among many brethren addressing the great congregation that he has received, in such language as that (Ps. lxii. 8.) "Trust in Him at all times: ye people, pour out your hearts before him: God is a refuge for us." Wonderful: a refuge for sinners, whose guilty consciences naturally would lead them to try and fly from him, but are now led to fly to him, and trust in him, and call upon him as their Father and their God! And all this blessedness brought to us "through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus"-who humbled himself and took upon him the form of a servant, and amidst all the sorrows of death that compassed him held fast his confidence in Jehovah, trusted in Him, and was delivered: and gives the privilege of being the sons of God to all that believe in his name: and "if children"—or rather-since children-" then heirs: heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." How briefly do those few words sum up the wonderful blessedness we are called to, and the wonderful way in which sinners are called to it! "Heirs of God!"-what an infinite inheritance! But how can a sinful creature have such a portion?-joint heirs with Christ! How slow of heart we are to know the things that are freely given to us of God. What a boundless field of discovery is there under the teaching of that Spirit, who alone searcheth all things-yea, the deep things of God! May you and I, and all his children, be led into it more and more! AFTER disposing of such cases, there are in others general principles which it is most important for a Christian to attend to. Whatever be the form in which he may have this world's goods laid by, he cannot be too suspicious of the workings of his own covetous heart and if-for the purpose of either keeping or adding to his store- he shut up his bowels of compassion against the real wants of a necessitous brother, he is then absolutely in the snare of that covetousness which is idolatry. And this evil-though generally perhaps secret-may become so manifested by overt acts, as to call for the discipline of the house of God to purge it out. But if I were to go beyond such general principles, the application of which can be effectually produced in the disciple's mind only by the influence of the truth,-if I were to attempt (for instance) to lay down and enforce a law against a Christian's going into a benefit society: I should fear that I was presuming to be wiser than Christ, and to add to the laws of his kingdom. The following considerations, I think, justify me in saying so. A man may have money laid by in various forms. It may be in Bank; it may be in Government debentures; it may be in the funds of a benefit society; it may be in the rent of a house; it may be in land. For let it be observed, that if I have inherited landed property of 1000l. per annum rental, all the value of that, which is beyond my wants for the present year, may be considered as so much stock in Bank, the interest of which is calculated to meet the wants of future years. Dare any lay down a law, that a Christian must not have a landed estate? I think we should be opposed in the attempt by the explicit testimony of scripture. From the Scriptures of the New Testament we not only know that there were rich as well as poor in the Apostolic churches,-(the former of whom were exhorted indeed not to "trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God,— that they be rich in good works," &c. but no intimation given to them that they could not lawfully be rich)—but we know that in the first church at Jerusalem there were persons possessed of lands and property, the whole of which they might have kept without any censure from the Apostles (Acts v. 4.) The exercise of active love among them is indeed on record for our imitation, in those who sold this or that piece of ground or house, which they could spare, to supply the wants of their poor brethren: for this is what the original really imports, and not that each land-owner sold all his land, &c. Well: if there was nothing necessarily inconsistent with Christian principle in their having lands, and continuing to have them, so as to be distinguished as rich brethren; neither could there be any intrinsic contrariety to Christian principle in their obtaining lands by purchase, &c.; still supposing that they did not, in order to effect such purpose," withhold good from those to whom it is due." Well is not what I have said on landed property immediately applicable to money in the funds, or laid out in any way that we think prudent? The evil is not in having it, or in laying it out so as that we continue to possess a pecuniary interest in it. But it consists in regarding any such stock, as a store not to be broken in upon, even when the present real wants of a brother require it. It seems to me that this view by no means trenches on the force of divine injunction in Mat. vi. 19-21, and that the apparently stricter interpretation which some have put forward-(as if it were forbidden to have any stock of worldly goods sufficient to meet future occasions, as well as present wants)—is untenable, contradicted by other parts of Scripture, and calculated to land in hypocrisy and various other evils. You will see from what I have written, that-however needful Christian caution and jealousy of ourselves be in the matter—I think we have no business to attempt laying down a law, that a Christian must not put money (if he can lawfully spare it) into a benefit society. I was for some time afraid to express myself so decisively upon the subject: for though not engaged, nor likely to be engaged, in any thing of the kind myself, I felt what a snare the consideration of others might be; as well as how awful it would be for me to be a stumbling-block to them, by corrupting the rule of the word. But under the restriction and control of the general Christian principles, which the power of the truth only can enforce on the conscience, I now feel myself quite at liberty to say, that the thing cannot be pronounced unlawful in the abstract. ΤΟ CLII. 1830. You tell me that for some time past you have been very discontented and unhappy. That is a state into which, from our unbelief and hardness of heart, we are always prone to lapse under the various trials of our course; and it is always an alarming state, as indicating a dimness of eye to the one satisfying good thing shewn us from heaven, and is connected with a readiness to become weary and faint in our minds," and it is only the strong power and care of the good shepherd that keeps us at such times from falling and turning aside with them who draw back into perdition, and He keeps us from this by recalling our minds to the good words and comfortable which He speaks to us from the mercyseat. Is not this one of them? (Ps. lxii. 8.) "Trust in the Lord at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us." What a poor thing it would be to take these words merely as the language of the literal David, a sinner like ourselves. Do we not know the voice of the friend of sinners, declaring the name of Jehovah to his brethren in the midst of the congregation that he has received as his inheritance-setting forth before them the deep tribulation through which he passed in the days of his flesh, and the unshaken confidence that he maintained in God throughout all, and calling us to be followers of him in this, as joint heirs with him, heirs of God and all the blessedness that belongs to his children. "I ascend unto my father and your father, unto my God and your God." Trust in him at all times-" in the times of the thickest darkness, of the bitterest sorrow"-when your spirit is overwhelmed within you. (see Ps. lxi.) "Pour out your hearts before him," as the children given unto me, and whom I, presenting them before him, am not ashamed to call my brethren. God is a refuge for us," a secure shelter and hiding-place from every evil, from every storm, from every enemy. Shelter yourselves in Him and fear not. Heaviness may endure for the night, but remember the glorious morning in which your expected joy shall come. In such language does he continually speak to us. And is there not enough in all this to banish discontent and unhappiness? Our consciences, testifying all the vileness and ungodly workings of our hearts, might well suggest objections against the idea of such blessings being ours, did we not see how it comes to us, that it is the glory wherewith He is crowned who is worthy. "Heirs of God." What an inheritance! but how can it be the portion of a sinful creature ?—“ joint heirs with Christ." "The glory which thou hast given me I have given them." Shall we not exclaim, these are the sure mercies of David. Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things, and blessed be his glorious name for ever! And shall not that name be hallowed by those who know it? Shall they confound it with the various gods of the world that are but idols? May it be as ointment poured forth with mighty efficacy and refreshing fragrance to you. CLIII. TO THE SAME. 1830. I HAVE read your letter with some pain; and am startled, I confess, at what seems to me a kind of morbid tenderness or soreness of conscience, and at an apparent shaking of your mind upon scriptural principles, because you think they are not sufficiently exhibited among those you walk with. "One of my strongholds is, that the spirit of truth produced unity in the believers of the apostolic gospel. If I see not this unity, what is the inference ?" That is, indeed, ugly language; and before I advert to the two points in which you think you see in us something ontrary to the unity which the spirit of truth produces in believers, |