· : morning but I want a fresh token now.' | sister did not think me good enough I said. then you find you want power for them; but God had thoughts of yet.' 'Yes' she said, 'I cannot do peace towards me then; it was all for without power; I can't rest on what the best, for my own good and his I had this morning the power of it is glory, that I should pass through pogone; but I am safe; he told me so; I verty, in order to make me prize a better don't fear death; it is but like going to home when he was pleased to give me sleep, in the arms of a blessed Christ: one; and when he called me by his grace, death has no sting; I don't fear it: he and made known to me his love, even me, never said to the seeking seed of Jacob, and left others that I was acquainted seek ye my face in vain: no; he cannot with that were better than me, and sepaleave me; I cannot be lost! God would rated me from amongst my Sunday-school cease to be God, if I could be lost!' companions and left them. I see such a Then she gave us some advice about at- beauty in his electing, predestinating tending the means of grace; she said, love; I see it all so clear, all belongs to but do attend the means; I see such a me, all the Bible, and all the precious profit in them now; I see where God promises in it, all belongs to me, and he has blessed me, here a little, and there makes me to have no will but his; I lie a little; I see all the way the Lord has passive in his hands, and know no will brought me and those very prayers that but his; if he's pleased to bid me wait a I have put up to God when I thought little longer, or say come now, I am that there was no life in them, and I have content, my will is his will.' got up off my knees, and been ready to A few days after these singular maniknock my own brains out against the festations, she was brought into great wall or bed post, to think that I should darkness of soul, to use her own words be the subject of such darkness and un- she said, "it was an Egyptian's darkness, belief; and I thought God had shut out even darkness which might be felt:" and my prayer and would not answer me; the devil with all his power, harassing her but I see now that God took this way to poor soul, and telling her that she was humble my pride; for if God had an- going to die, and tauntingly said where swered me as I wanted, I should have is now thy God? "Oh!" she said, "the been above you all; I should have agony of my poor soul; I was full of thought myself holier than you; and I unbelief, questioning the reality of what wanted to have great views of divinity; I had enjoyed. Oh, what a night I had! but the Lord's time was not come, he never did I experience such powerful did not see fit to answer me then; but he temptations, and what was worst of all, has answered me now; and I see that the I could find no traces of God. I was Lord's time is best; but do attend the where Job was when he said, 'Oh that I means; I see such a beauty in them, knew where I might find him! that I but God must give the power; oh, I have might come even to his seat! and, like cried for power when my soul has been him, I looked on the right hand and on in deep distress, and the devil has told the left, backward and forward, but I me I was deceived, and I was deceiving could not see him; nay, I never felt so God's children, and that those very destitute in all my life! There was a few prayers would rise up in judgment friends down stairs, and, she said, I was against me, and God's people would rise tempted to call them up, and tell them up against me for deceiving them: he that I had deceived them. till this passage said you never can hold out to the end, came to her mind: 'Yea, I have loved thee you are sure to fall into sin, and you with an everlasting love: therefore with might as well sin at first as last; oh, how loving kindness have I drawn thee.' I my soul has been tried upon this sub-called to see her the morning of the day ject: but I have gone down upon my that she died; when I came in the room knees, and asked the Lord to strike me she lay with her eyes closed; after some dead rather than let me be deceived, or time she opened her eyes, and I said, deceive his children: I have proved the "Well, how are you now?" she said, devil a liar many a time; for God takes" All's well! all's right! a short time, all my prayers and answers them now, and he shows me all the way he has led me, from my cradle to now; for I was a poor despised child; my brother and and I shall be with him for ever; yes, he is precious to my soul, my transport and my trust, jewels to him are gaudy toys." Here she paused, and shortly after fell asleep in Jesus. die in the Lord. Blessed are the dead that | TO A BELOVED SISTER AT CLIFTON, ON HEARING OF THE DEATH OF HER Wolverhampton, August 4th. BROTHER: Who died on the 1st. of November, in the 24th. year of his age. MY DEAR SISTER IN THE LORD:-Re Carmel revisited by the King of Terrors.joice evermore; the Lord liveth and loveth DEPARTED this life, on Saturday evening, October 16th, Mr. Walter Strachan, of the King's Road, Chelsea, aged twenty-seven. He was brought to a saving acquaintance with the mysteries of the everlasting gospel under the ministry of Mr. John Stenson, at Carmel Chapel, Pimlico, by whom, and where he was baptised, on Lord's Day, July 25th, 1841, together with six others, five of whom are still walking worthy of their high and holy vocation of God in Christ Jesus. The deceased was present at the recent interment of our brother Ashworth, and expressed himself as being much impressed with the solemnity of the service, and more particularly with the following sentence, delivered by his pastor at the grave:- We commit the body of our dear deceased and beloved brother to the cold and silent tomb, as the rightful property of the dear Redeemer, there to remain till called for.' The deceased during the short period of his christian pilgrimage enjoyed much spiritual intercourse with the Sovereign Ruler of the skies. everlastingly. How true it is that each day's Every human tie may perish, Friend to friend unfaithful prove, Here, my dear sister, and here only, can we rest amidst all the changing scenes of this mundane state, on the immutability of God's counsel, the unalterableness of his will; the infinity of his love; and the faithfulness of his word. May your many fervent and affectionate petitions to the throne of heavenly grace, which you have presented on the behalf of your afflicted, but now deceased brother, be evidently accepted of God, by secret answers of peace being given to your own heart. Forget not, my dear sister, that the Judge of all the earth, and the Father of all mercies, cannot but do right. And as touching the death of the righteous, Although their passage may be dark, Their portion it is light, Who press towards the heav'nly mark, Through thickest shades of night. to whom in his addresses, in public prayer, The Lord grant you submission of spirit to he was wont invariably to begin with, Un- his sovereign determinations, resignation of changing God.' The church, of which he mind to his righteous dispensations, and was a much esteemed member, having in true thankfulness of heart for his merciful August last held special church prayer meet-manifestations; so shall you find that though ings, he engaged on one of those occasions with an unusual degree of fervency and affection; and it was generally observed by all present, that his petitions were of the most appropriate and affecting character. Though darkness gathered round his bed at death, and distress gat hold upon him, yet was he enabled with the latest powers of speech to declare, 'Christ is precious, very precious unto me.' On his pastor enquiring the state of his mind, on the Lord's Day prior to his decease, he answered, I have been much in hell, but little in heaven;' to which his pastor replying, then you have discovered that the former is most dreadful, and the latter most delighful.' He answered, 'Yes; and therefore desirable.' May his bereaved widow, being a partaker of like precious faith with him, whose faith, though shaken, was settled on his eternal faithfulness, whose word can never be broken, be preserved harmless and blameless in the paths of righteousness and truth; experimentally proving that her Maker is her husband, whose name is the Lord of hosts. your tribulations abound, yet your consolations much more abound; and though your trials increase, yet shall your triumphs advance your peace. May the Holy Ghost, the comforter grant you living communion with, and living comforts from the Lord of hosts; and amidst all the dying circumstances which surround you, enable you to lift up your heart with joy, knowing in whom you have believed, from whom you have received, and by whom you never, never can be deceived. Look up; therefore, my beloved in the Lord, to him that he may strengthen, support, and save you; and remembering and reviewing all the way the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness, give thanks unto his ever-adorable, and all-precious name, and take courage for the future; being confident of this very thing, that he that hath begun the good work in you, (as well as finished the great work for you,) will perform and perfect it unto the day of Jesus Christ. You say in your letter of the 4th instant, you suppose our brother Strachan has ere this, left this world for a better; your sup Chelsea, Nov. 6, 1847. position is correct; our much loved brother | tell him that the poor author requests an was released from all his sins, sufferings, interest in his prayers, and that he hopes to sorrows, and sighs, and received into his return the favour the same way. I have also heavenly habitation-princely palace-mys- sent you the Earthen Vessel, as it contains tic mansion-and happy home, on Saturday, an account of the death of our brother AshOctober 16; and, although his passage was worth, as well as the fullest information, (yet dark, yet his portion was light; inasmuch as published) touching the life, ministry, death his sure refuge was the Rock of ages; his and burial, together with the funeral sermons soul's rejoicing, the Ransom found; and his preached for the late Mr. John Stevens, of spiritual rest, the dear Redeemer's breast. Meard's Court, Soho. The first sermon he heard me preach, was on Lord's Day evening, July 4th, 1841, from the following words, After this, I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.' Rev. vii. 9; which the Holy Ghost applied with such an almightiness of power to his astonished heart; (he having been trained up in the Church established by law, not by the gospel,) that he was as it were instantly brought into the glorious liberty of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. His race was short, and swiftly run, But his reward-a perfect one; Christ was his song while here below, No other song he'll ever know; His years on earth were twenty-seven, His conversation was in heaven; Thither he looked-and thither soar'd, The earth forsook, and heaven ador'd, May the Lord keep us watching, wrestling, waiting; knowing that the time is short, the day is at hand; death approacheth; and eternal bliss or woe awaiteth all of Adam's fallen race. Truly has the poet declared Be the living God my friend, Then my bliss shall never end. Remember me in the kindest manner your kindly-disposed heart can suggest, to our well-beloved brother Probert; may he as a faithful minister of our Lord Jesus Christ, be filled and feasted with the fruits of righteousness which grow on the Tree of life, and hang unceasingly and undiminishingly thereon; notwithstanding the whole bloodredeemed family, renewed by grace, feast unsparingly thereof from day to day, from month to month, and from year to year. That the Lord of life and love may continually lift up the light of his countenance upon you, and fill you with all joy and peace in believing, is the prayer of Your affectionate pastor, I have sent you two copies of the Sunday Inquiries, one in calf, and the other in cloth; in presenting one to our brother Probert, Looking unto Jesus. I look to Jesus as he was, Faith sees Him there in endless day; To be confessed by every tongue; I look to Him as he was made As such his sympathies awake, O'er mountain heights he swiftly comes, I look to him-Immanuel My priest and sacrifice; On this my hope relies. My God and Man, in mystic One, I look to Him, the conqueror And worlds before him fall; In regal robes, as Judge, he comes Their glorious Head of grace. This is "the King of kings."-W W. We must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ. THOUGHTS ON 2 COR. V. 10. IN ANSWER ΤΟ A TRIED CHILD ОР GOD. (Concluded from p. 235.) In my preceeding remarks I endeavoured to shew the vast difference between the professed righteous persons, who are righteous in their own estimation, or in their supposed righteous doings, and the truly, eternally, and unalterably righteous ones, who are entirely so, in Christ Jesus their covenant head, and who never can come into condemnation world without end, which is evidenced by the working of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of all the eternally chosen, and perfectly redeemed family of Jehovah, by bringing them personally to feel, more or less, that in them, that is in their flesh, dwelleth no good thing.' Rom. vii. 18. I now, by the help of God, proceed to shew that notwithstanding such righteous ones, through the perfect obedience and blood-shedding of their glorious Redeeemer, are not only washed from all their impurity, so that in him they stand before the pure eye of God, as pure as the holiest angel, but that there is not the least penal punishment standing against them, justice having poured every drop of wrath due to their sins upon the guiltless head of their divine and glorious substitute. The trial therefore that am now more particularly about treating upon, is that of a father with his rebellious children, though he may often assume the character of an angry judge-as Joseph did to his brethren, when he said-'ye are spies,' (Gen, xlii. 14.) with the same view, to bring them to a feeling sense of their own personal transgression; and to learn them in the end, as they did-'the riches of his free and full forgiveness.' (Gen. 1. 21.) The In our last piece we endeavoured to trace the quickened heirs of glory-in some of the conflicts between flesh and spirit; the struggling of depraved nature; and the superaboundings of grace in bringing them, in the midst of all, to hate themselves and their follies; and causing their souls to long for preserving grace to be saved from the future power of the enemy. But the opposing armies of sin in their members remain longer in the field; and are more powerful than they ever imagined, so that they learn by bitter experience, that they might as well try to stop the flowing tide, as to keep under by their own power or resolutions the iniquity of their dreadfully wicked hearts. Under the workings of these things, they Nevertheless, it is one thing to believe this are often brought in their soul's feelings sentimentally, and another, and vastly differ- before the judgement seat of Christ to ent, to know it experimentally: the former, receive the things done in the body.' Their (that is sentimentally) may be obtained by sins are read aloud in the court of conhearing God-taught ministers preach, or by science; darkness covers the mind; Jehovah reading books written upon the subject; but assumes the appearance of an angry judge ; the latter can only be learned by personal but, its still the seat of Christ.' experience. Such experience may differ in tried heirs of glory, while walking in darkthe peculiar acute pain or depth of terror and ness at times, think that not only the hand distress; all God's people not being left to of God is out against them, but that the feel to the same extent, the unfathomable Lord lets every one else lift up their heels depth of the iniquity of the heart; for God against them as they please-or curse or glorifies the riches of his sanctifying grace, falsely accuse them as Shemei did David. in mercifully and peculiarly preserving some Ah! even at a time when troubles rise of his family, and shewing the superabound-mountains high, and the soul seems already ings of his pardoning grace in others :-he to have more than they can bear. But this glorified his sanctifying grace in Samuel; is the Lord's merciful way of bringing them his pardoning grace in David; his sanctify- to say heartily with David-'Let me fall ing grace in Paul; his pardoning grace in Peter, and thousands since their days. Those therefore, who are by sanctifying grace preserved from falling into known sins, are preserved from many bitter feelings of soulagony. Those in whom Jehovah glorifies the riches of his pardoning grace, these have to feel the weighty burden of their sins, and bitterness of sinning against God. Not that the preserved ones are without sin; nor a wit better in themselves; nor are those who are left to fall, any the less the children of God, nor less pure before the throne, as they stand in union with their blessed Christ, their immaculate, pure, and adorable Representative and Advocate. into the hands of the Lord, and not into the hands of man.' Under these various trials they are often brought in their feelings as prisoners before Jehovah as their judge; guilt presses them down; no light; no pardon proclaimed; no peace enjoyed; judgement saying sentimentally all is right; experience groaning all is wrong. My wounds are deep, corrupt, and stink through my foolishness. Now it is by virtue of their interest, that, they are thus arrested and brought before the judgment seat. It's to learn in their own soul's experience, that it's Christ's precious blood and merits that will not only plead before the throne of God, but in the very soul's blessedness of every prisoner thus brought. What? Why, that My soul hath gone too far astray, They now mourn and pray-'Turn thou me, and I shall be turned, &c.' (Jer xxxi. 18.) They are brought with their whole soul to justify the Lord, as David did-they plead they are guilty, 'Against thee, and thee only have I sinned.' (Ps. li. 4.) Jesus looks; the poor sinner's heart melts like Peter's; the prisoner cries be merciful, be merciful to me; if thou wilt not hear a mortal's groan, yet hear a Saviour's blood. "Shine Lord, and my terror shall cease, The blood of atonement apply; And lead me to Jesus for peace, Faith is now brought into exercise; the soul lays hold of the promise of God, by which he has laid himself under an obligation to bless. Mercy draws aside the veil from her smiling countenance; removes the heavy burden of guilt from the conscience; the judgment seat of Christ is the mercy seat; Jehovah smiles as he proclaims pardon to the rebel, who 'weeps at the mercy he's found; Jesus appears as his law-fulfiller, as his substitute, his glorious advocate, pleads on the poor rebel's behalf, the merits of his vicarious sufferings; light breaks in upon the prisoner's mind; interest in his atonement enjoyed; the 'prisoner leaps to loose his chains, and shouts The Rock that is higher than I." Twas Jesus, my friend, when he hung on the tree, Sin their worst enemy before, But wean Will vex their eyes and ears no more.' Some of the redeemed have to experience more of this than others; some to learn that fools, because of transgression, are afflicted;' (Ps. cvii. 17;) others to them from the love of self, and to bring them experimentally to know that salvation is from first to last, all of grace; some are called to pass through this trial before they come to their last stage; others when their hay, straw, and stubble is burnt up in their death affliction. All have not Job's trials, nor Jeremiah's lamentations; nor have all the rich developments of the glories of Christ, as Isaiah; nor have all to weep from the same cause as Peter; nor to mourn for the same thing as David; but all will have to mourn their vileness, unworthiness, and unprofitableness before the throne of Christ, before they leave the stage of mortal action, if they are the children of God; but not a |