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interested. But, oh! how inscrutable are the ways of Providence, and how mysterious is the procedure of the Most High! for at the time his friends were indulging hopes of his recovery, the disease assumed a more serious aspect, and fears as to the result took possession of every mind. During his affliction I saw him frequently. In a few words he would express his confidence in the truth of religion and the atonement of Christ, and thus rejoice in hope of the glory of God; but he was generally unable to converse on these important topics at length, the disease of which he was the subject evidently affecting the mind. As one day succeeded another he evidently became weaker, and, to all human appearance, was hastening to the tomb, the grave of all earthly hopes, and distinctions, and grandeurs, and in a short time he left this world of noise and show for a heaven of beauty, and rest, and glory."

On the 29th of July his leg was amputated. The courage which the emergency required he summoned up; conversed with his surgeons at intervals during the operation, and calmly looked on the limb just severed from the body, till requested by Sir J. Fife to look away. It was the last effort of sinking nature to survive for the sake of those he loved, and for whom he wished to live. He did well till twelve o'clock that night, when he became feverish. At four the next morning he sunk and changed for death; and from that hour toiled insensibly with the last enemy till eight, when he expired in the 58th year of his age, having been 37 years a member of the Methodist New Connexion.

During the closing scenes of his life, Mr. Graham enjoyed largely the consolations which he so often had administered to others. All that affection, friendship, professional skill and Christianity could do to alleviate his sorrows and smooth his dying pillow was done. As he approached the crisis, the interest and sympathy manifested by all who knew him became intense. The sensation produced by his death was deep and general. "Devout men followed him to the tomb and made great lamentation over him." The proverb was verified in him, "A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth."

His death was improved in Salem Chapel, on Sabbath evening, Aug. 24th, 1851, by the Rev. W. Hughes, who delivered an able and impressive discourse on Revelations vii. 9, 10, to a crowded congregation. "Mark the perfect man and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace."

A YOUNG WOMAN.-A young woman was devoted to the world. The love of dress reigned in her breast. Dress was her idol. The time for a fair was approaching, and she had a new garment in which she designed to attend its scenes of dissipation. Part of several preceding Sabbaths had been employed in preparing some of her apparel, as she usually left this work for that sacred day. On Saturday evening before the fair she was not quite well; the next morning, however, she attended to some worldly business. In the evening of

that profaned Sabbath she became ill, and soon sunk into a state of insensibility. Thus she continued till Friday, the day of her anticipated pleasure; but on that day, about three o'clock, she expired, at the very time when she would probably have been in the fair, had not disease and death disappointed her expectations. Some time before she died the hair was shaved from her head; and she was then sufficiently sensible to say, "Not my hair, not my hair; I am tormented in my soul!"

9

DISCOURSES, ESSAYS, &c.

STIRRING UP OURSELVES TO TAKE HOLD OF GOD. BY THE REV. H. O. CROFTS, D.D.

"TAKE hold of God" is a remarkable phrase, and, so far as we recollect, is used only by the prophet Isaiah. The phrase, with a little variation, is used four times by that prophet. The first time it occurs is in the xxvii. of Isaiah. There God is the speaker, and he says, "Fury is not in me; who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together. Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me." The second and third times this sentiment is uttered is in the lvi. of Isaiah, and it stands in this connexion: "For thus saith the Lord unto my eunuchs that keep my Sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and that take hold of my covenant; even unto them will I give in mine house, and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off. Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves unto the Lord, to serve him and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant; even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called the house of prayer for all people." The fourth time we meet with the idea is in the following passage: "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags: and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have carried us away. And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee." (Isaiah Ixiv. 6, 7.) Here we are taught that true prayer, prevailing prayer, is something more than merely calling upon God's name, it is "taking hold of God." If we would make peace with God, we must "take hold of his strength." If we would have "a name better than of sons and daughters," if we would be joyful in God's house of prayer and have our sacrifices accepted of God, we must "take hold of his covenant." If we would not have our piety wither, lose its beauty and drop off as leaves in autumn, and ourselves become despicable and contemptible, we must call upon God's name; yea, stir up ourselves to "take hold of God." Some may deem it presumption, or blasphemy, for men to think and speak of "taking hold of God;" but it is neither, for Jehovah himself evidently taught Isaiah thus to think and thus to speak; and he charges all Israel with the sin of not calling upon God's name, of not stirring up themselves to "take hold of God." By this mode of speech we are taught with what holy boldness, fervour and importunity we should call upon God's name, and with what confidence we should ask, plead, expect at the throne of grace.

We cannot take hold of God as Jacob did at the brook Jabbok. "God," who was afterwards "manifest in the flesh," even Jesus, before his incarnation, appeared to Jacob there in a tangible, bodily form, and Jacob took hold of him with his hands and wrestled with him till the

break of day; he would not and did not let him go till he received the blessing he desired. We cannot thus take hold of God with our hands; for "God manifest in the flesh" does not appear to us even in the body in which he bore our sins upon the tree; but we may grasp him in thought, in affection, and by penitence, and faith and supplication obtain the blessing which Jacob received. It was not Jacob's bodily strength which held the man that wrestled with him and that obtained the blessing from him. The Being who by a touch put Jacob's thigh "out of joint, as he wrestled with him," could easily have deprived Jacob of life. It was not on account of Jacob's great bodily strength that the man said, "Let me go, for the day breaketh;" but it was Jacob's penitence and faith and supplications which held him and prevailed over him. To this fact Hosea plainly alludes in these words: "He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God; yea, he had power over the angel and prevailed; he wept, and made supplications unto him; he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us; even the Lord God of Hosts, the Lord is his memorial. Therefore turn thou to thy God, keep mercy and judgment and wait on thy God continually." The tears and supplications of Jacob evidently took hold of God and prevailed with him; and in like manner we may take hold of God and secure his blessing. Tears of godly sorrow for sin, and earnest, believing supplications for mercy, will ever take hold of the all-compassionate Jehovah.

To take hold of God we must take hold of his covenant. The covenant of grace is revealed to us in the gospel, and its blessings are offered to all who will comply with its terms. In this covenant God requires us to part with all sin, to come out from among the ungodly, to devote ourselves body and soul to his service, to remain for ever stedfast in our allegiance to him, and then he promises to give us a new heart and a new spirit, to write his laws upon our hearts and minds, to be merciful to our unrighteousness, and our sins and our iniquities to remember no more, to be to us a God and that we shall be to him a people. This covenant we take hold of when we comprehend it, approve of it, believe in it, accept it, and determine, by the help of God, to live according to the terms thereof. We must plead this covenant when we pray to Jehovah or we cannot take hold of him.

To take hold of God we must take hold of his strength as well as his covenant. In 1 Cor. i., Christ crucified is termed the power of God and the wisdom of God: "But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God" (i. 23, 24). Those who reject a crucified Christ cannot even come near to God; so that they can never take hold of his strength; for Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me." We take hold of God's strength when, with a penitent heart and a believing mind, we take hold of Jesus as our only and all-sufficient Saviour; and when we plead with God for all we need, for all he has promised, in Christ's name, and for Christ's sake. When we thus come to the throne of grace we take hold of God's strength and prevail with him. We secure, on our behalf, all the wisdom, the power, and the resources of the Godhead. He cannot deny us anything we ask for agreeably to his will, when we come in Jesu's name. It is, then, morally impossible for God to refuse our re

quests; for he cannot deny himself: "God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who' have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us; which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil, whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high-priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec."

In all real prayer, therefore, there is something more than merely calling upon God's name; there is a taking hold of God. In our prayers we must never stop short of this; for if we do we certainly ask amiss, and call upon God's name in vain. Good Matthew Henry says, "To pray is to take hold of God, by faith to take hold of the promises and the declarations God has made of his good-will to us, and to plead them with him; to take hold of him as one who is about to depart from us, earnestly begging him not to leave us; or of one that has departed, soliciting his return; to take hold of him, as he that wrestles takes hold of him he wrestles with; for the seed of Jacob wrestle with him, and so prevail." Taking hold of the covenant with one hand, and of Christ with the other, we must plead with God till we gain the full assurance in our own minds, that God will, and does, grant unto us the blessings we need, and which he has promised to all who come to him through Jesus Christ. We, moreover, can soon tell when we take hold of God; for then anxiety, fear and sorrow, at once give place to tranquility, confidence and joy. We can as much feel when we have hold of God as a wrestler can feel that he has hold of the man he wrestles with; or as the man ready to drown in the water feels that he has hold of a bough, a rope, or a plank, when he has grasped such a means of saving himself from a watery grave. When a man fled into Solomon's temple and took hold of the horns of the altar, he felt the substance in his hands; and when we take hold of God we feel him in our hearts, and are instantly filled" with all joy and peace in believing," and are made to abound in hope by the power of the Holy Ghost." Such, then, is what we conceive is meant by taking hold of God; and we never pray aright unless we take firm hold of God's covenant-firm hold of his Son, and plead these till God reveals himself unto us, and grants us our requests. "But when we take hold on God, it is as the boatman with his hook takes hold on the shore, as if he would pull the shore to him, but really it is to pull himself to the shore; so we pray, not to bring God to our minds, but to bring ourselves to his."

The

"To take hold of God" we must stir up ourselves. We must awake from our slumbers, arouse from our lethargy, shake off our indifferency, and summon all our energies to the work, if we would succeed. We must awake our thinking powers; we must stir up our affections; and with a resolute determined will "strive to take hold of God." whole mind must be put in vigorous motion or we cannot have "strength with God and prevail." While we think but little of God and the value of those blessings he imparts; while our affections are cold, and more fixed upon the world than they are upon the things of God; while our determinations to gain much of God and spiritual things are weak and wavering; while we mind earthly things more than we do heavenly things, "the things which belong to our peace," God will not be taken hold

of by us. "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep; let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up." Until all this be done we in vain go to God in the expectation of having power over him. Until all this be done we are not in a fit state to hold communion with God; nor are we in a fit state to receive the rich blessings of his grace. For God to bless us while we "are at ease in Zion," "settled upon our lees," indifferent to our own best interests and the best interests of the Church and the world, would be like casting pearls before swine, or giving that which is holy unto the dogs. Until we arouse ourselves, and both see and feel the need of taking hold of God, we cannot place a proper value upon his presence, nor rightly prize his favours.

Stir up yourselves to take hold of God by a more diligent and prayerful use of the Holy Scriptures. "The word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and of the intents of the heart." This divine word reveals the glories of the Godhead. It unfolds to our view the love of God, the grace of Christ, and the work of the Holy Spirit. It contains the "exceeding great and precious promises" whereby we may "be partakers of the divine nature." It shows us our need of God and of the blessings which he has promised to them that love him. It points out the way by which we are to gain all we need to make us wise and holy, useful and happy. And just in proportion to our candid, diligent and prayerful study of the Bible, will be our desires for God, and our anxiety to gain his favour which is life, and his lovingkindness which is better than life. The diligent and prayerful student of the Bible is the man that stirs up himself to take hold of God. By the truth he clearly apprehends the value of God's grace-his desires for God are enkindled his soul is impelled to follow hard after God-his determinations to take hold of God become so strong and decided that he cannot rest until he grasps the Infinite, and feels that "the Eternal God is his refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms." The soul of the diligent and devotional student of the Bible "thirsteth for God, for the living God," yea, his "heart and his flesh crieth out for the living God." Pay more attention to God's Word or you will never be able to say, "As the hart panteth after the waterbrooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God;" and never till you thus pant after God will able to take hold of him.

you be If we would take hold of God we must stir up ourselves by more private devotion. We must exercise ourselves more unto godliness in the closet. Self-examination and secret prayer will reveal our great deficiencies. When we commune little with our own hearts and with our God in secret, we do not feel our need; therefore do not stir up ourselves to take hold of God that he may "supply all our need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." But when we, in the retirement of the closet, search our own hearts, and cry to God, saying, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting"-then we discover our real state, and have such distressing views of our sinfulness, our barrenness, our misery, and our

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