ject to see young men earnestly and affectionately warned against vicious courses; not that we grudge them words of advice and friendly counsel. Nay; most gladly would we see some, aye, many of our commercial youth so divinely wrought upon as to flee from the wrath to come, and made partakers of vital godliness. But we cannot bear to see them deluded and deceived by a book like this, which breaks down all the barriers between the church and the world that God has set up, flatters the pride and ambition of greedy, covetous professors, countenances every indulgence and luxury with which rich leading men in churches surround themselves and their families, wholly misrepresents the nature of true religion, and thus obscures the very path of life into which it seeks to inveigle the young. Better have no religion than one so delusive as this a religion without repentance or regeneration; without faith, hope, or love; without separation from the world; without persecution or the cross; without the fear of God or a tender conscience; for not one of these things is spoken of or insisted upon. This, then, must plead our excuse, if our indignation at so deceptive, and yet really to any one possessed of spiritual discernment, so shallow a book, has stirred up our mind rather to whip it out of court than patiently listen to and refute its statements and reasonings. But if any of our spiritual readers still think that we have borne hard upon the writer, let them carefully read the extracts we have given, and then, comparing them with the word of truth, and their own experience, let them reconsider their verdict, and the result, we venture to hope, will be-our acquittal. The length of our Review this month, and a desire to give more thought and time to the subject than pressure of other matters just now allows us, must plead our apology for deferring to a future number our promised remarks on the "Liberty of the Ministry." POETRY. ZION'S PRAYER AMIDST THE DIN OF WAR. Jesus, the only Way to God, Thy precious name is all our plea; We would approach through thy dear blood; Let dust and ashes plead with thee. Wilt thou this privilege bestow? Dear gracious Spirit, aid us here; A little band thy will would know, Lord, for our help do thou appear. What thou hast said shall come to pass; The distant rumor now we hear;-Of war, and clashing swords, alas! What bloodshed and destruction's there! O solemn tokens! Britain, fear! Lord, for our guilty land we plead; Hast thou not still thy favorites here? Let them for mercy intercede. Bedworth, March 21st, 1855. We mourn to see how sin abounds, Each warlike spirit, Lord, subdue, And hush the nations into peace; O sanctify these scourges too, And seal each troubled soul's release. Or fight for us, if 'tis thy will; Thy fear forth with our armies send; While Zion prays on Zion's hill, And rebels to thy sceptre bend. 'Tis thou, the victory, Lord, must give. G. T. C. THE GOSPEL STANDARD. No. 236. AUGUST 1, 1855. VOL. XXI. MATT. v. 6; 2 TIM. I. 9; ROM. XI. 7; ACTS VIII. 37, 38; MATT. XXVIII. 19. THE UNIVERSAL INVITATION OF THE GOSPEL. BY RUSK. (Continued from page 206.) "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price."-ISAIAH lv. 1. HAVING briefly showed the waters, let us take notice of the difference between a coming sinner and one that is already come: 46 Come ye to the waters." 1. A coming sinner has a keen appetite, a thirst for all that God has promised; but a sinner that has come has been satisfied. Christ says, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink;" but you will agree with me, that when I have come to drink, my thirst is quenched. Now by this you may try yourself, and see whether you have as yet come to these waters, or whether you are only approaching; for, although you may have had some drops of rain, and likewise at times felt the heavenly dew, yet there is something wanting; and that is, showers. I can remember that I had many sweet lifts, both under the word and in private, with the saints, and in reading the Word and good books; but still I was a coming sinner, and therefore was not fully satisfied. 2. If you are a coming sinner, you will feel at times the weight and burden of your sin exceeding heavy, and you will be trying to extricate yourself by hard labour and toil to break off your sins by righteousness; but you will find no rest. Now, a sinner that has come has found rest, rest from this legal, fruitless labor, rest from the weight and burden of his sin, and rest from an accusing, gnawing conscience. Thus, if you have come to these waters fully, you have been well satisfied, and have had rest. 3. If you are a coming sinner, you feel that you have no righteousness. Instead of love, which fulfils the law, you feel enmity and hatred; and, instead of feeling yourself satisfied with your performances, you really see and feel yourself ungodly, and opposed to every branch of righteousness. You will be, like Joshua the high priest, clothed with filthy garments. Satan, law, conscience, the world, and hypocrites will all accuse and condemn you. Yes, and you will keenly feel it; and the cause is, you have no righteousness. But a sinner that has come has on the spotless righteousness of Christ. Hence the Church breaks out, "He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness." She was one then that had come to these waters. If you are a coming sinner, you are in a perishing condition, you are starving, and have never, as yet, come to the feast which God has provided. You may have tasted that the Lord is good, gracious, and desired the sincere milk of the word; yes, and have had a little peace, and a little love, and a little confidence; but these in general are but short lived. But the sinner that has come is one that has fed to the full upon Christ. He has eaten the flesh and drunk the blood of the Son of Man. He has partaken with the prodigal of the fatted calf, or Christ crucified; and therefore knows and is at a point in the full assurance of faith, that Christ, his Passover, was sacrificed for him, and he keeps the feast, a feast of fat things, full of marrow and fatness. Now literally, you and I can make a distinction in things; as for instance, one parched with thirst, and one that has drunk his fill; one that is worn out with hard labour and toil, and one that has had a good night's rest; one that is naked, or merely covered with rags, and one that has good clothing; one that is in a starving condition, and one that has abundance; and as it is literally, so is it spiritually. A coming sinner is the one, and a sinner that has come the other. The full assurance of faith is the full assurance of satisfaction. You will find all that I am now treating of in Ezekiel's prophecy. Look into it a little, and may the Lord make these considerations a blessing to our souls. The prophet says, "He brought me again unto the door of the house." Now, by this house I understand Christ Jesus, God and man united. From this house issued these holy waters, which they never could have done had not the Son of God became incarnate. We find that the prophet came through the waters to his ancles; and this may represent a coming sinner, having turned his back on this world, and his face Zionward. After this he is brought through these waters to his knees. This shows the strength that at times is communicated to the coming sinner. After this the waters were to the loins; and by this we may understand a being well equipped with truth. Truth is to be our shield and buckler; truth is to make us free; and Paul says, "Having your loins girt about with truth." Now certainly truth in the mind of the coming sinner is a great blessing; but still he is to go on further; so at last we find that these holy waters became a river to swim in; and this is the limit beyond which we cannot go. When a man gets here, he has come to these living waters as far as he can; but until this takes place, he is only coming. If you have not come here, you will find something deficient. You cannot take all the promises to yourself, all the blessings of the new covenant; you cannot believe that you are in a pardoned and justified state. You cannot claim God as your Father, with the inward witness of the Spirit. You are not delivered from the fear of death, neither can you triumph in the finished work of Christ. Now, seeing these things are attainable,. it teaches us to come to these waters, and not to attempt to rest midway, but press towards the mark. I well remember a time when I could not take these covenant blessings to myself; and I have known a time that I have taken everything to myself, and it has been a river to swim in; for I never could take too much, nor go far enough. This is raising the poor man up out of the dust, and the beggar from the dunghill. But take notice, although the difference is great between a coming sinner and one that has come to these waters, yet it is to be a path of tribulation; for although "wisdom's ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace," yet we never shall be without changes. The day of prosperity and the day of adversity are set the one against the other. All the happiness, comfort, and delight, which we have in God's ways are at the expense of a daily cross, a path of tribulation, sore temptations, a corrupt nature working, and many dark and trying providences, with much opposition from men; I say we shall find these things as well as the other; and what is worse than all, God will hide his face; so that in one sense we shall always be coming sinners, for we shall be kept very needy, that we may continually keep coming to these holy waters. But I proceed. III. What is it to have no money? Now, when God takes us first in hand, this is far enough from our thoughts; for a legal, selfrighteous spirit is naturally rooted in all men; and, therefore, when legal convictions get hold of men, what promises they will make that, if the Lord will raise them up, they will attend church or chapel, be sober, honest, liberal; in short, they will keep God's commandments. Now, God will sometimes raise them up from these convictions, and from a sick bed; but, alas! they soon forget and break through all their vows and promises. And indeed if they kept them it would be of no avail, for it "is without money and without price." We all know the use of money. Solomon says, "It answereth all things, and is a defence;" but this must be taken in a limited sense; for money cannot give health, nor save life. By money, we can get a good habitation, good food, good clothes, good friends, good physicians when ill, and servants to attend us. Money will procure all these things, and much more; but what are we spiritually to understand by money? Why, everything in us that naturally we glory in; such as human wisdom, human strength, and self-righteousness; light, knowledge, and understanding; gifts and abilities in reading, praying, and preaching; all dead works which are very highly esteemed amongst men; a clear knowledge of the gospel in the letter of it; and likewise real faith, hope, love, when given us, with every other grace of God's Spirit; for nothing of all this will purchase this living water. I know very well we think if we had real faith, hope, and love, as some have, then we might venture to come to these waters; but, alas! we are opposite to all this, and therefore feel full of unbelief, despondency, and enmity. Surely the invitation is not for such as we; and thus we would make a saviour of faith, hope, and love, laying them at the foundation; but this will not do. Our text says, "without money." Grace is a free gift, and is not given to us in order to merit anything from God. It is not for us to say, I believe, I hope, I love, and therefore can come to these waters. O no! You and I must come naked, stripped of all, without money and without price; and this is no easy thing, neither at first nor afterwards; yet it appears to me that still there is a coming to these waters with money. It is one thing to me to come to these waters bringing any one thing in a way of merit, and another thing for me to come even with money, provided it be good money, the current coin of heaven; yet, as before advanced, it is not for me to suppose that even grace is meritorious, although good money, and money which will never be refused, as I shall afterwards show. God is pleased sometimes, ⚫ under peculiar afflictions, trials, temptations, and cross providences, to favor us with this money; and truly it is valuable indeed under such sore conflicts; and we are so stripped and humbled in the dust that we are far enough (under such conflicts) from supposing in the least that this money is meritorious. O no! We well know that we are not our own, but bought with a price. Then, reader, cannot you see a difference between our having grace as an evidence that we are the object of God's choice, and going to him with a little of this grace in order to get more, and our supposing that we merit anything from God's hand by our having faith, hope, love? Certainly if these are my views, I bring a price in my hand, and am a fool for so doing; but if this money is used aright, it will take hold of God's promises, and plead and wrestle hard with him in times of great danger. I will now, as the Lord shall assist, show you the good use that some have been helped to make in coming to these waters, with this current coin, and yet without a farthing of their own. We will begin with Jacob. When he heard that Esau was coming to meet him with 400 men, he went to the Lord with this good money: "The Lord which said unto me, Return unto thy country and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee, deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother Esau.” God heard this prayer; and if you read on, you will see more of it, and the good which Jacob made of this money, and what it brought in when he wrestled with the angel. This text was made good to him in his experience: "To him that hath, (this money,) to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundantly." "As a prince thou hast power with God and with men, and hast prevailed." Again, we will take notice of David. "And David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue, for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all;" and so he did. (Read 1 Sam. xxx.) "Whatsoever ye ask, (with this money, or believing,) you shall receive." Thus you see there is such a thing as coming to these waters without any of our own money; and there is such a thing as our having Gcd's money, and going with it to these waters, and succeeding. But again, let us look at Jonah. He was in a sad plight.. You may read the account of his voyage, of his having been cast over |