embracing, upholding arms to carry me on and bring me through. Filthy and unworthy as I am, my dear friend, mercy is a humbling thing. O how I love to be brought in my soul to say and feel, "It is of the Lord's mercies that I am not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is his faithfulness." O how overcoming it is to have this feeling! We are sorry for our sins, confess them to God, forsake them too, and find "there is mercy with him, that he may be feared." It is sweet to find mercy; it is a blessed companion. What is the world to a child of God, who feels himself in mercy's arms? Yes, my dear friend, it is so; and the more I taste of the sweet mercy of the Lord, the more do I feel loosed from the things of this poor sinful world. I am a great debtor to mercy. It helped me freely at first; it helps me freely now. The more I have, the more I want, and love to have it so. There is no way but one for mercy to come that will do for me. I learned the way to prize mercy, through being taught that God was just and holy, and could by no means clear the guilty. By the deeds of the law no flesh living could be justified in the sight of God; and glad I am that the Lord ever let me know this. They shall be all taught of God: "Every man, therefore, that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me." make a poor sinner want mercy through the bleeding heart of the once suffering Son of God; and that soul who once tastes that the Lord is gracious and merciful will be hanging upon him from time to time, pleading for the rich, sweet, humbling, sin-overcoming mercy of him who is rich in mercy and great in love.

Bury, Nov. 21st, 1854.

This will

T. C.

None know the depth of man's fall, nor the foulness and filth, the uncleanness, the infidelity and enmity, hardness and impenitency, the rebellion and atheism, of our inbred corruptions, but those who are taught of God; and none but such will ever embrace, adore, and admire the Saviour. Of all the spectres, ghosts, beasts, or devils, whether in earth or hell, whether real or imaginary, not one ever appeared half so fearful, terrific, or dreadful to me as myself, when exposed by the application of the law!-Huntington.

Our faith, in reference to dispensation, is to believe. Though the dispensation be rough, stormy, black, yet Christ is fair, sweet, gracious; and hell and death are servants to God's dispensation toward the children of God. Abraham must kill Isaac; yet in Isaac, as in the promised seed, all the nations of the earth are blessed. Israel is foiled, and falls before the sons of Ai; yet Israel shall be saved by the Lord Judah shall go into captivity, but the dead bones shall live again. Read the promise in general, engraved upon the dispensation of God. Garments are rolled in blood in Scotland and England. The wheels of Christ's chariot, in this reformation, go with a slow pace; the prince is averse to peace, many worthies are killed, a foreign nation comes against use yet all works for the best to those who love God.Rutherford.

A WORD OF EXHORTATION.

"For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep."— 1 Cor. xi. 30.

If these words were applicable to the church in the infancy of Christianity, while as yet the savor of the walk and conversation of the Lord himself remained with numbers then living, and chosen men of God, greater than the prophets, filled with the Spirit, still moved among the churches with burning words of truth, men carrying the realities of the law and gospel about with them, and knowing the terrors of the Lord, persuaded men, crying, “Flee from the wrath to come;"-if the words, I say, heading these remarks were applicable to the saints in those days, what shall be said of the necessity now? To what congregation of the saints can we point whose faith and charity are spoken of throughout all the churches? Or to what pastor can we point who is travailing for souls? How few, alas! are the pastors whose hearts go out beyond the precincts of the chapel, longing, with large expanded soul, for the salvation of sinners! To preach a little old experience and to iterate doctrines which never disturb the flesh, that the few supporters of the place may be satisfied, appears to content many who call themselves the Lord's servants. Much is said about poor sinners, but very little about sleepy saints. No; the great ones would be offended, and the ghost of legality be raised to the detriment of the good man's usefulness. In such places religion languishes, and ease and the love of gain are the only outward characteristics; but the conscience must confess to ill-suppressed covetousness, carnal mindedness, secret sins, and evil passions obtaining mastery.

The doctrines of grace are sometimes charged with this state of things, and the soul lulls itself into the persuasion that it cannot help it. But the closet can tell of restrained prayer, and church duties testify to a feeling of compulsion. It is true there are some, perhaps many, who cry out under these things, and long for a word of reproof from the pulpit, if so be power might enter the soul and strength be imparted to cast off the trammels of death. But, alas! the same dish is presented, and the soul cannot feed. Complaint is useless; for what is man? The Master is as one in a far land whom neither sighs, tears, nor cries, seem to reach, and the soul is bewildered almost to despair. It feels that none are ministers to it, and begins to write bitter things against itself. O for the days when Bunyan preached and Owen wrote; when the Holy Ghost quickened men to seek the salvation of their fellow-men, before these days of carnal fear, wherein the pastors seem afraid to expose the sins.of saints or to preach to sinners, lest they should say aught not quite in keeping with their correct divinity! "For this cause many are weak and sickly among the churches, and many sleep." (1 Cor. ix. 30.)

But if the voice may be lifted up against the pastors in so many places, is there not a cause also for a cry against the churches? Let

it be remembered that apologies avail nothing to the Christian; he cannot lay his sins at his pastor's door, nor record an excuse at the throne of grace. Whatever may be the circumstances which bring about a declining state from living godliness, conscience testifies that the cause is in the man himself. Business is pursued too anxiously, worldly connections too much indulged, worthless conversation allowed, and carnal company trifled with. Is it a cause for wonder that the closet has no attractions and the word no savor? Should it surprise, that sin sometimes obtains the mastery, and that the soul feels defenceless against temptation? But it is sometimes urged that the doctrines of grace, of God's predestinating love and almighty power to perform his will, provide against a declining condition. Experience, however, in every living soul witnesses that it is guilty of its own declension. The word of God addresses men as men, who are to be "reproved, rebuked, and exhorted with all long-suffering."

Incline, then, to much meditation. "Stir up the gift that is in thee." Be earnest to be a fruitful branch in the living vine. Covet to know more of Jesus, to bear his image, to carry the savor of his name wherever you go. Strive to be a whole Christian. Let earnestness be seen to pervade you and the realities of your faith to incite you. The promise throughout the word is everywhere to the seeker, not to the sluggard.

But this point requires very delicate treatment, lest we should appear to fall into will-worship. The Christian, however, will find that if he waits for spiritual motions, neglecting the means, he will reap certain disappointment. If we cannot pray with enlargement, we can at least speak in complaint of our case; and if we cannot always praise, there is at least always room for confession. Prayer, in the worst condition, should never be neglected. "Men," said the blessed Lord, "ought always to pray, and not to faint." Besides, apparent denial should only stimulate our faith and make us more in earnest with Him who by so many notable illustrations has encouraged us to pray. Meditation, too, will often be found connected with sweet expansion of soul; and at such times we may drop a tear that we have ever neglected the gentle, the amiable, the full-ofcompassion, the incomparable, and inexpressibly precious Immanuel. We may then chide ourselves that we should have lost any ground, and weep to see how great a privilege we neglected when we failed to present ourselves before the Lord.

If we listen to ourselves, we take counsel of ignorance, and take for a guide what will surely lead astray. Many suppose they understand the doctrines of grace; but it is only the infirmity of ruined nature to narrow what is limitless, and to imagine that its puny line fathoms the unfathomable. The more we live in ourselves, the more dwarfish we shall grow; but the more we study the Scriptures, and the more we cleave to Jesus, the firmer will the rock feel under our feet, even the Rock of the immutable promise of the im mutable Jehovah.

A VOICE FROM THE WILDERNESS.

THOU ART ALL FAIR, MY LOVE.

My dear W.,-Your last seemed to say you were mending in your health. Yes, the Lord "woundeth, and his hands make whole," neither of which, without a discovery of his hand, would do us any real good. How needful and how profitable, then, is it, and what a gracious thing to be enabled so to do. It not only makes work for prayer and praise, but keeps our hands employed in the work. A communion kept up with God in our souls is most profitable indeed.. We have been taught it. It is found out in the path of tribulation. The way to the kingdom lies right through it. Yes; Jesus Christ will not suffer his spouse to lose sight of his love and care over her; so he shows her he has chosen her in this furnace, that he might purify her thereby, and draw her to be a peculiar one from the world and peculiar unto himself. "Thou art all fair, my love," &c. Methinks no love but his could carry it out in such a way, seeing so much in us so contrary to his nature; but having made a purchase, his soul cannot and will not go back But when her heart goes from him it is, (O what a wonder!) "Return unto me, for I have redeemed thee; thou art mine." His soul-ravishing love overcomes. It is not only spoken, but felt; the knowledge of it, Paul says, "passeth all understanding." Yes; the more it is known, the more it is wondered at, and leaves the soul astonished at the glory that attends it. How does it enlarge the soul to petition for all things that shall be for his glory! And it is here that we bring in the good of our souls, bodies, and spirits. Thus, "no good thing does he withhold" from ns. Sometimes we have such a sight of the precious things brought forth by the sun, that by the present shining of it, in one moment (let the soul be never so much chilled) the darkest night is turned into the brightest day. That precious fruit he eats with her in the garden. Such a feast causes all the faculties of the soul to burst out with new wine and go forth with tabrets "in the dances of them that make merry." Then it is that the heart of God and man is rejoicing together. This is an earnest indeed of the time when the bride shall be taken home up to and within. Yes, enclosed with cedar boards. His and her father's house, eternity, will leave no space for any more tribulation. "Be thou faithful unto death; and I will give thee a crown of life." Yours in truth,

Brighton, Dec. 26th, 1840.

W. S.

Shall I

Shall I

"Shall I cause to travail, and not cause to bring forth? cause to bring forth, and shut the womb, saith thy God?" exercise my children with legal bondage, fear, and torment, and make them travail under wrath and guilt, and not shed abroad my love in their hearts, to cast out fear and torment? Or shall I cause them to bring forth life, light, and hope, and shut the womb of my secret decree? No; I have predestinated them to the adoption of sons, and they must and shall be born again.-Huntington.

SEEK YE MY FACE.

My dear Friend,-I embrace this opportunity of answering yours by these few lines, being the Lord's prisoner by affliction. You may think we are fit correspondents. There is a similarity, it is true, we are both in, and know, affliction, although mine may be more particularly in body and yours in mind; yet I think I have been tolerably well exercised in both. And yet, notwithstanding all, I find myself a learner still. May the Glorifier of Christ so teach me to write, that he may bless some word or sentence to the real spiritual benefit of your immortal soul.

We were glad you wrote, though after so long; and believe me, you would not have been likely to have had so quick an answer, but I really found your case made an appeal to my every sympathy. We were very glad to find you had been retracing your steps, when the communion of saints was sweet, when the Lord's house was a Bethel to you, and, what is most delightful of all, when the dear Lord used to converse with you, and bear testimony with your spirit that he was yours and you were his. These are seasons that deserve to be remembered; while I well know that neither all enjoyments past nor all the grace received, will satisfy the present necessities of the soul.

Well, dear friend, whence all this barrenness, darkness, deadness, and restraining of prayer? I have selected four solemn things from your own evidence: 1st. Is the Lord Jesus Christ become a barren heath or a desert waste? This cannot be; for he is that immortal Tree of Life which bears "twelve manner of fruits," and whose very leaves are "for the healing of the nations." 2nd. Is he become darkness? This can never be; for he is not only the Sun of the church, but the Light of every poor believer that ever saw one feature in his lovely, suitable Person, as him who is "able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him." 3rd. Is Jesus dead? Blessed be his dear name, he was dead, but is now "alive for evermore." Yes, and now lives to make intercession for poor helpless, worthless, hell-deserving worms like you and me. Have you committed your immortal all into his hand? He will never suffer you to be put to shame; his name is still "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." He rests for ever in his love, and still hates to put away. Now, dear friend, the 4th particular in question is, restraining prayer. I feel deeply persuaded by bitter experience, that this lies like a canker-worm at the bottom of every comfort. Believe me, dear friend, I do not desire to arraign you at my judgment seat, but face the matter out with our God if you can. You may conclude I am turned Arminian. Not so; for to the present moment, I feel myself a deep-in-debt sinner to almighty, free, distinguishing grace. But to the point. Has the worthy Lamb, who shed his most precious blood for your ransom, lost all his preciousness, so as not to cause you to admire and adore such wondrous love? May more tastes be given you, whereby you may be constrained to weep at the mercy you have found.