We have said sufficient

But we must not let our pen run on. to show the interest we have taken in the book, which we accept as a most vivid and truthful description of the writer's experience, though it may not meet our views at every point; nor do we think many of our readers will feel towards it exactly as we do.

The remainder of the book, which is equally interesting and experimental, goes on to narrate the resetting up of the idol, the guilt and death produced thereby, and the distress and bondage caused by the way in which the Lord finally and fully broke it to pieces. We have only room for one or two more extracts, which will abundantly speak for themselves:

"Indeed so familiar did the sinful fondling grow, that like as Solomon's libidinous love, he could not give it up. It became as part of his nature; ii clung to him as ivy to the oak; intruded itself into every thought, and stunted the growth of every spiritual desire. Not a cloud was seen ever in the common look of carelessness, but the mind attracted by the magnetic powers of that which is beautiful and grand in nature, at once studiously entered into a bewitching analysis of its peculiar form and varied tint: not a tree was passed in the simple walks of daily life but it must be viewed in its several bearings for pictorial use; the herd of cows, the flock of sheep, the group of men, were all made to serve the purposes of art; whilst light and shade; form. and order; tone and colour; were taken into the account at every sight of nature whenever or wherever presented to view. Indeed, it became as natural to associate things seen with their representation on canvass, as it did to breathe. What a lamentable fulfilment of scripture prediction is here, which says, 'The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways.'

The following extract much struck us at the time we read it. What chiefly arrested our mind was, his description of the way in which the idol pursued him into the very house of prayer. What strength must that idol-love of painting have had, that in the very service of the sanctuary he was gathering up materials for a painting, and was in idea sketching the minister whilst listening to him. But be not too hard upon him, brother idolator. Perhaps thy farm or thy shop has followed thee too into the house of prayer, especially if the hay were in the field and the day wet, or you were expecting the traveller's call for payment of a heavy amount to be made to-morrow.

"Pollution was his portion. Though in the very house of God, and engaged in the solemn services of the sanctuary, the mind would arrange a picture from the minister and people, or glean ideas of 'grouping' from the gathering multitude; or exercise its functions in the interior varieties of the place-anon, a bit of a cloud seen through a skylight, or the rays of the sun darting through a window, would revive all former feelings of delight; when the apt imagination would soon picture to the mind a fitly composed subject for their happy representation. Then the canvass and colors were thought of the time when, and the way and manner how, the contemplated desire was to be carried out the master' that painted in that particular style; the many advantages obtained by a mature consideration of the subject, and so on, till he was worked up into the frenzy of enthusiasm, and carried away by the fit of fleshly excitement, into the delectable but delusive regions of art and science; forgetting where he was, who he was, and what he was.”

His deliverance was mainly through the illness, nigh unto death, of a darling child, his last sketch being of his apparently dying infant (for the child was restored) as he lay on his mother's breast; but

it was the word of the Lord which eventually rescued his soul from the idol altogether:

"At length it pleased him whose 'mercy endureth for ever,' and who had said, 'I have surely seen the affliction of my servant and heard his cry by reason of bondage; I have seen the oppression wherewith the enemy oppresses him, and heard his groanings;' now that I have slain his hopes set upon idols, I will quicken his expectation from me; having wounded his heart by affliction, I will heal it in love. Return, O backsliding Israel unto the Lord, for I am married unto thee; and walk no more after the imagination of thine own evil heart, but after the ways of mine, and thou shalt no longer be termed desolute and forsaken, but become the delight of the Lord. (Isa. lxii. 4.)

"Then God spake these words with power into the soul, in explanation of his reasons for afflicting it, and to show the end and design he had in view of accomplishing by it. 'The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether; more to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy servant warned.' (Ps. xix. 9-11.)"

If we have any apology to make for the length of our Review, it must be for our portion of it. The extracts, we think, will not be deemed too long, and will probably lead some of our readers to desire to procure for themselves the whole of the work. We could have wished the style a little more simple; but every writer has his style, which he can no more materially alter than the height of his stature or the colour of his hair. With this deduction, and its almost invariable accompaniment, occasional obscurity, we commend it to the notice of our readers.

I have often compared the travels of God's children to a miser travelling a very dark, rugged road, complaining of the roughness of the way, till at length he finds a bag of gold: "O," says he, "it was the right way!"—W. T.

Even an earthly parent is particularly careful and tender of a dying child; and surely, when God's children are in that situation, he will, speaking after the manner of men, be doubly gracious to his helpless offspring, who are his by election, by adoption, by covenant, by redemption, by regeneration, and by a thousand other indissoluble ties.—Toplady.

Think how many honest and industrious, perhaps too I might add good people, are making very hard shifts to struggle through life. Think what a comfort that would be to them which you might without any inconvenience spare from that abundance which God has given you. Doddridge.

our

We learn divine lessons very slowly, and, like dull scholars, have need of the same lesson again and again. We are often unguarded, both in our comfortable as well as trying seasons; either " mountain stands strong, and we shall never be moved;" or, "his mercy is clean gone, and his promise fails for evermore.' This has been the old complaint of Zion's travellers. But the tossing of the vessel shall teach the young sailor in the end; if he enter on board ignorant, he shall be wiser before he reaches the desired haven. How much more did Jacob know of God when he could say, "The angel that redeemed me from all evil.”—Timothy Priestley.

THE

GOSPEL STANDARD.

No. 240. DECEMBER 1, 1855. VOL. XXI.

MATT. v. 6; 2 TIM. I. 9; ROM. XI. 7; ACTS VIII. 37, 38; MATT. XXVIII. 19.

SEEKING THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

"Take no thought for the morrow."-Matt. iv. 34.

This is a part of our blessed Lord's sermon to his disciples on the mount. It was not preached to all the multitude, for they had no part or lot in the gracious words which fell from his mouth. He spoke to the multitude in parables, that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand; but to his disciples he spoke plainly and familiarly, and opened their understanding to receive it as he opened his mouth to speak it. We read that he, "seeing the multitudes, went up into a mountain " away from them; "and when he was set down, his disciples came to him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying," &c. It is, therefore, plain that what he said was to them, and for them; and all the drift of the sermon goes to prove the same thing, for many things are said which cannot apply to the multitude* at large, but especially belong to his following disciples. After giving a great amount of wholesome advice and instruction, he goes on to prove the utter impossibility of any one attempting to serve God and mammon, and shows that either the one must be hated and the other loved, or the one loved and the other hated. Many have tried this experiment and have signally failed. One or the other must be dropped. We have a striking instance of this in Ruth and Orpah. They both started out for the land of Israel; they both made a profession of their mother's Lord; but, with a little natural persuasion and worldly representation, Orpah turns back again, goes into the world and mixes for life among her own people; but Ruth stands firm. The same persuasions were offered, the same representations made, but Ruth's heart was touched with some good thing towards the God of Israel. She would not turn back, nor could all the temptations of her own people or their gods break the tie that had been knitted by the Holy Ghost; and she exclaimed out, "Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God." Thus, you see, neither of them could

* Dr. Gill's view is that the sermon on the Mount was addressed not to the disciples only, but to the whole multitude, who heard him with astonishment (See vii. 28, 29). "Some things,' he says, "are directed to the disciples in particular and others regard the multitude in general."

halt between two opinions. Both were soon manifested what they were; for Orpah kissed her mother-in-law and departed unto the world again, but Ruth clave to her and to the God of Israel.

After the Lord had made this representation, he goes on to exhort his disciples to a life of faith upon him, showing them the Lord's great care of them by comparing his works in nature. He says, "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat? and the body more than raiment?" God continually supplies you with natural life, and surely he will feed it. He supports and maintains your body in health and strength; surely he will give you clothes sufficient to cover it. If he gives you the greater, a body and life, surely he will give you the lesser, food and raiment; therefore, while he continually supplies the one, why should you live in continual suspense about the other, taking a burden upon yourself which the Lord has guaranteed to bear for you, robbing him of his prerogative to take your concerns and manage them for you. "Behold the fowls of the air,” he goes on to say, "for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?" They do not leave to-morrow's stock in hand; they gather not into the barn; they gather their homer for the day, and your heavenly Father always provides them with their day's homer; and if he provides them with their daily necessities, do you think he will not provide for you? Are ye not much better than they in his estimation? and will he therefore surely not provide for you? Will he provide for fowls, and leave his people, who are "much better" in his sight, unprovided for? And suppose he does not provide for you, what can you do towards it? what can your "taking thought do? what will that accomplish? "Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?" And why, says he, “why take ye thought for raiment ? Consider the lilies of the field; they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these, Wherefore if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, 0 ye of little faith?" We are always toiling and spinning for the things of this life; if not with our hands we are with our minds; instead of resting in a quiet confidence upon the Lord's providing for us. He beautifies the lilies, and clothes the grass which lasts but for a day, and he will "much more," says the Lord, " clothe his people." And therefore the folly of all their concern, their "taking thought," their careful suspense,* as the margin reads, for

*This is the better rendering; for the words, "Take no thought," do not mean 'never think about the morrow," which would exclude all industry, and forbid the farmer to sow his corn and the weaver to ply his shuttle, leaving us without food and raiment, except by express miracle; but the exhortation means, "Be not racked and torn asunder (as the word literally signifies) by over anxious care; do not be so swallowed up and buried in painful solicitude for to morrow's provision, as if there were no God at hand to give it you."

their necessary provision; whereas, if we were but led aright to confide in him, our "peace would be as a river," rolling on in one successive and uninterrupted stream of quietude and rest. "O that thou hadst hearkened to my word," says the Lord, "then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea;" and he is said to be kept in peace, peace, one continual flow of peace, whose mind is stayed upon the Lord. Hence all the schemes, stratagems, and plans of Satan, in which he is generally successful, to get our minds from staying upon the Lord, because he very well knows that all the while a child of God has his mind fixed upon him, looking to him for every needed blessing, all the outer court matters cannot molest him. If circumstances get crooked, faith says God will straighten them. If foes arise, faith says God can conquer them. If food be needed, faith says God can supply it; and if raiment be wanted, faith says God can provide it. If troubles arise, faith says God can quell them; and if darkness come, faith says God can enlighten it. And let whatever circumstances arise that may, faith says God can control them for my good. And in all these things, faith says more too; it says God will do it all. For as the poet sings,

"His love is as great as his power,

And knows neither limit nor end."

So that as no circumstance can occur but what God can manage, faith sees and appreciates it, and quietly waits for him to do it; and so peace and rest reign in the soul. For all that God is in covenant engagement, faith says he is to me; and all that he has, he has for me.

This seems to be the drift of the Lord's address to his disciples. He rebukes them with, "O ye of little faith;" implying, I humbly conceive, that if their faith were more firmly fixed in the Lord to provide for them, they would be more free from that suspense and concern to which they were so liable. God has promised these things; and nothing honors him more than for his people to rest upon his promise, with confidence that he will be faithful to it; as nothing dishonors him more than for them to "make him a liar," by practically disbelieving his word, in trying to manage that which he has engaged to manage for them, and to provide that which he has engaged to supply. O that wretched evil of human freewill and creature ability! It lies at the root of most of our evils, and works in the human mind to raise up treason against our most rightful Sovereign and his prerogatives. O that he would come "leaping upon the mountains and skipping upon the hills" of our freewill and self-sufficiency, and would take his whip of small cords and drive out these money changers, upsetting the tables of all them that buy and sell in this temple; and once more, with his all-prevailing voice, exclaim, "My house shall be called the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves." Thieves of the worst cast indeed are they who would rob God of his glory, Christ of his grace, and the Spirit of his work; and such