down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up." Blessed be the name of our ever-living and ever-loving Jesus, he is sure to send help, and lift up his dear children when they are down, though not in the way they may dictate, nor perhaps quite as soon as they wish it; but his promise is sure, and he is faithful. Darkness may endure for a night, and it may appear a long night too, yea, and a very cold one, and the beasts of the forest may creep forth, (Ps. civ. 20,) and very much annoy and fright the poor benighted soul; but the Lord will appear, and put a new song into his mouth, and he shall in holy faith and triumph say, "I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. My meditation of him shall be sweet; I will be glad in the Lord." Grace must and shall win; therefore victory is sure.

The Lord keep you, my dear friend, in the old beaten path; but remember, trials must abound, and comforts will follow.

Give my love to your dear father and wife, and all the dear family of God among you. The sweet smiles of Jesus cheer your hearts, and the unctuous love of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost enrich your souls; then you will sing for joy and your faces will shine brightly.

I have been very poorly this winter. My breathing fails me much; yet my dear Lord has kept me at my work, and has been graciously pleased to give me a measure of strength for it.

I fear I shall not be able to be your way this year. I am much disappointed at it, for I fully expected it; but the Lord does not always let me have my own way. I expect to be in Brighton instead of coming your way. The end I have in view is the sea air, for I feel it my duty to get as much of that as I can. Should I never see you again, it rejoices my heart to know that we are one in our dear Lord, "bone of his bone, and body of his body, and flesh of his flesh;" yea, and what sweetens the whole, life of his life and spirit of his Spirit.

Let me hear from you soon, and be assured that if it ever lies in my power to come to see you and impart some spiritual blessing to you as an instrument in the Lord's hands, I will gladly do it. But I think duty calls me elsewhere this year. I am now taking medicine, and I do hope my breathing will mend; but I wish to say and feel, "The will of the Lord be done." What a mercy it is that we are the care of our adorable Lord the Lamb. Bless his precious name, he cannot err; no, nor be unkind. Yours in the Lord,

April 16th, 1833.

W. GADSBY.

O what kindness God has heaped upon me! what kind strugglings, what kind smilings! what kind overlookings of my outrageous wickedness! But he has shown himself to be God, and not man, in his dealings with me. In my mad attempts, he has often stopped me; my mad wishes he has refused to grant; and my mad words he has often seemed to overlook.-John Brown.

JOYFUL IN TRIBULATION.

My dear Friend,-Many times have I wanted to write you since I wrote you the last few lines in London, but have had no opportunity till now, and I do not know a minute but that I may be called away; but still I must make a trial to send you a line.

But, my

Through God's great mercy and goodness, I am brought through the past year, a year gone, and gone for ever; and all the troubles, trials, crosses, distresses, perplexities, griefs, sorrows, anguish, fears, and cares which my soul has had to bear, carry, and endure through the last six months of the past year, are gone, and gone for ever! My soul has that much the less of the number which are appointed for me to pass through, for they are all meted out by measure; for the lot must fall upon us, and the measure we must have. dear friend, mine has not been all trouble, cares, fears, sorrows, sinkings, distresses, anguish, affliction, temptations, and wars during the last six months of the past year. No; far from this; the Lord has given my soul many sweet humblings, crumblings, softenings, meltings, lifts, helps, touches, kisses, smiles, and deliverances, with very many mercies in providence as well as in grace; and under these sweet humbling and melting frames of soul, I could thank him from my very heart for this long and painful affliction, which no one but the Lord and myself knows to the full. Many times have I thought I must sink under it, for my strength, both natural and spiritual, seemed to be all gone; at times getting but little rest night or day; but, somehow or other, the Lord has supported me, and brought me through thus far, and held me up and held me on.

The week before Christmas was indeed a trying one; I verily thought I must give up my preaching and profession altogether, for the very powers of darkness seemed let loose upon me day and night. O the agony my poor soul went through! But I hobbled off to chapel on the Lord's Day morning in a poor trembling state of mind, went into the pulpit heavy laden, read, and began to try to confess my state and condition before the Lord, with my bleeding wounds laid open under my heart-aching and heart-breaking sorrows. The Holy Ghost opened the door of mercy, the throne of grace, the door of hope, and the door of faith, and led my soul into the Person of the Lord Jesus, in that feeling way and manner which I have not witnessed for many years. The wounded side of the Lord Jesus was laid open to my soul's view, and the healing virtue of his blood flowed freely into the bleeding wounds of my heart, so that they were all healed, and my soul was brought forth into a large place, Jesus made exceedingly precious, his word of truth very sweet, and a springing well flowed within my soul. I do not remember having more than about two or three such inlets and springs at a throne of grace before in all my experience. O how sweet it is to have a sweet draught out of the well of salvation! to have a good drink of the brook by the way, and one's soul full of the love, merey, and goodness of the Lord! to have a gospel door opened and one's soul led into it by faith! to walk about Zion! to have the gates of

righteousness thrown open! to have a sweet view of one's interest in the blood of the everlasting covenant! and to feel it has cleansed one's soul from all sin. Truly, my dear friend, it must be cleansing blood to wash my foul and filthy soul clean, purge away all my guilt and dead works, and to sanctify my base heart right before the majesty of heaven. Truly this is a free act of sovereign grace and mercy. This set my soul upon its legs again, made every crook straight and rough place plain, and every dark cloud remove, and my soul walk at large. A sweet day of liberty I had, and hope many poor tried souls were comforted, fed, blest, and encouraged.

O, my friend, what a free grace salvation it is, and must be, to save such a filthy, guilty, wandering, backsliding wretch as I! Truly his mercy must be from everlasting to everlasting towards them that fear him. But all this would be nothing to my poor sintortured and devil-hunted soul, were it not for feeling some union and having some communion with Jesus, the God-Man upon his mediatorial throne, and seeing and feeling that he can be touched with the feeling of my infirmities, and that he has been tempted in all points like myself. Truly "he is able to succor them that are tempted." O how Satan has tried to make a full end of me in my troubles! What cutting, distressing, and distracting temptations! How my soul struggled through! If I were now with you I could relate some of them to you; I am sure your heart would ache for me if you knew some of my besetting and killing troubles. But the Lord knows them all, and has promised to deliver me out of them all; and blessings be on the head of the Lamb, who "hath delivered and doth deliver," and in whom my soul is constrained to believe "will yet deliver."

But, my dear friend, I have struggled through the first week of the new year, and it has opened up fresh troubles and fears from the same source. But the Lord has favored me with a spirit of meditation upon my bed in the night-watches, and in the midst of them you were brought to my mind; a chain of things opened before me; a spirit of prayer, I trust, fell upon me; and a hope sprang up within my heart that I should see and experience some peace and quietness on the earth once more.

What a mercy to be favored with a good hope through grace, and to have a feeling sense that all is right between God and conscience; that it matters not whether we die by sword, pestilence, or famine.

I feel with you in this awful war, and hope I have had many cries to the Lord to appear for us as a nation. The Lord only can gain the victory for us. My love to all inquiring friends.

Woburn, Jan. 8th, 1855.

Yours affectionately,

T. G.

The ornament and beauty of this lower world, next to God and his wonders, are the men that spangle and shine in godliness. Bunyan.

A LETTER BY THE LATE MR. GOULDING.

The younger unto the well-beloved William, whom I love in the truth,-Beloved, I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospereth. Amen.

Your epistle came safe to hand, and I was not a little comforted by the coming of Titus. To the Lord's ever-blessed name be all the glory and all the praise for removing you out of a strait into a broad place: "When said he to any of the seed of Jacob, Seek ye my face in vain?" Never. No. He never fails of fulfilling his promise when the prayer of faith goes up. "I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground. I will pour out my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring." "The righteous shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger." "The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon." "O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness, for the wonderful works that he doeth for the children of men!"

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I have great reason to be grateful and thankful to him for all the goodness, long-suffering, and sparing mercy that he has been pleased to make known to and display in the behalf of his unworthy servant., The many deliverances and salvations wrought out for me by the way are "more in number than the hairs of my head;" if I were to reckon them up in order, they are more in number than the sand upon the sea shore. Adored be his precious name, I am now as well as ever; not only saved from the affliction in my head, but also from one in my foot, from a wound there received. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits; bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name. Say ye not there are four months, and then cometh harvest? Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest; and he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life eternal, that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together." This is a very precious text. Truly the harvest here spoken of is a spiritual harvest, setting forth the gathering together of poor elect Samaritans to Christ, the Lord of the harvest. And every one that God raises up and sends forth into the field, "bearing precious seed," and preaching the word, which is the general means of sowing it, "shall doubtless come again rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him ;" that is, all the elect of God, converted by his instrumentality, shall be his joy and crown of rejoicing in that day. They are his work in the Lord; and when. the day of judgment comes, then "both he that soweth and he that reapeth shall rejoice together." A harvest field is a beautiful representation of souls meet for glory. Mr. Huntington has been and is, I am sorry to say, very ill, but is better now than he has been. If you have any interest at a throne of grace, O fail not in helping us! I am afraid we are not to have him long. But O if it be not contrary to the Lord's.

blessed will, may he be raised up again and continue long amongst us.* May he come forth from this furnace, when he is tried, as gold seven times purified, that the Lord's children may again have it to say of him, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth.' When Elijah was taken away, the Lord was pleased to raise up Elisha; but whether it will be the case when our Elijah is gone, God only knows. However, we have this promise, that Israel shall never be forgotten of his God, and that he will send his elect pastors after his own heart, that shall feed them with knowledge and with understanding. As this city is Satan's seat, I charge you before God and the elect angels that you cry mightily to God that our Samson may be restored. This, God willing, is the work I mean to go through; and that the ever-blessed Spirit may lead and guide me into all truth, help my infirmities, and teach me what to say.

"Wherefore the rather, brethren, give all diligence to make your calling and election sure; for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall. For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."-(2 Pet. i. 10, 11.)

I shall show,

I. Who are the brethren.

II. What is effectual calling.

III. What is election.

IV. How calling and election are made sure; and from these, when made sure, none can finally fall.

· V. And lastly. That all such shall certainly enter into that everlasting kingdom prepared for all the elect in glory.

I. First, then, who are "brethren ?" I need not dwell largely upon this. There are false brethren and true brethren; brethren by name and profession only, and brethren by possession of the grace and Spirit of God. It is but to the latter that the words in the text are addressed. A brother is one who is quickened by the Spirit of God, brought to believe in Jesus Christ, and to love him in his heart in sincerity and in truth. He is one that is effectually

born again, born of the Spirit of God, and so made a new creature, or created anew in Christ Jesus, as all the elect sooner or later shall be, "for except a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." And these Christ "is not ashamed to call brethren." "Henceforth I call you not servants, but friends." And again, "I ascend to my Father and to your Father, to my God and your God." "God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city," yea, "a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." These brethren the apostle warmly exhorts to "give all diligence to make their calling and election sure," because he knew, by his own experience, until this. was the case, and settled in the court of their own consciences,

Mr. Huntington lived for nearly 15 years after this.