margin, to the heart) of Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. The thing is done, beloved. The work is accomplished; and all the Lord's messengers have to do is to proclaim the same. "O Zion, that bringest good tidings (margin, O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion), get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringeth good tidings (or thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem) lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God" (Is. xl. 9). Read on the following verses, dear reader; see how gracious our Lord's language. He, as the good Shepherd, will feed his flock; and whilst he will gather the lambs, and carry them in his bosom, mark his tenderness with those that are burdened, oppressed, and sorrowful. These He will gently lead. In the 52nd chapter of this same prophecy, there is sweet mention of the reception, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!" "Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem; for the Lord hath comforted his people; he hath redeemed Jerusalem." Observe, moreover, the injunction in the text is repeated, "Comfort ye, comfort ye." This is in order to give it force-to stamp it with the greater validity. As if the Lord would say, "It is my command; such is my pleasure; go at my bidding; and tell them that I have sent you that you have my divine warrant for so doing. I approve of it. I purpose that they shall be comforted by the tidings which I commission you to carry." But it is to "my people." "Ah," say some, "there would be my fear of preaching what you term a full, or comforting gospel. I should be afraid of some taking the comfort to whom it does not belong. I am for separating the chaff from the wheat, the precious from the vile.' Reader, we are of opinion that you had better leave that with the Lord. Perhaps you would make but a sorry hand at separating. Do you recollect what our Lord said to his disciples, when anxious to "go and gather up the tares ?" (Matt. xiii. 27-30), "Nay, whilst ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest; and in the time of harvest I will say (mark it is the Husbandman-the Lord himself-that will separate, or distinguish between the two), to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn." Our commission, as ministers, is to preach the gospel-in its freeness, its fulness, its blessedness-as far as the Lord the Spirit himself shall graciously open its Divine properties unto us. Our commission is, "Ho every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters," &c. "Whosoever will, let him come and take of the water of life freely." Or, in the words of our text, our commission is, "Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people." Now, strictly speaking, we have more to do with the message itself than with those who receive it. Is it the Lord's message? Has the Lord authorized, commissioned, us to carry it? Then let us do so in his fear, in a dependence upon himself; and God grant that we may have more to do with the Lord in the matter than with the people—that is, that the plea of faith may be presented to the Lord for Him to convey by Divine power the message wheresoever and to whomsoever He will. This will be our best course, and far more effective, satisfactory, and consoling, than the setting up of our puny judgment as a standard of who the message is intended for. The Lord, and He alone, is the Searcher of hearts; and the day shall declare many to be his of whom his ministers had but little suspicion. The three wonders shall be founded in truth. "I shall wonder," said one, "to see those in heaven that I did not expect to see; I shall wonder at not seeing some there whom I did expect to see; and my greatest wonder of all will be, that I am there myself." Our course, as ministers, is very plain in the matter. Would God that He would keep us in the simple, straightforward pursuit of itthat is, in a plain positive proclamation of his truth, "Say ye to the righteous it shall go well with him," whilst, to the wicked it shall go ill with him, leaving the reception of our message, and all results, with the Lord. To return, however, for a moment, to the text; how emphatically the Lord styles his redeemed, "my people." Yes, "They shall be mine, saith the Lord, in that day when I make up my jewels (margin, special treasure) and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him" (Mal. iii. 17). They are "bound up in the bundle of life with the Lord their God" (1 Sam. xxv. 29). Redeemed by precious blood-justified freely by his grace-and stand complete in Him, who is bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh. So that when He who is their life shall appear, then shall they also appear with him in glory; that where He is there they may be also. His people by eternal choice, even before the earth or the world were made; his people when sunk in degradation, misery, and woc, ere Divine grace had seized and laid them at the feet of Jesus; his people through all the chequered scenes of the wilderness, midst fightings without and fears within; his when in deadly conflict with sin, Satan, and the world; his on the mount, his in the vale; his in darkness, his in light-in sorrow and in joy; his people in life-his people in death--his people through the glorious ages of a never-ending eternity. Hallelujah! Ireland, Dec. 1847. THE EDITOR. FRAGMENTS.-No. IV. "Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only." JAMES ii. 24. THIS passage has often proved a great stumbling block to the children of God, as long as they have remained as children, tossed to and fro with various winds of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness of those who lie in wait to deceive. But we shall endeavour, as the Lord is pleased to give ability, to clear away the rubbish that men have heaped upon this passage, and over which God's children have stumbled, rather than over the text itself. Paul and James are generally considered to be at variance, because the one is supposed to exclude works from justification, and the other to include them. "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." "Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only." However, notwithstanding this seeming contradiction, we are bold to assert that there is not the slightest variance between the doctrines of these two apostles, but that they are in perfect harmony, one with the other. This seeming paradox is completely solved by the right consideration of what these works are, for Paul is speaking of the works of the law, but James of the works of faith. Certainly no words could more explicitly exclude a man's obedience to the law, from having anything whatever to do with his justification before God, for in this respect boasting is to be excluded, which could not be the case, if works had anything to do with our justification. In considering the passage in the 2nd of James, it is needful to take a general view of the latter part of the chapter. In verse 14, it is written, "What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save himi.e, Can this faith, that he says he has, save him? He calls it faith, but it is not faith of the operation of God-it is not faith of which Jesus is the Author and Finisher, and which flows to the branches through the living vine; for wherever this precious faith is given the following Scripture must have its fulfilment : By grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast; for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Eph. ii. 8-10). From whence it appears that lively faith belongs to those who are created in Christ, and who are therefore God's workmanship unto good works. In verses 15 and 16, the apostle gives an illustration, for so these verses are evidently to be considered, and not as a specimen of what a good work is, although he that abounds in good works will ever be careful to do good unto all men, but especially to them who are of the household of faith. The apostle supposes an individual suffering from nakedness, cold, and hunger, and that one who has the power to relieve such an one says to the destitute, "Be warmed with good clothing, and be filled with food," but he does no more than speak the words, not giving to the destitute clothes to warm him, and bread to eat. What will the mere words do unto this poor man? The words are good, but are mere empty bubbles, when not accompanied with that which they express. "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone" (verse 17)-i.e., a person's profession of faith may be (so to speak) as a skeleton, perfectly correct, but if it is not accompanied with the works of faith, it is not faith of the operation of God, but, as described in verse 19, no better than devil's faith. The devils know what is true, but mere knowledge puffeth up; it is faith which worketh by love that manifests a new creature; and this the devils never have, no more can carnal man, except it be given him of God. It pleases the Holy Ghost to bring before our notice two specimens of those works which flow from a justifying faith; and certainly we should expect the best specimens that could be given; and neither of them can, in any measure, be said to be a work of the law, but, on the contrary, requiring as an absolute pre-requisite, that faith which is God's peculiar gift to his own people, and enables them not to stagger at the promises of God, through unbelief, but being strong in faith, to give glory to God. The one work is Abraham offering his only son Isaac, and had a worldly man stood by he would have called it murder. The other work is, Rahab receiving the spies, and sending them away in peace; and had she been discovered by her fellow-countrymen, they would have called it telling a lie, and betraying her country. So little are carnal men capable of judging what the good works of a Christian are. Let me not be misunderstood. The world can judge of inconsistences in Christians, and are very keen-sighted to discover the slightest faults, and therefore there is a need that we should walk circumspectly, that we give not occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. Immoralities persevered in, decidedly prove a man to be no Christian; his root is rottenness, and his blossom goes up as dust. But, on the other hand, the highest standard of morality that a man can attain unto, can never prove him to be a Christian. We look for, and expect, strict morality in a Christian man, but we do not judge he is a Christian because of his morality; we want something more, he must be manifested to be in Christ, or it is a vain hope to consider such an one amongst the saved. Both Abraham and Rahab had the express cominand from God to act as they did, and through faith they obeyed (see Heb. xi.) True, we do not expect such kind of commands to be given to the Lord's people now, but we have in God's word, the precepts founded on the promises; and the true Christian seeks to obey the former, and embrace the latter. For instance, Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers; come ye out and be separate, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you," &c. Let a Christian man obey this precept, and the world will call him straight-laced, fanatic, fool, religious over-much, thinking nobody right but himself, &c., but can we have any true hope of an individual as a Christian, if there is not a pressing after obedience to this precept; it is such works that manifest whether a man is justified If he is without such works, he is a vain man-i.e., an empty man towards God, just as the body of a man whose soul is departed, is vain or empty as to his fellow-men. We might take the bodies of twin brothers, exactly alike, and the soul has departed from the one, and not from the other; the limbs, muscles, nerves, &c. are exactly alike, but the one can walk, speak, and act, which the other cannot do, and why? But that there is life in one, and not the other; and this life will be manifested. Thus the creeds of two persons may be very much alike in their expression, but very different in matter of fact, as will be shown in walk and conversation. Works then are necessary, not to give life, but as the certain consequence of life. Life may be at a very low ebb, but still it is discoverable, though it may be only by the breath on a cold glass. Does a man hunger and thirst after a righteousness which he has not, and is conscious he cannot attain to? Such an one has the faith which is "the evidence of things not seen," and consequently this hungering and thirsting is a work of faith. Again, does the conscious sinner under the burden and guilt that he feels, cry and sigh or not. 10 "For unto God, this is the breath of life, it is a work of that faith that God has given, and of which soon the sinner shall be made sensible. the sighing of the poor, for the crying of the needy, now will I arisc, saith the Lord." The enlightened reader will be at no loss to trace out some of the a man is justified, and which we must be other works by which careful to maintain for necessary uses. Stockwell. J. W. GOWRING. THE SHIPWRECKED MARINER. "How selfish we are," said I to a friend, as we sat at breakfast, the wind roaring and the sea dashing against the rocks, within a few hundred yards of the window. "Last week we were full of anxiety about you; but now you have arrived safely, we have thought nothing of the thousands of poor sailors and others who were on the sea during the awful gale of yesterday and the past night." * My parish is on the borders of the sea-the little church stands on the hill rising from a strand where the surf rolls in with tremendous fury. This was one of my visiting days; and among my first salutations were tidings that seven poor men had, a few hours before, landed from a wreck, two of whom had nearly perished in the surf, after being exposed, in an open boat, to a fearful sea for thirteen hours. I sought them out, and, finding the ship was from Hull, and homeward bound, after a long 66 Do know the Rev. Samuel Lane, of you voyage. I said to the captain, "And Hull?" "I know him by name," was the reply. "I know him," said a second person, looking up from a letter, which he was writing. do you know a clergyman lately appointed there ?" "Mr. Morton, you mean." ." "Yes; I hear Mr. Lane," continued he;" and I have taken parcels for him to New Brunswick." "Do you know the GOSPEL MAGAZINE, Thus, in a most unthen ?" "Yes," was his reply; 1 take it in." expected way, the Editor and one of his readers were brought in contact, mutually for a moment not only to acknowledge and admire the good and gracious hand of a loving Father, in the recent display of his wondrous interposition; but also to "hear how it fared" with other brethren in the same family, whom, though thousands of miles separated in the flesh, were nevertheless one in the same faith, fear, and love! And, as spiritual mariners gazing upon the vast expanse of ocean before us, as emblematic of the sea of time, upon which our little barks were launched, how consoling was the thought "Through many a danger, toil, and snare, We had already come; The GRACE that brought us safe thus far |