found. The devil, a legal spirit, and unbelief, take an advantage of faith's view of the justice and holiness of God, and try to drown us in despair, to prevent our calling upon his infinitely gracious name, and to hinder our trusting in his mercy through Christ. But the Spirit of God keeps up our sight, sense, and remembrance of sin, and helps us against all doubts, fears, accusations of law, conscience, and Satan, still to sigh, groan, cry, desire, and long for forgiveness and for salvation. Christ says, (this belongs to the chosen of God,) "Shall not God avenge his own elect that cry unto him continually ?” The Saviour's words do not mean that from morning to night, without cessation, they cry, but that they are not suffered finally to cease (though they often faint) till they obtain those new covenant blessings which are promised to ALL that inquire of God for them. Delays, disappointments, unbelief, and Satan's temptations, fresh discoveries of sin, an increased sense of its sinfulness, darkness, confusion, &c., often make us despond; but " He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might increaseth strength." Some fresh trouble compels us, or some encouragement draws us still to cry to the strong for strength, and to the merciful God for mercy. As sure as Christ is the truth," and his word is true, so sure shall such prevail; and never shall they close their eyes in death till they see, by precious faith, the Lord's anointed, and his great salvation. They shall behold him as their Saviour, God, and King. (Matt. v. 7, 8.) Another mark of God's electing love of poor sinners is the gospel being accompanied with power, the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit, and with much assurance. (1 Thess. i. 4, 5.) This power, these operations, and this assurance, admit of various degrees. The gospel, blessed by God, instructs, encourages, strengthens, attracts, raises hope and expectations, and draws the heart's love to the ministers of Christ, the people of Christ, the house of Christ, to the word and worship of Christ, and to Christ himself revealed by it.

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This experience, though a day of small things, is very different to neglecting, disbelieving, despising, and opposing the gospel. And when the day of God's power arrives, then, O then! Christ, with all the saving benefits of his death and blessings of the covenant, triumphantly over all our sins, foes, and fears, enters our hearts and dwells there, by faith of the operation of God. But, even before this, the soul's choice of Christ is a proof and effect of being chosen of God to salvation.

When the Saviour said to his disciples, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you," it is certain that they had chosen him; therefore the meaning evidently must be that their choice of him was the effect, and not the cause, of his having chosen them, according to that sweet and true versé :

"Our seeking thy face, is the fruit of thy grace;

Thy mercy demands and shall have all the praise;
No sinner can be beforehand with thee;

Thy grace is eternal, almighty, and free."

When Christ, as a complete, kind, pitiful, compassionate, and willing Saviour, is exhibited by the gospel to the enlightened eyes

of a perishing, unhappy, helpless sinner, the soul goes forth in desire after him. This desire springs from, or is the same as love and choice, which, as I have before observed, is the effect, and, consequently, a proof of his eternal choice of us. I say, "eternal," because there can be no new act of the will of God. Cheer up, my dear friend, be of good courage, wait upon and for God, and you shall never be ashamed. (Isa. xxx. 18.) May the gracious Saviour bless the hints dropped, and then my visit (in spirit) will be acceptable. Yours affectionately,

Sunderland, Sep. 15, 1838.

S. TURNER.

THE KINGDOM AND THE POWER.

"They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power."

Ps. cxlv. 11.

Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is within you;" and wherever this kingdom is set up in a man's heart, his mouth is sure to be opened to speak somewhat about it. And the Psalmist elsewhere speaks of walking about Zion, telling the towers, and marking the bulwarks thereof; and what a very blessed employ is this for any who, by faith, are made children (manifestly,) of the kingdom, to be led by the divine Spirit, to trace the glory, the majesty, and stability of the kingdom of God. "Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom." Where is the foundation of it? In eternity. Before Jehovah went forth in the acts of creation, before time began, the LORD, in his Trinity of Persons, laid the immoveable foundation of this kingdom, in a covenant engagement with himself. Here was an act of his love, when, as yet, the objects of that love were not called into being. They were chosen by God the Father in the person of God the Son, and redeemed by him, and sanctified by the Holy Spirit; all done by this covenant transaction in the mind of Jehovah, who vieweth things that are not as things that are, and who ever remains unchangeably the same. There was no chance in this: no; blessed be God, here was nothing left at an uncertainty; nothing left dependant on thy works, or mine, poor sinner. But they were chosen before the foundations of the world; "Thine they were, and thou gavest them me, and I have kept them." O, how glorious is this! that not all our unbelief, not all the murmurings, rebellious and hard thoughts that arise from our cursed nature, nothing in us, nor from us, can ever change or alter the mind of Jehovah. No; and though sin in our flesh often brings feelings of guilt, darkness, and deadness in our souls; and though, to our feelings, the Lord often hides his face, and we are troubled; yet the foundation is still sure; and that which was done by God himself in eternity, how can it be possible that it should be altered in the slightest degree in time, by poor, feeble, finite man? And though Satan, being dethroned, may vent his malice against this kingdom, and annoy, harass, perplex, and bring the poor child of God almost to despair, yet he is a conquered enemy, and he knows and feels it, and never yet was it known that he ever robbed our King of one of his subjects. No; they cost

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him too much to be lost. They are too securely fixed on the everlasting Rock of Ages ever to be plucked thence. Jesus says himself, "None," blessed be his name, 'none shall pluck them out of mine hand." And how transcendently does the glory of this kingdom shine forth in the person of the King. Here is the very summit of the perfection of the glory. Unlike the kingdoms of this world, this kingdom was ever viewed in, and therefore one with, their King. Here, therefore, our imperfections are, as it were, lost; and we are in Christ holy and without blemish. O! how vast, how overwhelming is the thought,

he

"That worms of earth should ever be
One with incarnate Deity."

Now, therefore, whatever perfections are in Jesus, they are there for us, they are transferred to us; as he is holy, so are we, in him; and, as he hath overcome all, so surely shall we; and, blessings on his dear name, he is gone before to prepare a place for us, and eventually says, "I will come again, and take you to myself, that where I am ye may be also." Then shall the glory of this kingdom shine forth in its everlasting splendour in the eyes of angels, men, and devils; and as the heirs of the kingdom will, and at times do now, rejoice and triumph, so will their enemies be filled with confusion and eternal dismay.

But the Psalmist says, "they shall talk of thy power." Yes; and how can they help talking of it, when it hath been so exercised on their behalf. There was a rich display of the sovereign power of the Father, in choosing whom he would; of the Son, in accepting them, and in undertaking to exercise his power in redemption's work; and of the Holy Spirit, in undertaking to sanctify them to God. Here was power set forth in eternity, and in time the good Lord made it still more manifest. How did the power of the divine nature shine forth in the Son of God, from the first putting on of our nature, (I mean in acts of miracles) constraining even devils to acknowledge him as the Son of God. But in Gethsemane, here was his power exerted (I would speak it with reverence, as we poor worms are permitted to gaze upon it) to the utmost, and nothing short of omnipotence could have endured the pouring forth of the vials of the wrath of infinite justice on the head of the dear Surety, for the sins of his beloved people. When he cried in the agony of his suffering, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me," yet, even here was no flinching; no, he had them still on his heart, immoveably there; and, in his unchangeable love, he cried out again, "Not my will, but thine be done;" and the divine power still being set forth by him, he endured it all, yea, he bore the curse, and such a curse it was as we can have no conception of; no, the utmost we can do is to gaze, and wonder, and adore. And, in the greatness of his power, he wrenched, as it were, the sting from the jaws of death, overcame hell, and ascended gloriously on high, bearing, as the great High Priest, the names of all the children of Israel, engraven on his heart, as trophies of his love and power, and hath entered into the holiest of all, and for ever is set down on the right hand of God, "from henceforth expecting until his enemies be made his footstool;" which his power

Another sweet theme is the

shall accomplish in his own good time. power of the Holy Spirit, as exercised from time to time in their souls. At this bastards rail; they cannot endure it; the world does not understand it, and worldly professors hate it, and the reason is evident; eternal truth declares it, "Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive; because it knoweth him not, but ye know him." Why, and how, dear Lord, do we know him? "Because he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." The power of the Spirit in this time state is set forth in the souls of the Lord's living people in regeneration. There is life imparted, and, with life, light to the poor wondering soul, opening to him the fallen condition he is in. Then the poor wretch sets to work to do somewhat towards his salvation. Again; the blessed power of the Spirit opens to the sinner the purity of the law of God, and makes him see and feel his utter inability to fulfil it, and this, to his feelings, sometimes is almost too much for him, and, after he has tried every other resource, and finds them all tą be but broken cisterns, he is brought by the same power of the Spirit to give up all, and to come, guilty, helpless, and filthy as he feels himself to be, to Jesus, with a, "Lord save or I perish." Then, in his own good time, does the Spirit take of the things of Jesus, and manifest them to the soul; and thus his heart is broken to pieces, overwhelmed by the love of God, shed abroad, and applied personally to the soul by the power of the Spirit. And how often have they to recount the acts of the blessed Spirit, in after life, in again and again quickening their souls from the feeling of death, which they so often have in them; in keeping on the work within; in raising them when cast down; in removing clouds and darkness from their minds; and in bringing them again to the feet of Jesus, as poor and as needy as ever, making them feel and know that the carrying on of the work, as well as the beginning, in their souls, must be all of God, that the glory may all redound to God; and in making them feel that though they have all in Christ, they have nothing in themselves. But they who are thus blessed, and made to speak of the glory of his kingdom, and talk of the power of a Triune God, exercised on their behalf, as that which they have handled and felt, are despised by the world, and hated by professors; and because they cannot herd with them, and eat of the husks which the swine do eat, they are men wondered at ;" their names are cast out from among men, yea, the prophecy is fulfilled in their experience, which says, "The people shall dwell alone, they shall not be numbered among the nations."

Gloucestershire.

SPIRITUAL CORRESPONDENCE.

TO THE EDITORS OF THE GOSPEL STANDARD.

S. S.

Messrs. Editors,-In your number for this month (January), page 24, amongst your gleanings, is a remark to which the signature "W. G.," is put, which I altogether deny as ever falling from my lips. It is that the believer "cannot break the new law." I believe that

the blessed Lord writes the glorious substance of every divine law in the hearts of his people, and that the covenant of works they have awfully broken, but that the glorious covenant of grace is secured in Christ, and they cannot break that; and I also believe that the Lord secures unto all his blood-bought family, in the glorious person of Christ, their Head, all the rich and glorious blessings of that new and everlasting covenant, and, in his own time and way, by the glorious invincible energy of the blessed Spirit, communicates unto and maintains in them a measure of those special blessings, as a sure pledge of their interest in the glorious fulness thereof. But I never said they could not break the new law. This I absolutely deny; and your gleaner should be careful how he gleans, and not add sutty ears to the few sound ones he may gather; for, by so doing, he may blacken the whole. Yours sincerely,

Jan., 1838.

W. G:

Dear Sirs,-Having been a reader of your Gospel Standard, and finding it to be a great help, through the blessing of the Lord, to a poor sinful creature, I have ventured to lay before you some of the Lord's dealings with my poor sinful self.

As early as ten years of age, it was impressed upon my mind that I was a sinner before God, but he suffered me to go on in all manner of sin and wickedness, wallowing in all kinds of filth with greediness, until I arrived at the age of twenty-four, when it pleased the good Lord to let me have a sight of myself as standing before him as the greatest sinner upon the face of the earth; and I was led, I trust, by the Spirit of God, to take my Bible to endeavour to get a little refreshment, although at that time I did not believe a word that precious book contained; when, lo, on reading these words from 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10; "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolators, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revellers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God;" the Holy Spirit was pleased to convince me more fully that I was a sinner of the deepest dye, and one that was lost to all intents and purposes, and unworthy of the smallest favour that a covenant God could bestow. I saw that I stood naked before his presence, and I loathed and abhorred myself, and repented in dust and ashes.

On one occasion, I was walking in the fields, and such a terror came upon me, that I expected the very earth would open and swallow me

up.

Look unto heaven I durst not. I saw myself as it were cast out of heaven, like the man that had not on the wedding garment, and the very devils themselves seemed ready to receive me. I saw all my sins before me from my youth, and thought if they were brought in judgment against me, the hottest place in hell would be assigned me; so, publican-like, I smote upon my breast, crying, "God be merciful to me a sinner." I had such hard thoughts against God, that I, to my shame be it spoken, even cursed him to his face, and yet I was constrained to believe that the law was holy, just, and good, and I stood condemned for breaking it in every point. I could believe that any body and every body would be saved but myself. I envied the very beasts of the field and the birds that flew in the air as being happy creatures, having no soul to sink into perdition; and I, a poor miserable mortal, expect