present with the power of Christ and real religion to support the soul in the prospect of immediate death, and we could rejoice on her behalf.

On Saturday she was for most of the day very low, and, knowing of my engagement for Sunday at a distance, she said, "You must go; it is your duty; and it would be wrong to disappoint the people of God. Come back as soon as you can."

On the Sunday morning, a slight change being observed, I was sent for, and got home early on Monday morning, to find her fast sinking. As I entered the room, she rallied, and said, "I did not expect to be here now. I have had such a manifestation of Christ as my Saviour, and have beheld him as in his priestly robes as I never did before. I realized by faith his wounded hands. It seems sad to come back again." She repeated the first verse of the 158th hymn, and said it described her soul's enjoyment. After this she lay three or four hours, and we were expecting every minute to be her last. As I saw her open her eyes, I went near and repeated the first verse of 2 Cor. v., and said, "You know, my dear, you have that house for your eternal home; do you not?" She could not speak, but gave us an unmistakable sign that she did know it. A dear friend, who has been over 50 years a member at Rochdale, came to see her, and repeated hymn 469, 2nd verse, and added, "Can you, Mrs. P., say so?" When she said distinctly, "I can ;" and to the next verse gave the same answer. After this, to our surprise, she rallied, and said, "I have been recounting the temporal and spiritual mercies of the Lord to me, and they are many." "What?" I asked, "have you been doing so as you lay so low, not able to speak?" "Yes," she replied, "and it has been sweet. I have had a rich enjoyment of Christ as my Saviour, and of his precious blood.”

For the greater part of the night she lay so low as to be scarcely able to speak; yet at times she uttered words, proving how great her peace

was.

On the morning of the 17th, she wished me to read and kneel down at her bedside. After reading the 23rd psalm, and saying a short prayer, she repeated a part of the psalm, and said, "It is good. He is my Shepherd. His rod and staff do comfort me."

After speaking to each of her children separately, she was much exhausted. I said to her, "You are now in the valley; are you quite happy?" "Yes," was her reply, "the Lord is very good, and Christ is very precious to me."

About three hours before she died, I said, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." Raising herself a little, she said, "It is those who die in the Lord. I shall die in the Lord. I know I shall. By the grace of God I am what I am." These were the last words she spoke which we could understand.

About two hours before the end she had a struggle, which lasted fully an hour; then she lay motionless for about three quarters of an hour, when, without a struggle to be seen, a sigh or groan to be heard, her peaceful soul left this world of sorrow to be for ever with the Lord. Thus passed away one who by the grace of God was a faithful companion, a tender parent, and a lover of peace. Oldham, April 8th, 1880.

W. PERRETT.

"I WILL give to him that is athirst." "He that overcometh shall inherit all things." (Rev. xxi. 6, 7.) The first begining of the new creation is here connected with its consummation. With the thirsting the giving begins; and it goes on increasingly; as the thirsting is the living impulse throughout the whole conflict in him

that overcometh,Owen.

THE

GOSPEL STANDARD.

JULY, 1880.

MATT. V. 6; 2 TIM. 1. 9; ROм. XI. 7; ACTS VIII. 37, 38; MATT. XXVIII. 19.

THE FLOODS BOUND, AND HIDDEN THINGS DISCOVERED.

A SERMON BY MR. VINE, MINISTER OF ZOAR CHAPEL, DICKER, SUSSEX, PREACHED AT EASTBOURNE, FEB. 24TH, 1878.

"He bindeth the floods from overflowing; and the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light."-JOB. XXVIII. 11.

We are shown in this precious chapter a little of the power and wisdom of God; and when we read or hear of his power and wisdom, we see a little of our own weakness and foolishness. We read in the 7th verse: "There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen." There is, for thus we may apply these and the following words of Job, a path of God's own making, a path designed by his infinite wisdom and boundless mercy; a path that the Three in One, and One in Three, has devised from earth to heaven; and it is clearly laid down in the Word. "Which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen." The keen-eyed graceless professor has not seen it. It is the election of grace that tread this path; it is they who by grace alone are brought to know this path. It is called in the Word of God a strait path, but the child of God finds it at times to appearance a very winding one. Now I understand a strait path there not so much to mean a straight line, as a narrow path; and O, what a narrow, narrow way in experience is the path to heaven! We want to show that this is a strait and narrow path; and we would say again, that it is to a man's feelings, a winding intricate path, and a painful one. O! it is painful in the extreme to the child of God at times. How many trying and distressing things he meets with in his pilgrimage! And the Word of God clearly shows that "it is through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom."

at

Now, you know, this path we are treating of goes straight in regeneration, and straight out at glory. Therefore it is a mercy if we know anything of the path to heaven; for if we have, through divine grace, entered at the gate of regeneration, I say, we shall go straight out at glory.

Now Bunyan, in the "Pilgrim's Progress," shows us a little of this path. Christian was directed at first to the Wicket Gate, No. 585.

H

And so is the path to every

beyond which was a narrow way.
child of God. It is ofttimes a narrow, trying, troublous, thorny,
rough path; and we say at times,

"Is this, dear Lord, that thorny road,
Which leads us to the mount of God?
Are these the toils thy people know
While in this wilderness below?"

Yes; God's infinite wisdom and boundless love have seen fit to scatter these difficulties in our path, to keep us watchful and wakeful; and to make us go often to the footstool of mercy, to inquire our way along.

Verse 8: "The lion's whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it. He putteth forth his hand upon the rock, he overturneth the mountains by the roots." Here we see the

power of God. The child of God, treading in this path, has many hard, trying, rugged rocks for faith to climb. And it is our mercy, friends, that the Lord is pleased at times to put forth his hand, and remove the rocks, making the crooked straight, and the rough path plain; and with the blessing of the Lord upon us, the difficulties are removed, and the mountains sink into plains. How many mountains the child of God meets with in the strait and thorny road! What insurmountable mountains they appear! How the child of God finds his strength to be more and more weakness! As he travels along, he seems to need more strength, and to have less.

Now, the Lord is pleased at times to come and overturn the mountains by the roots, that Satan said were immovable. You find the Lord does indeed appear, and remove the things that come to try, and worry, and annoy his people in their path, and smooths the rugged way a little at times. Now, in travelling along the path, it is a mercy to be enabled a times to look back and trace the hand of God. Since your first setting out, you have encountered many difficulties and trying mountains.

But let us look a little at the other side,—at God's helping hand, at the Lord's mercies, new covenant blessings, and favours to our souls. Has not the Lord, my friends, in many instances, lent an unseen hand, and helped us, when we could not help ourselves, in most trying states? When we look back at our trials, do not let us forget the Lord's favours to us. Do not let us forget his mercy; the strength he has given us, and how he has enabled us to stand and endure, has been better to us than all our fears, and has strengthened us with a little strength. We must feel now we have much more cause to be thankful for the mercies we have had than to talk about the trials we have passed through, though there is often rather a proneness in us to talk about our tribulations, trials, difficulties, and the moun tainous way we have come along, than a feeling desire to speak of the goodness of God, his helping hand, and supporting grace. Let us bless God for his mercy. Let us "praise him for all that is past;" and then let us "trust him for all that's to come." Surely,

"He who has helped us hitherto,

Will help us all our journey through."

The Lord has not brought you through so many difficulties and trials to cast you away. You know, my friends, the prize is at the end of the journey; and we are pressing toward the mark. The Lord Jesus Christ stands at the end of the journey, with the prize-eternal glory; and I will tell you the soul that will lay hold on it, he that endureth to the end. We must endure to the end in the thorny path, pass over many difficulties, and receive help to the end. The soul that gives up, turns back, or withers away, not having a root, will not lay hold on the prize. No; it is a trying path; the prize is at the end; and as the soul launches out of the clay tabernacle, it lays hold of that prize. "I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish." "So run that ye may obtain."

In speaking of the power and goodness of God, Job says, "He cutteth out rivers among the rocks; -a very unlikely place for a river; yet, my friends, all along the rough, dark, thorny, trying path, the Lord is sometimes pleased to cut out a river, to make known his favours, touch us with mercy, to cause our peace to flow like a river. There is nothing like the Lord's touch upon our hearts. As Cowper says,

“Heal us, Immanuel; here we are,
Waiting to feel thy touch."

What a blessing it is when the Lord favours the soul with a touch of his mercy, grace, and divine compassion; and is pleased to cut a river through our rocky hearts! Then how we feel our hard hearts melt. At other times how dry are our eyes! I have often to say,

"My eyes refuse to lend a tear;"

but when the Lord is pleased to touch us with his grace, to give us a sense of his mercy, to humble our hearts under a feeling sense of his goodness, then we can

66

Weep to the praise of the mercy we've found."

"His eye seeth every precious thing." I will tell you what is precious to the eye of God;—a poor sin-burdened sinner at his footstool. That is a precious thing for the Lord to see; a sinner groaning on account of the burden of sin, and crying for help to the God of heaven. Sinners groaning on their knees, and entreating the Lord's help, he is sure to see; they are precious things in his sight; and he will fly to the relief of their souls in his own time.

Then comes our text: "He bindeth the floods from overflowing." Not only does the child of God, in the path to heaven, have troubles, trials, and difficulties to surmount, and mountains to climb, but he has floods in the way. O what a trying path the Old Testament saints found it! So did the New Testament saints; and so does the child of God to the present day. If you had no difficulties here, where would be the trial of your faith? The Lord has ordained that there shall be floods in the path of a child of God; therefore, he finds he has to pass through trials,

fires, and floods, in the path we have been speaking of. There the child of God ofttimes finds, as Bunyan says,

"A Christian man is seldom long at ease,

When one trial's o'er, another doth him seize." He very often gets tired with the difficulties of the way, and is seldom at ease; for when he gets to the plain of “ a little ease," he finds he very soon crosses it.

I cannot preach an easier path to heaven, because I have never walked a smoother path than this, long together. I have found, now for nearly thirty years, it has been fresh troubles and trials; but here I am, alive and on my feet; and I would desire to praise and bless God's holy Name, for he has been a good God to me, and has helped me along the path. I could not have stood in my own strength, nor could I have surmounted my difficulties, but for his helping hand. When I stand up in his holy Name, I want to speak well of the Lord. "Having obtained help of God, I continue unto this day." If I speak of myself, I have to speak of the bad side. But although I have been a God-provoking creature, notwithstanding all my provocations, God has been good and merciful to me. "Not one good thing has failed of all the Lord my God has promised me.

Now I will try to speak a little of the floods, and how the Lord binds the floods. Well, friends, Christian experience is a blessed thing; to know the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit's teaching upon our hearts is a glorious thing; to be shown the way in which God saves our souls is a mercy. It is not feeling we have a lot of religion that will save our souls, but having a religion of the right kind. A grain of grace will save the soul; it will indeed. Now we hear a good deal at times about Christian experience, Christian conversation; we hear of Christians meeting together, having much to talk about at times. Now, a good deal of this may be wood, hay, and stubble. I do not say there may not be a little gold aniong it, but I will tell you the religion that will avail you, and bear your souls up in the swellings of Jordan. It is the very little you have when before God in secret, between God and your soul; and when you are upon your knees, and he reveals himself to you. Yes, that is true religion, my soul and God's mercy meeting together.

"Faith that stands fast when devils roar,

And love that lasts for evermore."

That is what will save the soul, and will help you when you come into the swellings of Jordan. We have all dying bodies, and our spirits have to depart.

Now, if you have this true religion you will know something about the roaring of the devil, and something about faith in Jesus Christ, which is a precious grace.

"Faith! 'tis a precious grace,
Where'er it is bestowed;

It boasts of a celestial birth,
And is the gift of God."

Now, this precious faith looks to Christ as its Object, and to