get them to attend him, to fill his pockets; rehearsed many slanderous reports that he had been told as truths, and which he believed to be true: in a word, he gave it as his opinion, that I was deluded, and my experience a lie. And thus was I wounded in the house of my friend. This was as the piercing of a sword, I felt more for him then I ever before had towards any that had reproached Mr. H. I felt the house in a low, dejected state, and was not a little mortified to see, that if I followed Mr. H. and partook of the benefit of his ministry, I must be a partaker of the reproach cast on his character and work. But it must not rest here. I was constrained to lay this affair before the Lord; I had a keen sense of the Lord's hearing and answering prayer; I think more so then, than I feel now. On my way home, I en deavoured to lay the whole affair before the Lord. I was so pierced, that I could not go to hear Mr. H. that night. It was the same the next week day night: I lost two opportunities. I could only groan in spirit; I could not speak out my mind in prayer, until the Wednesday evening: then being alone, I fell on my knees before the Lord, my heart and mouth were opened, and I told the Lord all the affair; not but what the Lord knew it long before. The substance of my prayer was, that it might please him to remove this burden from my mind, and to show me whether I had acted so contrary to his will, as my friend had said, in leaving the people of Jewry St. I also rehearsed before the Lord what blessings I had received through the instrumentality of Mr. H, whom from my heart I believed was his minister and servant, and whom I lamented to find both professor and profane reviled and hated. Can it be possible, that one so vile, so base as he is said to be, can be an instrument of so much good to my soul and others? I re peated all that had passed in my experience, and the frequent helps and meltings of soul under the word. Also of my friend, what I had known of him, and of what had taken place at his house, and that I did hope he was a good man, and that like many others, his mind had been prejudied without a cause. In a word, as I felt such liberty, I told the Lord Jesus all my mind; I was long alone, and at the conclusion my prayer was turned into praise, for I believed I was heard and should be answered. It was the next evening that the Lord answered me, and in a manner that it would be impossible as well as imprudent to explain. Yet at this mo ment I have it in mind, more clear than I have had it for years. I saw him in the balance, he was found wanting. Tekel was for him, and from that moment I knew it was decided against him, for I saw the emptiness of his profession; he received not my testimony, nor the things I advanced of Mr. H. on that day. But I saw Mr. Huntington as a star in the Saviour's hand. I would to God that all who profess Christ, knew Christ for themselves as he did ; and that all who preach Christ, had the Spirit attending their ministry, and to bless it to the people as his ministry was blessed. That text was powerful on my mind, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that receiv eth whomsoever I send, receiveth me," &c. I believed they were spoken of Mr. H. and that the Lord had sent him; of this I was assured, for my conscience bore witness that he had preached Christ to me. I, before Wednesday, felt something of that grief, which David felt for his son Absolam; I grieved for his folly; but now it was suppressed. I saw that all men had not faith, and the reason they make shipwreck of their profession is, because the word and work was never confirmed on them and to them by the Holy Ghost. I blessed God because he had given me the hearing ear and the under standing heart, and that I could see eye to eye with the preacher. I believed that Mr. H. was a man subject to the like passions and and infirmities as we all are; but the " Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send, receiveth me," this was the Lord's voice in his word; it was spoken to me of Mr. Huntington. I received the word from him, and thereby received the Lord Jesus and the Father. On my way to chapel, I was meditating on what had taken place since that day week, when the words, "What is thy request," forced themselves on my mind. I answered, Lord, I beseech thee exceed all my desires, and give me a double portion of thy Spirit; then rushed on my mind, what I had asked of the Lord on the Wednesday; I then asked for all the blessings of the everlasting covenant made to me in the Lord Jesus Christ: and if these are granted what can I have more. As soon as I heard Mr. Huntington speak in prayer, I was overcome in affections, it was so spiritual, so heavenly, such divine breathings, his soul semed melted under the influence of the love of God towards him, and a blessed union between God and his soul; he was as a mouth to God for me; my heart went with him in prayer; he far exceeded me in my petitions; and I did thank the Lord the Spirit for the wisdom given unto him; and saw how those men wronged their souls, in reviling him, and in heaping reproach on his name and ministry. But when he read his text it came to me as thunder, and filled me with wonder and astonishment: "Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to youward is not weak, but is mighty in you." Could any text have been more suitable to what had taken place the last week. I had sought a proof of God, and asked of the Lord to show me, and he had condescended to show me, and also had put it into my the heart of his servant, like Paul, to vindicate his authority received from the Lord to preach his gospel. He first showed how many of the brethren had treated Paul, through their being drawn aside by false teachers; then, took a survey of his own ministry, that some, through evil-minded men, had been tempted, and some had turned away, he then appealed to the consciences of all that heard him if his preaching had not been witnessed by the Holy Ghost? whether it had not delivered from many prejudices, and the traditions and formal religion of our forefathers? that if what Christ had promised we had not received?-was it his Spirit? you had it; was it his love? you had it; was it pardon for sin? you had it; was it life? you have it? was it his righteousness? you have it; if you needed reproof, or if you needed encouragement, you have had it. Thus he went on above an hour, and finished with such an encouraging application, that for some hours I retained no strength; I was amazed to think how he opened up all the affair between God and my soul, and himself, my friend, and ་་ SPARK KINDLING SPARK. In reading, dear Messrs. Editors, your' Salutation from Afar,' we are led to admire that sovereign grace and sovereign mercy treasured up in the everlasting covenant, which is ordered in all things and sure," through our Lord Jesus Christ. Many of the Lord's people have long looked to that distant quarter, and wondered whether there were any real stand for truth among the great professing multitude in that far off country. And many doubtless will be melted down in love to our glorious Head, when they read the account, in your Magazine, of a few of the tried in Zion who have dared to be singular. Let us take a glance at our own experience, and we shall soon see what it is which maketh them to differ. We will first begin with you, our dear brethren who conduct this Magazine, was it for the sake of singularity? was it because you would be thought great, eminent, and wise? No indeed, we should have been thought much more of, and it would have been much more to our temporal advantage, if we had mixed water with the milk. What then made the difference? Why God, in his discriminating, sovereign love and mercy, made his everlasting love shine into our hearts, and that made us to differ. We have been brought to hate the garment spotted by the flesh; we have been hunted by the devil, despised by the world, and persecuted and spoken evil against by professors. But the Lord has taught us, by terrible things in righteousness," that the Eternal God is our refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms; and these alone can bear us up amidst the wreck of nature and the crush of worlds. Oh but, (says some poor, broken-hearted, doubting, desponding, grieving, sighing, and crying soul to the Father of mercies) I wish I could see all this, and my own interest in it; I know I love the truth, and nothing else; I would not go any where to hear a lying prophet, if I knew it. Well, poor soul, you have puré milk; and the apostle, when he recommended pure milk, he has an object in view, and that is, that ye may grow thereby. As the Lord has circumcised your heart and ears, he will follow you up, and no doubt he will show you more of the heights and depths, and lengths and breadths of the love of God, that passeth knowledge; and the more you know of the love of God, and of his promises, which are all yea and amen in Christ Jesus, the more you will see your own deformity and self-abasement. Your own righteousness, and all your duties and good deeds, you will count but dung, that you may win Christ. And if everlasting love has shone into your heart, you are sure to press forward to the mark of your high calling in Christ Jesus, for it is God that "worketh in you to will and to do of his own good pleasure." It is to be hoped that your correspondents will bear in mind the advice of Metrios, to feed the flock of God; which is the greatest honour that can be conferred upon any one this side the eternal mansions of the blest. May you be led, dear Messrs. Editors, by the Lord our God, in that eminent position you occupy on the walls of Zion, to be Christ's servants for the church's sake; that while one Magazine rises up, and another rises up, with great pretensions of being called to the field, with no other testimony than their own word-and how many of them, since you have been called to your post, have died a natural death ?-you may be brought by such things, to look to the Rock that is higher than you are, and trust in Him from whom your fruit is found. Yours in a precious Lord Jesus, C. G. FURNACE WORK. DEAR sister in Jesus, every new covenant blessing in Christ Jesus follow you through this wilderness, until you arrive at the fountain head, where you will be for ever supplied with the streams of that river that maketh glad the city of God. You begin your letter in the path of tribulation, and conclude it in the same. It is a path that flesh and blood utterly abhors, kicks against, grumbles at, murmurs and finds fault with; but I think it a more safe path for you than if the Lord had favoured you with Job's substance, or made you the richest woman in Portsea, in temporal things, and given you flesh ease without trials, for I think that your path will bring more glory to God in the end than the other, and you will call upon the tried children of God, as one of old did, and say, Come, all ye that fear God, I will tell you what he hath done for my soul; how his everlasting arms hath supported me in six and in seven troubles, and in what infinite wisdom he hath safely guided and conducted me, through all these intricate and thorny mazes, that from time to time I have passed through; truly his promise hath in no one instance failed, but has been made good in my experience according to his precious promise, "I will never leave you, I will never, never forsake you." This is giving glory to God, which you could never have done if the Lord had given you flesh ease instead of trials: "" My son, refuse not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him; for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." It is better to be a flogged son received, than a bastard rejected, because for the son there remaineth a rest, a glorious inheritance, joys unspeakable, and full of glory, which will abundantly recompence for all his floggings. The Lord enable you to be daily looking to, and living upon Jesus the sinners friend, by faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame. Consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you be weary and faint in your mind, and the more that you are enabled to look, and live upon him by faith, the lighter will your burden be. We sympathize with you in your affliction respecting your dear mother, we know the ties of nature are not easily broken asunder, unless by the power of God, and we enabled in the grace of submission to say, It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good. There is one consideration that is comfortable, that she is not dead in trespasses and in sins, but that the Lord hath quickened her from a death in sin to a newness of life in Christ Jesus, and made known himself to her soul in the riches of his grace and salvation; so that death, to a believer, is only sleeping in Jesus. Was she carnal and you spiritual I confess that you would have some reason for grief, but if the Lord's time is come to remove your earthly friend from you, yet he has promised never to remove himself, but to be a friend that sticketh closer than either mother or brother and I am sure that he is a friend that exceeds all other friends, because he never changes in his love. The Lord enable you to deliver up your mother, yourself, and all concerns into his divine care and keeping, for he hath done, and doeth all things well, and that we shall one day see clearly, when we get home, though now we see through a glass darkly. I perceive by your letter that you want the day of your espousals to return in the same sweet and powerful manner as formerly, when you could face trials or persecutions with a soldier-like, undaunted courage, say ing, In the strength of the Lord I have run through a troop; in the strength of the Lord I have leaped over a wall. But perhaps in his infinite wisdom he designs that you should know awful changes, that you might know and feel your weakness, and prove his power to save to the uttermost, when all human strength and power failed. Job looking back upon his former experience, when every thing spiritual and temporal glided on sweetly and easily, when in distress inwardly and outwardly, cried out, Oh that it were with me as in months that are past, when the candle of the Lord shined upon my head, when by his light I walked through darkness. The Lord, however, learnt Job a precious lesson by his afflictions at last, and that was self-abhorrence. Job xlii. 9. May he learn us the same lesson, and that will tend to Christ exalting. and enable us to say, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us unto God by his blood. The Lord sanctify all our trials and afflictions, to the praise of the glory of his grace, and bring us at last where trials and afflictions are known no more. You appear to be in confusion at Portsea, both in spirituals and in temporals; congregations dwindling, the dock-yard discharging fifty a week. Why you will all become bankrupts soon. This is a sad sort of reform. This is from bad to worse, instead of from bad to better. This is man's reform, not God's reform, if it was it would terminate in a different man. ner. Well, he gave Israel of old their hearts' desire in the wilderness, but withall sent leanness into their souls. Our little church are at present in peace; they were glad to hear from you, and desire their christian loves to you and family. I delivered your letter myself to but she has not said any thing to me since about the contents of it. I have been poorly in my body at times, but not so as to lay by. The influenza has visited Exeter, but it has not been A PEARL RESCUED. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, and ge would not."-Matt. xxiii. THIS portion of God's word, with many more, is taken up by the host of free-willers, and they make a pack-horse of them, to carry them about from place to place to establish their corrupt doctrine; and many are drawn aside by them. They say this is a day of great light and knowledge, whereas to me it seems a day of declension from the truth of God, men loving darkness rather than light. I would to God that men of truth were better employed than they frequently are. Instead of setting themselves up as discerners of spirits, and judges of christian experience, weighing the same in the balance of their judgment, condemning one and setting up the other, although the experience may be told out alike by each individual: I say, I would that men of such great discernment were better employed, |