PRAISE! ETERNAL PRAISE, DUE TO OUR GOD! To the Editor of the Gospel Magazine. DEARLY BELOVED IN THE LORD,-| to them in His name, He will cause I have been grovelling on £. s. d., bricks and mortar, until I am ashamed to lift up my eyes unto Him, from whom cometh my strength; but, blessed be His name, He has not forgotten to look down. I have limited the blessed Spirit to a temple made with hands. No wonder, I have mourned over the months that would elapse, as I foolishly thought, ere His work began. This is fearful blasphemy; what a return for all His love and grace! Yet our sympathizing Priest has had compassion on my ignorance, and forgiven my sin. It was said to me yesterday, "Mr. D must have misinterpreted that promise, 'Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God,' if he received it." Satan had very cunningly prepared his dart, but he over-reached himself; that which he thought would prove a deadly blow, was the instrument of liberty. The gracious Spirit will honour His own lifegiving promises, however they may be questioned by man or devil; and so now, beloved, it was recalling the very promise for your present position, one that I had forgotten; but now He has enabled me to see you shall gather out His people from house after house; and when you assemble the multitude under the glorious canopy of heaven, to speak His breath to enter into the dry bones, and they shall live; yes, "There shall be showers of blessings." I write, not from an idea that you are insensible to His sovereignty, but from feeling your faith is severely tested; and, it may be, the Lord will show you that He is not unmindful of His promises. Yours in the love of Jesus, H. E. A. C. that word was from the Lord, with ["Misinterpreted"-No. We believe another that was applied with power, as "If thou canst believe, all things are well as the two Scriptures just quoted, possible to him that believeth;" but never, we believe, were promises more doubted, and perhaps seldom put more severely to the test. So that the creature may footstool of mercy, and wonder at the well sink into nothingness at the forbearance which have been exercised grace, and long-suffering, and tender towards him. "Oh, to GRACE how great a debtor, Daily we're constrain'd to be." With what a God have we to do! so merciful, so gracious, so compassionate! Truly, He is worthy of all adoration and praise! Ten thousand, thousand thanks are hourly due to Him from every vessel of mercy.-ED.] A SOLEMN WARNING. To the Editor of the Gospel Magazine. DEAR SIR,-The following, which I know to be a fact, but which was hushed up, owing to the respectability of the parties, happened near H--, just before I left home. You might put it in a form to fill up one of your corners just at this season. A gentleman farmer was riding with a friend one day early in the spring, when passing one of his wheat fields his friend remarked, "This wheat looks very promising." "Yes," replied the farmer, "if God will but leave it alone." دو God took him at his word, He did leave it alone; the fructifying rains, the gentle dews, the genial sunshine, all seemed, as usual, to smile upon that field, but God withheld His blessing; for while the neighbouring fields (only divided by a hedge or landmark) were growing up from "the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear," this farmer's wheat alone remained throughout the spring, summer, and autumn, in exactly the same green-blade state as when these words were spoken. COVENANT CERTAINTIES. "Thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass.”—Job xiv. 5. WHAT a mercy that God has thus dealt with man! The child adopted into the family of heaven is not in his own keeping; introduced into the Church of Christ, he has the very place and position assigned him by Jehovah; his bounds appointed, beyond which he cannot pass. God is his centre, and around Him his affections mové, as the planets revolve around the sun; they break not their bounds. In temporal as well as spiritual things, God has fixed our bounds; and these are so woven up together, we cannot separate them. The first birth (Eccl. iii. 2), with everything relating to it (Acts xvii. 26); the parents, relatives, and friends; prosperity or adversity, riches or poverty, length of life. New birth-circumstances attending it; season of bondage, days of deliverance, ministry of the word, Christian friends, opportunities of usefulness, measure of grace, discipline, comforts, &c.; these, and ten thousand more, are fixed and settled in covenant love for Zion's children. confidence of faith, and say, "My times are in thy hand." Seeing these things are so, should not believers be quiet? One would think all things were in their hands, to judge by the disquiet of their minds. Oh, how sweet that word (Isa. xxvi. 3), "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace." He believes God has appointed his bounds, so he does not fix for himself another way, and then fret because he cannot get into it; but, quieting his soul as a weaned child, he walks on, though rough it be, knowing the promise, "Thy shoes shall be iron and brass, and as thy days, so shall thy strength be." As long as the Christian thinks he can make things better, so long the struggle goes on; but as soon as he is satisfied that God is doing all, yea, has fixed his bounds, he is at peace. But for want of being well established on this point, confusion and discontent arise; then murmuring, and perhaps rebellion. David says, "God performeth all things for me!" Is it so, and shall we interfere? A SERVANT OF THE CHURCH. NO TEARS IN HEAVEN. No tears in heaven? no, For sorrow's far away; Sin cannot enter there, Nor sickness, or decay. The pilgrim-journey o'er, All conflict, too, with sin; Its very being slain, And rest and peace within; This makes me sigh for heav'n. But there One object dwells I long to gaze upon, Once marred and spitted on, Yes, our Emmanuel's there Our elder Brother, Friend; And while we travel on, We may on Him depend; He'll bring us safe to heav'n. Dublin. For nought can snap the tie And one with Him above; Our hearts, now cold and dead, Our ransomed tongues employ, The thought is very sweet, It is an earnest of The glorious marriage feast, To part no more, in heav'n. M. E. L. ANTICIPATION. I REMEMBER that on my return to France, in a vessel which had been a voyage to India, as soon as the sailors had perfectly distinguished the land of their native country, they became in a great measure incapable of attending to the duties of the ship; some looking at it wishfully, without the power of minding anything else; others dressed themselves in their best clothes, as if they were that minute going to disembark; some talked to themselves, others wept. As we approached, the disorder of their minds increased, as they had been absent several years; there was no end to their admiration of the hills, the foliage of the trees, and even the rocks which skirted the shore covered with weeds and mosses. The church spires of the villages, where they were born, which they distinguished at a distance up the country, and which they named one after another, filled them with transports of delight. But when the vessel entered the port, and when they saw on the quays their fathers, their mothers, their wives, their children, and their friends, stretching out their arms with tears of joy, and calling them by their names, it was no longer possible to retain a man on board, they all sprang on shore, and it became necessary, according to the custom of the port, to employ another set of mariners to bring the vessel to shore. The foregoing extract from the writings of an interesting and elegant French author, may serve to illustrate a fact or two in Christian experience: First, the blessedness of divine anticipation. When the Lord breaks in upon the soul, in the early discoveries of first love, how naturally, if we may so speak, it mounts upward, and takes its place above the skies; how intensely it longs for home, and all the blissful enjoyments of heaven! The language of the heart corresponds with the prayer of the cured man in the gospel, to Jesus-Let The religion that does not record, more or less of this experience, has not reached God's climax. The feeling, it is true, may ebb and flow, and may get beyond low water-mark, but it will return, and a fresh revelation will bring with it Divine anticipation. Secondly, we shall glance at the reason why the Lord's children, though favoured with Divine longings after the better land, in a measure, yet find, to their woe, the measure small. Like the French sailors, they would be unfitted for the duties of life. A gracious old woman once complained to a godly minister, that having had most glorious views of Christ-His finished salvation, and her interest in eternal glory, on her sick, and as she thought, dying bed-now that she had recovered, she felt all in the dark. "My good soul," said the dear old man, you must come down from the mount to cook your potatoes, you could never boil them up there." Much wisdom and consolation did these homely words convey. The Lord has cast the seed of His grace into the hearts of His children, and as compound creatures-flesh and spirit-they live in two kingdoms at the same time; thus manifesting His sovereign power in preserving the principle of grace alive in the soul, amidst the storms and vicissitudes of life, changeful frames, a body of sin and death, a powerful adversary, and a wicked world. But grace shall reign through righteousness unto life eternal, and the elect of God shall be borne triumphantly through, and over all the voyage of life to the haven where they would be, and an abundant entrance administered unto them in the everlasting kingdom. L. THE SURE FOUNDATION.-Christ is | mon's temple. They were made of a sure foundation; so sure, that lay brass, to show their strength, whereon what load you can upon Him He stoops the whole weight of the porch of the not; and therefore He was excellently temple lay.-Crisp. typified by the pillars of brass in Solo PEACE IN A DYING HOUR. [From a Pastor's Note-Book of Visits to the Sick and Poor.] CASE No. 9.-Mrs. ;aged thirty- each day for the last three weeks; and four; husband and four children. In under the Word I saw her mind gradually consumption. Removed to her mother's open. As far as I could ascertain, there house, for change of air, and in order was a total rejection of everything of that she might have a mother's atten- self; a feeling sense of sin, and a simple tion. Sitting up on sofa. Very deli- and entire resting upon Jesus only. Not cate-wept much. She is evidently in a question did I put that was not satismuch anxiety, and hers is a peculiarly-factorily answered. There was a clear, interesting case. I cannot help hoping intelligent grasping and responding to and believing that the Lord will do the simple but all-important truths put much for this sick woman. Enjoyed before her. But the day before she died, upon leaving the room, her mother burst Evidently much weaker. into tears. Why do you weep?" was Consumption the inquiry. "I am not quite satisfied," "I fear whether she is much in this visit. * * * 66 Now on her couch. prayed. She resting entirely upon the Saviour." "As * * * Case No. 9 did from the first peculiarly interest me, and I was impressed from that visit with the belief that the Lord had mercy in store for her. I felt great liberty in putting the truth before her, and in submitting my usual test, the 51st Psalm. In it I find such ample materials for probing the heart of a poor sinner, so far as the Holy Ghost may put energy and power into His word. I was struck in this case with the meekness and docility of the sufferer; but little did I conceive, until, in the course of my visits, I casually discovered what she had gone through. Hers had been a trial of no common order. Painful had been her lot to the very last degree; yea, at one time she deliberately left home for the purpose of drowning herself. She reached the water's edge, she saw and heard its rippling. She paused-"If I do this," said she, "I shall plunge myself into everlasting ruin, and my children will be left motherless.' She tarried a quarter of an hour, and then turned back; and most thankful did she feel when she went to her bed, that the Lord had not allowed her to carry out her guilty purpose. How ready was she now to ascribe that rescue and that marvellous preservation to the Lord. "Nothing in my hands I bring, I Every argument that I could think of, My visits to this case have been mostly for enforcing the simple truth of atoning, "Do you believe His blood has blotted out your sins?" "I do." "Shall I pray with you?" "If you please." Many passages were quoted during this interval. There was precisely the same intelligent reception of them, and responding to them. sin-pardoning blood, and imputed righ- a great sinner." I was resolved, however, as the result Her mother, after this interview, expressed herself much more satisfied. As I thought this would in all probability be her last day on earth, I called again in the evening, and sat with her for upwards of an hour. Of this interview I will give as clear and full a detail as memory will afford. May the Lord the Spirit, as the Remembrancer, help me; and may what I write be not only according to truth, and in exact conformity with what actually took place, but may it please Him to make use of this humble instrumentality to the glory of a Triune God, and to the edification, and refreshing, and comfort, of any poor sinner into whose hands this simple record may fall. When I entered the room on the above evening, I found the dear sufferer still lower. She was evidently fast sinking. Every few minutes, only the white of the eye was to be seen; and it was clear that at each such interval consciousness was gone. Then she would as it were come back, and opening her full eye upon the by-standers, would become perfectly sensible. "Do you know me ?" "Yes." I then repeated at different intervals, sundry passages, and spoke of Christ Himself having gone through the dark valley before her, and having snatched away the sting of death which was sin; that now those who were "looking to Jesus" could say, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." Her weakness now be came so great, that she looked to her kind and deeply-attentive mother to change her position a little; but she immediately added, Never mind, mother." It was holiday time, and the railway and I trust I shall meet you in trains hard by, together with the heaven.' "Are you happy ?" "Yes." schreeching of the engines, were making "Is Jesus precious?" "He is." "Do a sad noise. The boys, too, at her very you feel yourself to be a sinner ?" "Yes, door (her room being on the ground |