а

66

means of reviving the work of grace upon your heart; and that you may be enabled in all times of distress to look up to him for all that strength which your soul stands in need of while in this wilderness, For sure I am, that you are, like me, frequently hewing out to yourself broken cisterns that can hold no water; for when we get into trouble, and are exercised with darkness, and are so tempted and distressed by the enemy, who comes with Where is now thy God?" feeling the loss of the sensible presence of our dear Lord, we begin to conclude that all the work upon our souls is nothing but a delusion, and that unless we can do something to merit the approbation of God, he never more will be favourable unto us. But in this we are greatly mistaken; for blessed be his name, it is of his own mercy alone he saves us, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. That it is alone of the mercy of God we are saved, I have no doubt. But you will acknowledge that we must be regenerated or born again.

But perhaps you may wish to know what is meant by this renewing of the Holy Ghost. To which I answer: it is having the work revived upon our hearts-when walking in darkness, to have the light of God's countenance lifted up upon us; by having faith wrought in our hearts in the promise of God to us; so as to believe that though we are now walking in darkness, buffeted by the enemy, and our confidence in God appear to be shaken, that it will not be always thus with us; that we shall not always be left in this forlorn state: but that at some future period God will again appear, and bring us forth to the light, and we shall behold his righteousness.

Now this is all done by the holy and ever blessed Spirit shining into our hearts, and giving us the light of the glory of God in the face of his dearly beloved Son; this changes us more into his blessed image, and we begin sensibly to feel the change; our hearts and affections begin to go out again after Jesus, and we are ready to say with one of old, that we shall never more be moved. But notwithstanding this, through the remains of indwelling sin, we soon get into darkness again; we can see no sign nor any token for good; our adversary he also again appears, he tempts us to believe it all a delusion, we listen to him, and being so dark and so pestered with unbelief, we give credit to his suggestions, and conclude that the work never was began upon our hearts and that notwithstanding all the profession that we have made, we certainly shall fall short of the promised rest. Being thus tossed with tempest, and receiving no comfort, we begin to give up all hope of ever being saved; we are distressed even beyond measure, and write bitter things against ourselves. In such circumstances as these our hearts frequently mutter perverseness, and we fret against the Lord; we think he dealeth harder with us than with any one else, and like Jeremiah, we

only are them that feel affliction by the rod of his wrath. Every thing bears a gloomy aspect; we see neither sign nor token for good. The Holy Spirit he sets us to self-examination; we search the ground of our hope, to see how far the Spirit's work within agrees with the word without; we canvass things over to the bottom to see what ground there is for us to hope for better days, and while we are thus engaged and thus employed, how often does the holy and ever-blessed Spirit testify of Jesus to our souls, by applying some promise to our hearts, which raises us again to hope: hope being thus encouraged, faith springs up; we begin to banter the enemy and predict a sun-rising; we are enabled to say to him, “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy; for though I fall, I shall arise again; and though I now sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light unto me; he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness: for my God hath promised that I shall not abide in darkness, but that I shall have the light of life."

This, my dear sister, is something of this renewing. May you at all times when walking in darkness, be enabled to act faith in this glorious promise made to all the covenant seed of God's elect; for as soon as faith in the promise lays hold of Jesus, and he appears precious to us, and shines into our hearts by his Spirit, it is then that darkness vanishes away, and our enemy he flies from us. We rejoice in these seasons with a joy which is unspeakable and full of glory; our faith in God's everlasting love to us is increased, we walk under his smiles, and in spite of all that every enemy can advance, we believe and rejoice in it too, that he that hath began the work in our hearts will by his own power carry it on. Thus he again renews our strength.

Various are the means the Lord makes use of to carry on this renewing work. Sometimes it is done under the word preached, when the Lord by his Spirit applies the word with power and comfort to our hearts. Sometimes by conversation with warm lively christians, when we hear them speak of their trials, troubles, and the many difficulties they have been exercised with, together with the way and manner in which the Lord delivered them. The Holy Spirit he often blesses the conversation of believers to each other, and I firmly believe that believers lose a great deal of comfort which they would enjoy, were they to follow the example of those who lived in the days of Malachi. At other times, this renewing work is done when engaged at a throne of grace. How often does a poor distressed child of God go to a throne of grace shut up under the hardness of their hearts, filled with unbelief, without one word upon our tongue; we know not how to pray, nor yet what to pray for; and we conclude God will not hear our feeble petitions; we feel the need of the Holy Spirit's assistance, and inwardly groan for it; and when this is the case, O how often does he enlarge our hearts, fill our mouths

with arguments, so that we pour out our souls with such energy and such freedom, that we are astonished at our own boldness, and at the condescension of the Most High in favouring of such worms of the earth as we are, with such nearness of access to his blessed self. At such seasons as these, O how are our souls led out! We approach him as our reconciled God and Father in bis dear Son, and he condescends to smile upon our souls, and sheds his love abroad in our hearts, which increases our love to him. We call him by all those endearing names, in which he stands related to us by covenant engagement, and the Most High condescends by his Spirit to apply the promises to our hearts with such power, that for a time we seem to be wholly lost to every thing else. O what blessed communion is this now! it increases our faith, and encourages our hope; we rise far above the world and every other object; and all our hopes, our wishes, desires, and expectations, are alone in Christ. By it our strength is renewed, and we are ready to say, we never more shall be moved. These, my sister, are days of prosperity, and we can but be joyful. We often cry out while thus indulged, 'Behold, what manner of love is this," the Father hath bestowed upon us, who are so unworthy, so rebellious, and so slow of heart to believe, that we, notwithstanding all this, should be called the sons of God. And beloved, "it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but this we know, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." But in this time-state, my sister, we have only a small taste of an abundant crop, a drop of honey now and then from the rock Christ; now and then a cluster with a blessing in it. But then, O then, we shall hunger no more, nor thirst any more, for we shall be filled with all the fulness of God; 0 we shall see as we are seen, and know even as we are known. glorious promise! O blessed privilege, and glorious hope, to be persuaded, and that to by God himself, that notwithstanding all our revoltings, we shall be put into the full possession of that rest which is reserved for all the elect family of God, and into the full enjoyment of all those inestimable blessings which are reserved for us in Christ Jesus. But in this time-state, "eye hath not seen, neither hath ear heard, nor hath it ever entered into the heart of any man, to conceive of what God, even our own God, hath laid up for us, and for all that love him." O could I but either speak or write to my sister what I see, and what I have at times felt and enjoyed of these things. But I cannot; they are better felt than expressed. My soul has at times been lost in wonder and amazement at the goodness of my God to such a rebel as I am, and have frequently said to him, Why me, Lord, why me! O the heights, and depths, and lengths, and breadths of the love of God to us, which passeth knowledge! who loved us only because he would love us. And sure I am, that nothing in either earth or hell shall ever separate us from it. No! no!

every blessing, both for time and eternity, is perfectly secured to us in an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure. And when we are enabled by faith to lay hold on them, and the Spirit bears witness to our right and title to them, O how are we humbled and brought to adore the riches of his grace; our evidences are brightened up, every cloud removed away, and we bask in the full blaze of immortal love. And sure I am, if this is not being renewed by the Holy Ghost, nothing is. Yes, my sister, every fresh manifestation of divine favour towards us, every love-token, and every fresh visit which he condescends to favour us with, are so many renewals of his love to us. We know that to renew is to restamp, reprint, new model, and bring any thing more like unto the thing it represents; so do these fresh manifestations of God's love to us, change us from glory to glory as by the Spirit of our God.

That my dear sister may enjoy more of these happy seasons, is the desire of my heart. And O! that that holy and ever-blessed Spirit, whose office alone it is to testify of Christ, and to bear witness to our adoption, O that he may condescend to own and bless what is dropt, so far as it is agreeable to his will, to the soul of my sister; and may she be enabled at all times to bear in mind that ancient promise, wherein he hath declared, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." No, no: however dark we may be, however we may be tempted, distressed, or cast down, he is the same; therefore hear his own declaration; If my children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments, then I will visit their transgressions with a rod, and their iniquity with stripes." Nevertheless, though I thus chasten them, it is to do them good; "for my loving-kindness I will not utterly take from them," nor ever suffer my faithfulness to them in the covenant, made with them in my dear Son, to fail. This covenant is with him of life and peace: Therefore I will never break it, nor alter the thing which is gone out of my lips. Because I have sworn by my own holiness," and I am not a man that I should lie; and until you can measure the heavens, and search out the foundations of the earth, and I cease to be God, I will never leave them! O gracious declaration! May my sister be enabled to take the comfort of them, and give the glory to Him to whom it is due.

Adieu, while I remain, your's to serve, with such as God has given him,

RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

W. G.

On Monday, Dec. 26, 1836, a New Baptist Chapel was opened at Great Ilford, in the parish of Barking, Essex. Mr. WYCHERLEY, from Thornton Rust, preached both Morning and Evening.

CHRISTIAN CONVERSATION.

"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.”—Heb. xiii. 8. PAUL, a minister of Christ, and the great apostle of the Gentiles, when converted to God by the power of the Holy Spirit, could speak well, and approve of that way which he himself had, in his ignorance opposed; and it should be remembered, what havock he had once made of the church after the death of Stephen, when, in his rage and madness against Christ and his people, having furnished himself with a commission from the grand Sanhedrim, he immediately put it into execution, by breaking open houses, and seizing upon any one who even looked like a disciple of our crucified Lord, without any regard to sex or age; scourged and hailed them to prison, plucking the husband from the bosom of the wife, and the mother from the embraces of her children, compelling them to blaspheme God and his Christ, and breathing out nothing but threatening and slaughter wherever he then came. This most grievous persecution was raised by the Jews, out of revenge to the conquest Stephen had obtained against the chief scholars of that nation. This persecution was so severe, that it dispersed in a great measure the whole body of the church, and drove the members and teachers of it into several foreign countries, and many natives of Jerusalem from their own houses into foreign parts; only the apostles still remained in the city; their functions and faith being extraordinary, stood firm to their ministry, under the protection of their Divine Master, who had evinced nothing in favour of their removal. But there were thousands dispersed abroad, who went forth dispersing good news and glad tidings to perishing sinners; therefore, through this persecution the bounds of christianity were enlarged, and the way the Jews had devised for the ruin and dissolution of the church and its members, proved the most effectual means of lengthening the cords, and strengthening the stakes of Zion, so that she might break forth on the right hand and on the left, and that her teachers might not be hid in a corner; for until then, the gospel had been more particularly confined to the believing Jews; and as a proof of the spreading of the gospel, we find the conversion of many in Samaria, under the preaching of Philip the deacon; and after that, we find Ethopia stretching her hands out to God, having one of her nobles baptized into Christ, of whom, it is stated, he became a preacher of the gospel in his own land.

The great apostle of the Gentiles knew full well, after his conversion, how he had persecuted and destroyed the happiness of the children of God, and what he had done against the person of Christ, and his church, as the body of Christ. He esteemed his high office, and acknowledged with the greatest humility, that he was not worthy to be called an apostle, because he per