How abundantly blessed then is the precious truth in its fulness. Here is wonderful love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us! not because we melt and are dissolved in gratitude, but because He will form a people for himself who shall show forth his praise, and we know that while for a moment or two he gives us a few droppings of felt communion with Him in his sufferings, then do we wonder how it is we could be so hard and unfeeling. And then again, we wonder why he does not not keep us always in such a soft and grateful frame. But these sweet moments are dropped down to us as momentary foretastes of what eternally awaits us when we have done with our part of the suffering; therefore, the Lord help thee to see, my brother, that thy very hardness forms part of thy portion of suffering, and that it is right thou shouldest thus suffer, since it is here thou art having thy TIME FELLOWSHIP With Him in sorrows, that thou mayest abundantly prize that which remaineth, namely, AN ETERNAL WEIGHT OF COMMUNION WITH HIM IN HIS GLORY.

It is as we sit down here we can meditate upon, in some small degree, and rejoice in the INFINITE VALUE of Christ's sorrows. They put all the sins of every redeemed child of God eternally away, so that when they are sought for there shall be none! do you live in the enjoyment of this unbounded blessedness, my brother? The Father then beholds the whole family in the Person of Christ, WITHOUT SPOT! Jehovah loves them, blesses them, joys over them! and all this the fruit and manifesting forth the value of Christ's sorrows. Oh glorious "Man of Sorrows!"

"All thy wounds and bruises are,

To my soul exceeding fair!"

What then is the teaching of His sorrows? It will be found in this, my troubled brother, as Paul tells us "consider Him that endured such contradictions of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds," because ye have daily fellowship with Him in his sufferings. We suffer now to make us suitable companions for Him. He suffered then to become a suitable companion for us, and by faith we come to the blessed conclusion that He drank our eternal cup of sorrow until it was quite empty, that He might present to us His infinite cup of joy eternally full !

His peace be with you. Amen.

IMMANUEL'S PROMISE TO HIS BRIDE.

(No. 1.)

"Certainly I will be with thee!" Exod. iii. 12.

No sooner does a child of God come, by the blessed ministry of the Spirit, to a discovery of the greatness of salvation, than he finds a continual proneness to look at himself in all his deformity, and exclaim with Moses, "Who am I," that I should be a partaker of such immortal glories as those which I now see to be treasured up for God's holy family in the Person of Christ? Nor need we wonder that it should be so. Indeed, I confess, the more I am led into the wonderful subject, connected as these leadings are, with equally deep discoveries of my own more than depravity, for it is a total death in self, after my earthy Adam nature, to all that is holy or spiritual, the more I am constrained to stop and ask the question, "Is it not a mistake ?" "If it be so, why am I thus ?" If Christ be formed in me the hope of glory"-if grace reigns in my heart through righteousness, unto eternal life-and all is the free sovereign gift of God to me, without a single reason in myself to induce the gift, and I have the witness of the Spirit in my soul that I am passed from death, or out of death, into eternal life-how is it I cannot carry myself more above self, sin, Satan, the world, and the working of infidelity and unbelief? It is so great a salvationso high a dignity conferred upon those who possess it—to have been selected, chosen out of the mass of mankind-vessels to honour! fit for the use and glory of Him who upholds ALL THINGS by the word of his power! not only to bow before Him in eternal adoration, but to be JOINT-HEIRS With Him, who is himself HEIR OF ALL THINGS! It is so great a grace, so glorious a gift, so high a calling, a salvation from a condition so intensely wretched, to a blessedness so unutterably glorious, that every child of God who knows what it is to go in, by precious faith, and "sit before the Lord" in the Person of Jesus, in sweet contemplation thereof, must expect to find the effect to be what it was in the case of David, under the revelations of Jehovah's loving-kindness, tender mercy, and aboundings of grace towards him. And, moreover, the same conclusion must [THE GOSPEL COTTAGE LECTURER, No. 42.

be drawn, and then will follow the same precious plea. The effect of the greatness of the discovery of Jehovah's purpose was astonishment. And he said, who am I, O Lord God and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto ?" And this was yet a small thing in thy sight, O Lord God; [Blessed as are our Ebenezers, yet what are they compared with the royal robe and the royal crown which await us at the end of the valley?] but thou hast spoken also of thy servant's house for a great while to come! And is this the manner of man, O Lord God? And what can David say more unto thee? for thou, Lord God, knowest thy servant. How sweetly does this express the upgoings of the heart of a living child of God, under the confirming and sealing testimonies of the Holy Comforter! With the heart dissolved into gratitude, "What can David say more?" Ah, but David is such a hell-deserving sinner! True! black as the tents of Kedar! But "thou, Lord God, knowest thy servant!" It can be for nothing he is or has in himself. No. What then is the conclusion? Oh how pre

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cious are these things in their power and unction, binding up the broken-hearted! Why hast thou bestowed so great a grace upon so vile a sinner, Lord? Mark the blessedness, my brother!" For thy WORD'S sake, and according to THINE OWN HEART, hast thou done all these great things, to make thy servant know them." Who is the Word, but our most glorious Christ? And why have we such great things given to us in Him? but because of the everlasting love our Covenant God and Father ever had towards us in Him. This is the deep profound which David calls THINE OWN HEART," from whence all our blessings flow. And then the Holy Comforter takes up his abode in the heart to make the sinner KNOW THEM!" Then follows the plea. My brother, does it not bring to thy mind many such seasons, when in true contrition of spirit, thou has sat down under his shadow with great delight, and had a few heavenly moments of sweet communion and fellowship with the Holy Three who bear record in heaven? and have not such seasons ever terminated by little-faith putting in her plea? and has the Lord ever denied thee yet? Never. "And now, O Lord God, the word that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant, and concerning his house, establish it for ever, and DO AS THOU HAST SAID!"

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Little-faith always wants something to grasp. Moses asked the Lord for something to carry in the hand of faith. Dear Mr. Hart, in the sweet account he gives of his experience of the Lord's revelation of Christ and salvation in his heart, tells us that when he had

received his pardon, full and free, he was constrained to put a question, "But for the future, Lord ?"-I feel my mind led to insert the whole passage, it is such a practical comment on the words of both Moses and David.

"While I was yet a great way off,

He ran, and on my neck he fell;
My short distress he judg'd enough

And snatch'd me from the brink of hell

What an amazing change was here;

I look'd for hell, he brought me heaven: "Cheer up," said he ; "dismiss thy fear; Cheer up; thy sins are all forgiven."

I would object; but faster much

He answer'd, Peace,'' What me ?' 'Yes, thee !' "Bat my enormous crimes are such ;"

"I give thee pardon, full and free!"

"But for the future, Lord :"—" I AM

THY GREAT SALVATION! perfect! whole!
Behold thy bad works shall not damn,
Nor can thy good works save thy soul.

"Renounce them both, myself alone

Will for thee work, and in thee, too.
HENCEFORTH I MAKE THY CAUSE MY OWN,

AND UNDERTAKE TO BRING THEE THROUGH."

It is by the realization in experience of the entire completeness of our great salvation in the Person of Christ, that we are brought to enter into the fulness of David's testimony in that song of praise recorded in 2 Samuel vii., and also to understand the full glory of the precious promise, Certainly I will be with thee."

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Three questions arise out of this divine declaration, the answers to which are full of consolation to a tempest-tossed child of God. First, How? Secondly, When? Thirdly, For what purpose? is the Lord with his people.

How? Here stands the unalterable blessedness of every member of the mystical body of Christ; and I add, my brother, and I pray the Holy Comforter, on your behalf, that he condescend to open the glory of this subject to your renewed mind yet more and more fully-that until we grow up into an experimental familiarity with this eternal mercy, we shall be ever making mistakes, and drawing erroneous conclusions from matters which never have, can, or shall, be taken into the account, in the way in which we too often look at them.

It is in LIVING UNION that Jehovah-Father, Son, and Spirit, is ever with his people; “I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one!" Would you know a little of the infinite value of this, my brother? Look for a moment at the other side of the question" Our God is a consuming fire." He is either WITH us in an union which nothing can sever or dissolve; or he is to us, and will be so eternally, a fire full of "indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish !" (Rom. ii. 8.) There are no half or intermediate conditions, whatever men's fleshly systems may teach. How solemn on the one hand the question!-Am I in union with Christ? How blessed the conclusion on the other" We know that the Son of God is come, [not only into the world, but into our hearts, by the divine power and operation of the Holy Ghost] and hath given us AN UNDERSTANDING, that we may know Him that is true; and we are IN HIM that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life." (1 John v. 20.) Looking at these most glorious truths in all their solemn import and value, well may we exclaim with the Apostle, " Wherefore we receiving a kingdom WHICH CANNOT BE MOVED, let us have [or margin, hold fast] grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire." (Heb. xii. 28.)

How truly blessed does the subject become, if in answering the question, How is Jehovah with his people? we take up our position by the side of the manger of Bethlehem, ever remembering to take into our estimate of the wonderful circumstances we behold, that all which is being unfolded there, is but the fulfilment of the eternal_covenant purpose and good will of Jehovah, purposed in Christ Jesus before the world began; because in that covenant Jesus the eternal Head ever had been looked upon as one with his body the Church. Thus standing within the family circle of this precious UNION, whatever transpires to fill us with wonder, will also elevate our hearts in adoration and praise, for at every opening of that most mysterious scene, with faith in exercise, we shall listen to the echo of the same divine declaration, Certainly I will be

with thee !"

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What is the name of that holy Babe? It contains in it the substance of all that is most blessed! The Lord engrave it upon thy troubled heart, my brother, with his own sweet translation of the same, and thou shalt find it to thee, even when the enemy cometh in like a flood, as the ointment poured forth! It is Immanuel, God WITH us!