ransomed spirits of the just have been gathered "out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation" around the throne of God, have the angels learned that new song" which none could raise, "but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which are redeemed from the earth" (Rev. xiv. 2). And still with out-stretched necks they "desire to look into these things as the very perfection of the divine wisdom. For "unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places" shall, throughout the countless ages of eternity, "be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God" (Eph. iii. 10).

son of this exceeding and absorbing rapture. And is it not such a joy as this that the Lord Jesus Christ feels in his bride the Church? Does He not say of her, by the mouth of Zephaniah-"The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest"-or, as the margin expresses it, "He will be silent"-" in his love (as though in an ecstasy too deep for words to express), He will JOY over thee with singing (Zeph. iii. 17). Oh, how beautifully does this joy beam forth when He says, "Lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy And once more, He hid it (3.) from will (see John vi. 38-40). O my God: men. The mystery of the Church-yea, thy law is within my heart" (Psal. that glorious "mystery which from the beginning of the world was hid in God" -how slowly was it revealed to the world! How small was the knowledge of it made known to the Old Testament saints. Enough of saving truth was revealed for their salvation; they were permitted to see the form of the coming Saviour looming through the mist of ages; but of the entire mystery of the spiritual kingdom of heaven" how little did they know ! Slowly, very slowly, did the Lord reveal his mighty purposes: first in a dark mysterious promise, then in more significant, but still veiled types, then in still clearer prophecy; until at last in the glory of an ascended Saviour, and through the power of an out-poured Spirit, it is in these last days openly revealed to the sons of men. Oh, to use the words of the poet,—

"How blessed are our eyes,

That see this heavenly light!
Prophets and king desired it long,
But died without the sight.

The Lord makes bare his arm
Through all the earth abroad;
Let every nation now behold

Their Saviour and their God !"

4. The next point which we notice in the parable is, the joy of the finder of the treasure at its discovery-"for joy thereof," or "for his joy." This expression strikingly denotes not only the delight and exultation of the "man' at the finding of the treasure, but also the extraordina value which he set upon it. It Freater than "the joy cha joy as men the spoil." It at it made him he possessed, in ect of it; in noany joy by rea

of

fee

xl. 7, 8). With what latent fire does it
burn in his exulting declaration, "I will
ransom them from the power of the
grave; I will redeem them from death:
Ŏ death, I will be thy plagues; O grave,
I will be thy destruction: repentance
shall be hid from mine eyes" (Hos. xiii.
14). And on the only occasion during
the whole of his weary earthly pilgrim-
age, on which we are told that
"Jesus
rejoiced in Spirit "-Was it not still the
same joy that animated his loving heart,
as He looked up to heaven, and said, "I
thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven
and earth, that thou hast hid these
things from the wise and prudent, and
hast revealed them unto babes: even so
Father; for so it seemed good in thy
sight" (Luke x. 21). Mark, it is over
his poor "babes "* that he rejoices-it
is in the Father's sovereign and immu-
table purposes of grace towards them,
that he found his one solitary source of
earthly joy-yea, finds it still even at
the right hand of God. This was the
joy that was set before Him," and for
which he "endured the cross, despising
the shame" (Heb. xii. 2). Aye, and it is
a joy in which he admits his believing
people to a participation, in measure
He shall meet each faithful disciple with
but more fully hereafter, when

even now,

*Reader, pardon us if we drop the thread of our subject for a moment, in order to ponder I over this touching epithet, "Babes!" How tender, almost apologetical, it sounds. They experience-babes in faith; but still His babes, were but babes;-babes in knowledge-babes in and dearer to Him than the sucking child to its mother. Oh, how blessed to be one of the babes of Christ!-How sweet to lay the weary head, meekly and confidingly as a little child, upon his faithful bosom :

O holy trust! O endless sense of rest!
Like the beloved John,

To lay the head upon a Saviour's breast,
And thus to journey on!

those glad words of unmerited commen- I have the means of turning it to account: dation and gracious welcome-"Well at least it is plainly enough intimated done, good and faithful servant: thou that the price was a great one—yea, as hast been faithful over a few things, I much as the buyer could possibly pay, will make thee ruler over many things: for it was all that he had."+ enter thou into the joy of thy Lord" (Matt. xxv. 21).

:

But without resting our vindication of the action-a vindication, be it understood, which we deem essential to the validity of our interpretation--upon such doubtful considerations as these; nay,

mess

5. " And for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field." We deem it convenient to consider the latter circumstance the pur-setting them aside altogether, may we chase of the ground containing the trea- not suppose such a concatenation of cirsure-before we speak of the price paid cumstances in the case, as shall not only for it because the conduct of the man exonerate the purchaser of the field from in the parable, in thus buying the field, any charge of immorality, but even enwhile, as is evident, he kept back from title him to the highest commendation? the owner the fact of its containing the We think we may. Let us suppose, treasure, has been considered dishonest; then, the case of an Israelite possessed and if it really was so, it is manifest that of a goodly heritage," but who, like we cannot without impropriety attribute the Prodigal son, has "wasted his subsuch an action (even in our application stance in riotous living;" or, like “proof the parable), to the Lord Jesus Christ. fane Esau," sold not only his inheritance Now we have no intention of entangling but himself for some miserable either ourselves or our readers in the of pottage -some worthless gratificadangerous subtleties of casuistry: but tion which, at any price, he would have. still we think-even viewing the matter Suppose, we say, this wretched man, the in an abstract point of view-that there victim of some hard-hearted usurer; his are three points that deserve consider- inheritance gone, and himself the miseration before any verdict is pronounced. able slave of his task-master; who, how(1.) The first is that the treasure in beit, is all the while ignorant of the real question was, as we have already said, value of his victim's "field,” inasmuch not one of money or any other actual pro- as (unknown to him), there is a "treaperty which must have belonged to some sure" hidden in it. And suppose furone, but a mine of unwrought metal, ther that, in accordance with the merci of which the possessor was entirely ig-ful provisions of the Jewish law-(see norant, and might probably have remained so; and which we may further suppose had in like ignorance been sold to him in other words, he sold the field upon the same terms that he had himself bought it. Again: (2.) According to the Jewish law, the treasure under the circumstances became the legal property of the purchaser of the field,*-the transaction therefore involved no national illegality; in other words, it was not a breach of the law of the land. (3.) And lastly to which consideration we are disposed to give the greatest weight-noble-hearted relative, and we rejoice at we have no evidence in the parable that the sum actually paid for the field was not really equal to the value of it, and the treasure also for the latter might, for unknown reasons, be peculiarly valuable to the finder; or he alone might

* We make this assertion on MR. ALFORD'S authority:-"In this parable," he says, " a man, labouring perchance for another, or by accident in passing, finds a treasure which has been hidden in a field; from joy at having found it, he goes, and selling all he has, buys the field, thus (by the Jewish law) becoming the possessor also of the treasure."-Greek Testament, in loco.

Lev. xxv. 23-55)—some kind-hearted
kinsman-the Goel of the wretched bank-
rupt-coming forward and paying back
to the relentless creditor all that was
due unto him: thus buying back his
poor kinsman and his inheritance, but at
the sacrifice of all that he himself posses-
sed. Oh! shall we speak of dishonesty
now? Shall we say that he ought not
only to have paid the full amount of the
debt, but as much as both the "field"
and the "treasure" were worth?
no; we have nothing but praise for the

Oh,

the restoration of the inheritance to its real owner, notwithstanding all his folly. And, beloved, though the parable does not enter into them, these are in truth THE ACTUAL CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CASE. Yes, for "these are ancient

+ The customs of the East, and the practice of the times, gave a creditor as absolute a right over the person of his debtor as over his property; nay, this power extended even over his family. Hence in the parable of the Unmerci ful Servant we are told, that "his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife and children," as well as "all that he had," in order that payment might be made to him.

things"-this is no new story-it is, as I story of Christ's redeeming grace and you have already discovered, nothing else | love! than the good old GOSPEL-the blessed

FRAGMENTS BY A DEPARTED BELIEVER.

(Continued from page 68.)

A GLEAM OF HOPE.

hope of drawing him out, and then, he bowed me out of the room.

Now, this was rather discouraging, but my motto was the song of the INFANT SCHOOL,

Try, try, try, again,

and the next trial was a little more hopeful. I went alone, and was still very coldly received, but commenced at once upon secular matters, and although from disease he expressed himself with difficulty, it was discernible that he was a man of considerable information-had seen much of life, and mixed in the first

DEAD! It is a solemn word he is dead, she is dead, how often we hear it! and when coming suddenly upon us of one we loved, how heavily it falls upon the heart! never to see the face so dear to us again, never to hear his voice! to pass his house, and know he has left it for ever; to look at the Church-yard, and say "there he lies!" Oh, this is what sin has brought upon us, and it is a very bitter draught for poor human nature to quaff, but again and again we must expect to taste it here, aye, until our own turn comes, and then farewell to it all. Now in sorrowing for the loss of a be-grades of society, a thoroughly dissipated liever, there is mixed up with our anguish, character. He was an unmarried Colonel hope, and peace, and trust, and expec- in the Army, and a stroke of Paralysis tation, so that the wail of sorrow is had laid him low, but he recovered alhushed by the voice of Jesus, who comes most entirely from its effects, when a as none but He can come, and speaks second laid him lower. Although his "As man never spake," telling us His nervous system had become fearfully lamb is housed for ever and for ever, shaken, his intellectual powers were unin that eternal home into which He will impaired, but there was evident physical bring all His people. But when the case depression, and inaptitude for expression. is doubtful; when our hearts faint with- One arm was quite dead, and he could in us from a vague uncertainty; when only walk by the help of another person. we know the silver cord and the golden| Naturally proud and vain, this affliction bowl are loosed and broken; when we was very humbling, and in an ascetic spicannot look up to heaven, and say in the rit he shut himself out from all his forconfidence of hope," he is there!" Oh, mer acquaintance, beginning to find that this is a bitter cup indeed, and great the world he had served so long, rendergrace is needed to enable the soul then ed him no service at last. He held the to bow to the sovereign will of Jehovah; opinion that professors were morose-moyet perhaps Cecil was right when he said, nastic; hypocritical-sinister and money'We shall meet many in heaven we ex-loving, nor was this to be wondered at, pected to miss, and miss many we ex- considering the godless set he had all pected to "meet." his life associated with. Several visits were paid before I ventured to take up the Bible, but at length proposed reading a Psalm, and without waiting a reply, went through a short one, expecting every moment to be told to leave the room. So it continued for several weeks; he got kinder and I bolder. The 51st Psalm was read, and I ventured to put before him man's total depravity and lost condition without a Saviour. "You are an enthusiast," he said, "but you mean well?" I told him it would be awful to discover our mistake in eternity. "If that is the case," He replied, "the great majority of the world will be lost." After proving to him from Scripture that the flock of Christ was a little flock, I left him. About this time, he received from his friend Col.- (the Plymouth brother who had written to me) a packet of tracts and books, one of which was "The True

About six or seven years since, a letter reached me from a Plymouth brother, quite a stranger, containing the request that I would visit an elderly gentleman in our neighbourhood, much afflicted, and shut out from all opportunities of instruction or intercourse with Christian people. Great caution was enjoined, as a strong opposition had been made to the admission of any strangers, being eccentric in his habits, and quite a stranger to Gospel truths. After struggling against a natural repugnance to intrusion upon such a character, in a strength not one's own I went, and on mentioning the name of the gentleman who had written, was admitted; received with discomposure and reserve; assured he was not in a state of health to see any one; listened impatiently to a few observations which were made in the

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