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The Day of Judgment.

No. III.

christian powers, as though Satan transformed, would or could assist us in the breach wherewith the Lord hath broken us! Thus matters have gone on till they have brought us to the eve of a fearful crisis-to an outbreak-to an open rupture betwixt truth and error, betwixt Christ and Belial: and sure I am that on the one hand our strength being gone from the public ministry, and on the other, by the encroachments of civil authority, the weakest must go to the wall, and to the wall of Babylon too, in whose temple our goodly pleasant things must for a short space be hidden !

We have now to inquire if the judgment has not commenced-if the evil has not already began? And if it has not, what means that cessation of power confessedly known and felt among churches? That famine of the word so keenly experienced by many, even where they have the pulpit filled with what they think and call a good - a first-rate man! And why that rottenness and disunion that make little bodies of Christians look more like a decayed post than a green Now, from the prevalence of this first olive tree? more like a dilapidated house step of judgment, we see the saints sinkthan a little temple of the Lord? And ing fearfully into the flesh, so that there why, too, that loathing of the heavenly is scarce a soul or place clean from the manna in its native purity, and a han- nausea of death! Experience is wrapped kering after something wonderful and in filthy mire; doctrine is corroded with marvellous; if in smiting with judgment dross; and prophecy, like windows of the Lord hath not made the church sick, agates, are hidden with curtains within, as he saith," I have wounded thee with and shutters without; and the mere the wound of an enemy; with the chas- humble attempt to withdraw the one— tisement of a cruel one, for the multitude (the ignorance of the mind,)—or remove of thine iniquity, and because thy sins the other, (the letter of the word) is were increased against me. And now, frustrated with the charge of presumpwhy criest thou for thy afflictions?-thy tion and conceit! And being sunk in sorrow is incurable-thou hast no healing the flesh, the saints say,' prophecy unto medicines." And can a heavier judgment happen to us than the suspension of divine power?-a greater evil, than to have the anointed-the breath of our nostrils taken from us? Surely not. Persecution is nothing to this, as that will keep the soul healthy, and the cheeks of Jacob like roses; but this makes his face to wax pale, his knees smite together, his loins to be unhinged, his belly to tremble, rottenness to enter into his bones so that he staggers in the street, and falls down like a drunken man.

us smooth things;' just such things as agree with our fleshly judgments, and lie straight with our traditional notions, so that the very man who, in some humble measure, has been qualified to take the lead, and return to the Lord, is counted an offender, and his name cast forth with contempt; so that he finds the case of Jeremiah and Ezekiel best to match with his own, and his only comfort to consist in turning from man, and appealing to his God. He sees that iniquity is the cause, and he would cry aloud against it; and that sweeping judgments are the effect, and he would set the trumpet to his mouth, and warn the people, but he is turned upon, and almost buried under heaps of obloquy, sarcasm, and reproach! and thus truth falls in the streets, and equity is so barred and bolted out, that it cannot enter!

And this judgment has began at us! the wine cup has been held to our mouth, and we have drank thereof; and we have eaten the roll of lamentation, mourning, and woe, so that our belly is bitter with the bitterness of death! And this fearful internal evil has been going on for some time, and we even yet wax worse and worse. We may have had Then, as the saints sink in the flesh, glimpses of our wound, and sights of our we find fleshly principles spring up like sickness, but in our ignorance and sot- gaudy flowers on a dung-hill, or as weeds tishness, we have turned to physicians in a garden, and these are called the that could not help for we have called fruits of righteousness! Judgment is to Egypt (the world) as though money but hemlock; and knowledge is but could cure the malady. And then, on wormwood! Watchfulness is but prejuthe other hand, we have sent to King dice; courage is but envy; zeal is but Jareb, and had conference with anti-maliciousness; charity is but self-love;

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man.

Then, again, as we see Zion sinking into the flesh, we see her children all in motion like a disturbed ant hill, like bees vindictive when their hive is shaken; or like citizens, when they have heard that their city is taken at one end, some flee to hide themselves in the secret chambers, some to the house tops, and some one way, and some another. One cries, Lo, here! another, Lo, there!-flee, flee, haste, save your lives! Thus all is confusion and ferment! so that with the prophet we may cry, "What aileth thee now that thou art gone up to the house tops? thou that art full of stirs-a tumultuous city-a joyous city: thy slain men are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle!' they die not by persecution, either in prison, or at the stake." (Read Isaiah 21 and 22, and think of Zion in our day.)

humility is but legality; and valour for | perverted first principles of the oracles of the truth is but cowardice! and the great- God. Else how can we account for those est men are but the greatest babies, ever many little papacies which we see around in fear of being kidnapped by a fellow us, and that universal confusion, of which Wisdom is arrant folly; and faith Satan is the author, spreading out its is unbelief; and thus flesh rules instead ground, and laying its basis even in the of spirit: and the old man preaches, circles of living saints: and be sure that writes books, and guides the people, in- in this situation he holds doctrine and stead of the new. And surely our turn- promise under control! Don't start, ing of things thus upside down, shall be reader, but look well to thyself, and see esteemed as the potter's clay; and the if the cockatrice egg is not laid in thy Lord shall wipe Jerusalem as a man bosom; or, what is worse, hatched out wipeth a dish; wiping and turning it into a fiery flying viper, beauteous, and upside down, so that after the judgment fawning, and equally treacherous, as the crooked shall be made straight, and that which beguiled Eve! Art thou a the filthy be made clean. (See Isaiah believer? then all the powers of thy mind, xxix. 16; 2 Kings xxi. 13.) the passions of thy soul, and the faculties of thy mind, are consecrated ground, which, by bewitchment becomes enchanted, and forms the very pavement of Lucifer's pavilion! Look at certain good men-manifestly good men; what contraction of mind, what narrowness of judgment, what bitterness of spirit, what grovelling of hope, what declamation of speech, what hiding from their own flesh and bones, what hankering for mammon, what assimmilation to the world, what jealousy of their own popularity, what coldness of charity, what laxity of life, and what enmity to unity, do you behold! And whence comes it? from heaven, from men, or from devils? If the latter be the agents, then that which happened in type to Israel of old, is happening to us; the Chaldean robbers have spread themselves over our land, and are taking up the angle and net to catch men, and we ourselves are as the fishes of the sea before them; and like trees and herbs are we infected, and preyed upon by these flies, bees, palmerworms, and locusts, till we are become barren and unfruitful in the knowleage of our Lord Jesus Christ! And these are that great-that hasty-that bitter nation that cometh up from the bottomless pit, with the destroyer at their head, which God will bring over his land to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs, and to gather unto them all nations, and heap unto them all peoples, so that the whole world shall wonder after the beast. And concerning this judgment it is we have this astounding exclamation, "O ye despisers, and wonder, and perish; for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though a man declare it unto you; for lo! I will raise up the Chaldeans, (literally, robbers or devils),

Here then is the first step of evil on the part of Jehovah, a withdrawing of the power of his Spirit, which leaves us to the vacancy and emptiness of flesh and blood, so that Zion becomes like a cottage in a vineyard, a lodge in a garden of cucumbers: yea, like a besieged city. Her husband has gone from her, and given up the dearly beloved of his soul into the hand of her enemy; and as her house is left desolate by the departure of power, the vacancy has been coveted and seized by another, who saith, 'I am thy husband,' and through his cunning craftiness, he has entered the temple of God! - The bodies of the saints, equally purchased with the soul, are the temple of God, and here enshrined in misguided | natural affection and judgment, we discover the false covering cherub in Eden, the paradise of God, and see him there empaled both by the natural and the

and these constitute the Lord's great and wondrous army, as made known by the prophet Joel, which shall usher in the great and terrible day of the Lord.

A WHOLESOME LETTER

To a Brother in deep Affliction,

By a Minister of Christ's Gospel. Seeing then that we equally come in My Dear Brother in Zion's tribulated path, contact with these, and are subject to and companion in the varied discipline of their power, as Daniel and his fellows God's chosen family, elected, loved, and were, when by the Chaldeans they were precious to Jehovah, Father, Son, and Holy carried to Babylon; we pause and ask, Ghost, bound up in the bundle of life, in and Is there no way of escape? Yes; and that with thy loving and loved Lord and Saviour, is spiritual knowledge, as discovered by Jesus Christ; predestined to all the blessings the light of God's truth, relative to the of salvation; appointed to endure-not the signs of the times. But if we do not soul-destroying judgments of absolute soveknow ourselves, then these religious cious, fatherly chastisements of Zion's choreignty with all the non-elect-but the gradevils cling to us like burs, by reason of sen sons, whereof all are partakers, more or our ignorance, and our darkness, which less, one way or the other, and all for their is their element; for the true light profit and the Lord's honour and glory. of revelation they can no more endure, This is the preordained track of all that are than bats or owls can endure the light of gone before; hence, then, it will be our day. And I know that I myself am not, mercy, and our honour indeed, to be followers and by no means can be, free from their of those who through faith and patience are withering paralising touch, only as the inheriting the promises; and to endure clear light of God's truth shines upon the chastening under the most gracious annointeyes of my understanding: but this truthings of the Lord the Holy Ghost;-being is my little sanctuary to shelter me, should I flee before them, and come even to Babylon, so that they cannot hurt me -cannot devour me, should I go into a furnace lighted up by them, and heated one seven times hotter than it was wont to be heated.

Thus the judgment has set in; the Spirit of God is deserting us in public ministrations; the flesh no longer under restraint, with all its pernicious fruits, is growing rampant in carnal reasoning: and this flesh-the flesh of the believer, is seized on by the 'spirits of devils,' and the whole course of nature is set in flames with anti-christian fire, so that the fruits of righteousness are consumed; the fields yield no meat, and joy; heavenly joy is withered away from the sons of men, so that the great bulk of the Lord's people are the most miserable and unhappy of Adam's race! And as a mystical fire, burns before this infernal army, and after them a flame, so, though the land be as Eden, it becomes a desolate wilderness. (See Isaiah lxiv. 9-12.) I am one of Zion's sons, and the reader's willing

servant.

Brenchley.

W. C. P.

There were five monks that were studying what was the best means to mortify sin: one said, meditate on death; the second, meditate on judgment; the third, meditate of the joys of heaven; the fourth, meditate on the torments of hell; the fifth, meditate on the blood and sufferings of Jesus Christ; certainly, the last is the choicest and strongest motive of all to the mortifying of sin.

the divine footstool, with-'It is the Lord, brought in.reverence and humility of soul to let HIM DO whatsoever seemeth HIM good,even so Father, for so it seemeth good in thy sight, the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be his name.' That this way is rough indeed, I need scarcely tell my dear friend, but most surely it is right, ' For he led them forth by a right way to a city of habitation,'-blessed leader-blessed object, and blessed end,-but still the promise is, be with thee,' which truth was most sacredly 'When thou passest through the fire, I will fulfilled in the experience of the three Hebrews, for I see four, and the form of the fourth is like unto the Son of God;' and so I see from your letter it has been the same with you, for most truly must the loss of a dear, tender, and beloved wife, leaving an infant family, together with contracted means, embarrassed circumstances, the claims of dissatisfied creditors, together with the fangs of the law taking everything within its grasp, surely this must be a seven-fold heated furnace; and yet my brother has had the dear indeed-he that cried out Foxes have holes fourth with him-a most blessed companion and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.' He can do what I and many more of the dear family cannot-go feelingly into the furnace with you,-for, with all my trials, I brought into a state of real pecuniary insolhave never yet lost a dear partner, and been vency, which from your letter appears to be your present situation, as you say you have surrendered all for the benefit of your creditors; and if there were no probable means of satisfying all their demands, I should say it is the best step you could have taken, for,

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be assured, in my estimation, an honourable | Had he not placed me under grace, I must insolvent that gives up his all to the claims have been for ever undone. I was born a of the law, is much more to be respected than captive sold under sin, and should have died a monied rogue that has the means to pay, in my chains, if the Prince of Life had not and yet by all sorts of trickery and shifting, taken pity on me, and found a ransom for me; evades the just and lawful demands of his at the price of his own life he ransomed me, creditors. To be poor, my dear brother, is and I feel that all I am, and can do, and no harm, but to be roguish is a disgrace to suffer, are justly his right. I can never be morality and truth; therefore, try and cheer my own, being thus bought with an immense up, my dear friend, the Lord sitteth upon price. My happiest moments have been the clouds, and reigneth king for ever. The engaged in his service, when he has deigned beasts of the forest are his, and the cattle on to accompany me in my employment. I am a thousand hills; the gold and silver is his glad to belong to him, and to know that he alone, and he can, and I doubt not, will in his does not turn away his old servants when own time open up something that will prove a their weakness is increased. means of furnishing you with enough of the bread that perisheth to satisfy your absolute wants, though perhaps in such a way as you may little think; should the brook dry up, and the ravens cease to bring their necessary supplies, the prophet shall not starve, but be directed to a poor widow with nothing in her house but a little oil and a bit of meal, just enough for her and her son, and both to die;. but no, the hand of the Lord was in it, and the meal did not waste, or the oil fail, till the Lord sent rain on the earth;' and be assured, my Brother, there is the same God now to supply thy real wants, and he will, for my God shall supply all your needs.' R.

COPY OF A LETTER WRITTEN BY

The late Mr. John Stevens, When at Gravesend, dated July 15, 1847.

MY CHRISTIAN BROTHER,-Grace and peace be with you and yours, and with all the brethren in Christ Jesus. I trust I may say that my inward strength is still improving, though walking is hard work to me, and never was very easy. I thank all my friends at Salem for the friendly interest taken by them in my welfare, and especially for their fervent prayers on my behalf. In my apartment, and when rambling in the fields I bear them in remembrance. The good Lord be with you on the coming day of our Lord Jesus; may the Holy Spirit rest upon the good men who may officiate among you, and render Salem the seat of peace and joy in the Redeemer's name, and through the eternal Spirit of our God.

Please to assure all my dear friends of my remembrance of them in my affections and prayers. My desires are for their best interests, and my hope is that I may be strengthened a few days to assist them in their duties and enjoyments. To yourself and all my esteemed brethren in office I would affectionately present my sincere thanks for the interest and labour taken by you all in the peace and welfare of my beloved flock in the day of infirmity. Your grateful pastor,

JOHN STEVENS.

'I have waited for thy salvation O Lord!' The Death of John Strachan,

OF CHELSEA.

are

READER -How thin is the partition between this world and another! How short the transition from time to eternity! nothing but the breath in our nostrils; the transition may be made in the twinkling of an eye. In the December number I observed recorded the death of Mr. Walter Strachan. I write a few lines respecting the death of his father, Mr. John Strachan, who left this vain world to join the assembly of the first-born, whose names written in heaven, December 23rd, 1847: aged 68. About eight years since, the good Lord was pleased to turn his feet Zionward; he was baptized and joined the church at Beulah chapel, Chelsea, Feb. 28, 1841. Since that time he has been constant to the means of grace; a warm friend to the cause; much beloved by his brethren and sisters in the Lord; a steady walker, not much elated with joy, but was led by I hope to return next Thursday, and may degrees to find Jesus precious, and to fix the mercy of God attend my future labours his soul's salvation entirely on him who among you: he can work by feeble means I never casts away his people. In his last know, and this is some encouragement to his illness he was very composed; never heard feeble servant, less than the least of all saints to murmur or complain; his mind was is my experience; the greatest of all blessings fixed on this motto, The Lord does all things is my hope. My mercies seem too large for well. When the writer saw him in the me, but I know they are not too large for last stage of his affliction, he had no doubts or fears, and when I said 'darkness may my Lord to give. O how great is his good-return; he warmly answered me, My Lord ness! but how poor and frail are all my serwill never leave or forsake me.' He lived by vices for him and his cause among men! faith on the Son of God; when asked, if he

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knew what Job said; he answered, 'yes.' tain as the throne of God. And in the

He said, ' I know that my Redeemer liveth.'
And so I can say it without a doubt. And
therefore I have not the least fear. The
same blessed testimony he invariably made
to his family and friends. His christian life
was short compared with many; for brevi-
ty's sake, I omit the former part of his ex-
perience, although, like others, he was then
subject to changes, from hope to fear, and
from fear to hope. He was interred in
Brompton cemetery, January 2, 1848, in
the same grave in which his son and wife
were laid the latter, about twelve months
ago, and the son last November; there they
rest in hope until the resurrection morn,
when all the dead in Christ shall rise to
life and joys divine;

Yes, he is gone, and gone to be
For ever with the eternal three,
His mansion is above;
Chosen, redeemed, and sanctified,
He dwells with Jesus glorified,

Absorb'd in covenant love.

Mr. Wallis, who is supplying at Beulah Chapel, spoke over his grave, and preached the funeral sermon from his last wordsI know that my Redeemer liveth.'

evening he preached from "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose," and he entered very sweetly into the mysterious workings of providence in the history of the ancient saints; particularly with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of Joseph's dreams, of his being sold, and sent down into Egypt; there falsely accused, and put into prison; there being delivered, and raised to that eminent station of being lord over all the land of Egypt; then his brethren coming before him, and Simeon being taken; while poor old Jacob is crying out all these things are against me, but at length he was enabled to say "Tis enough, Joseph my son is yet alive, I will go down and see him before I die;" and many other circumstances he spoke of in a christian's experience, which was made a blessing to many souls, and I for one could say it was a feast of fat things to my soul; and after the sermon about 150 sat down to the table, and Mr. Milner broke bread, and in his prayer and address, he pathetically spoke of the mercy, and the consoling, and supporting presence of God, which he had experienced during his illness, and he spoke of the difference between the painful and ignominious dying of Christ while DEAR SIR:-As you have noticed in your suspended on the cross, and of the Christian last number the dangerous illness of our lying on a sick bed; for a Christian had esteemed pastor, Mr. S. Milner, of Reho- many little comforts, while Christ, when both Chapel, Ratcliffe Highway, I will parching with thirst, was denied a drop of now state that in the beginning of Decem-water, and to aggravate his painful sufferber, he was brought down so low, that death appeared inevitable; and when this sad news reached the church, the deacons proposed a special prayer meeting to call upon the Lord on his behalf; and on Sunday afternoon, Dec. 5th, the church met, and a solemn meeting it was-for I believe it was a prayer meeting; for each one felt the solemnity and importance of the expected death of a faithful and a beloved minister. But, the Lord in his tender mercy heard our united supplication, and granted our petition; for on the following week, he blessed the medical means resorted to, and thus he rebuked the disease, and said, live; and declare the goodness of God. Hope now sprung up in every breast

J. W.

Restoration of Mr. Samuel Milner.

when the doctor said there was hope of his

recovery.

Mr. Foreman, Mr. Wyard, Mr. Hewlet, Mr. Bonner, Mr. Killen, and others kindly supplied the pulpit during his illness, and on Jan. 2nd, Mr. Killen preached the new year sermons; his text in the morning was Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever," and in this sermon he spoke of the eternal security of every one of God's elect, and that they were saved with an everlasting salvation, and that Christ as their surety was responsible for every one of them, being called and regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and of their final appearing with him in glory; and that their salvation is as sure, and as cer

ings, they gave him vinegar mixed with gall; and in all his anguish he had no friendly hand to wipe the sweat from his agonizing and distorted brow; while a Christians had friends to assist and sympathize with them in all their sufferings and pain; and, more especially the all supporting hand of God being with them, and giving strength equal to their day, by speaking comfort and consolation, and placing beneath them his everlasting arms, and giving them resignation to his unerring will, and to rest in his embrace, saying "Let the Lord do what seemeth him good, I will trust and not be afraid." Thus we truly had a very solemn, but a very blessed time at Rehoboth Chapel on January 2nd, 1848.

And now may the Lord's blessing attend this humble attempt to exalt his name, is the prayer of one who feels himself daily to be the least of all saints, and the chief of sinners.

Limehouse, London..

NINTH

THOMAS HALL.

Anniversary of Surrey Tabernacle.

MUCH of a condemnatory character has been said against Anniversaries; and we must confess that very frequently an unholy use is made of these occasions by many. Nevertheless, we can see no reason why

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