made up on the ground of the divine will, I can part with externals, and rejoice in knowing that my unsearchable riches, my new covenant gold, silver, precious stones, and garments of salvation, I shall carry with me for my comfort during the days of my exile. But these other precious things shall be in the hands of Lucifer for a little space, after which they shall be brought back, and the temple builded with far more glory and grandeur than in the apostolic day.

Our own exile. This will arise not from ignorance, but rather from our knowledge and superior judgment, which teaching us to submit to the dispensations of providence, and to leave body, soul, and spirit, in the Lord's hands, we shall find ourselves surely and safely guided into that state and line of things for which, as for an asylum, we shall bless our kind indulgent Father, because here in the sweet exercise of faith he gives us to hold communion with himself, feed on the pulse of truth, and water of salvation, with our countenance fat and fair, till the set time to favour Zion shall come. Nor can say how far, as Joseph was exalted in Egypt, Daniel and his fellows in Babylon, Mordecai in Persia, shall certain of the saints rise in pure political glory, at the very moment that they maintain loyalty to Jesus, and nonconnection with any visible form of church worship! This I cannot say, but with the eyes of my understanding, I can see a channel opening up in the midst of captivity by and through which God can visit and exalt his people, and make them both happy and glorious, as Daniel was glorious before Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and Darius.

Thus, to me it is most plain, that he who fears God has nothing else to fear; for to him the judgment day shall be a glory day-a happy day-a day in which he can rejoice, because he sees his redemption, and the redemption of the purchased possession drawing nigh! By the opening buds of the fig-tree he can see that a glorious summer and the year of Jubilee is nigh! He can see that Cyrus is about to mount his white horse, and as King of kings and Lord of lords, with his sharp two-edged sword, to come forth in all his Father's glory, and hurl Babylon to the ground! He can see that the time is near when all Rachel's sons shall come forth from the land of the enemy Death, and return to their own border Life, -life immortal, with their elder brother, whose exit from the grave was the sure earnest of theirs! He can see the day is near when Jezebel, Hagar, Babylon, and the beasts, and the dragon, shall lose all their power to oppress; and the great yoke of saint-oppression shall be destroyed, because of the anointing. But of the many sweet views he has of the glories of the future, my pen must forbear to relate, and close this paper by saying, that we have thus tried to speak of the day of judgment only as it concerns us, the house of God; that on the professional world, if surveyed,

would be found to be far more fearful and awful; and then that on the kingdom of the beast far more grand and wonderful. But for the present, adieu.

I am, with the testimony and patience of Jesus, a Servant in the Watch Tower, Brenchley, Nov. 1847. W. C. P.

The Last Judgment.

HEARD ye not that dreadful thunder?
'Twas the trumpet's awful sound:
Lo! it bursts the rocks asunder,
Rends the heavens-shakes the ground!
At the call, the dead awaking;

Burst the fetters of the tomb;
And their lowly bed forsaking,

Come to hear their final doom.
On a throne of glittering brightness,
Sits the Judge of quick and dead;
Clad in robes of matchless whiteness,
Radiant glories round his head.
All the angelic hosts adore him,
Now he bids the world draw near,
Countless myriads stand before him,

And the solemn sentence hear.
First, the righteous are addressed,

Who on earth his name confess'd;
"Come! (the Saviour cries) ye blessed,

"Enter your appointed rest!"
Then the Judge, in terms reversed,
B'd the guilty crowd retire-
"From my face, depart ye cursed
"Into everlasting fire."

From his presence these are driven,

Fill'd with anguish and dismay;
But the righteous enter heaven,

There to reign through endless day. J.J.

Waiting near the Gospel Pool.

CLOSE by Bethesda's pool there lay
A man both lame and poor,
Who long'd in it to wash away
His malady so sore.

But, ah! poor soul no power had he
To move, though well asur'd,
If in it once he could but get.
His sickness would be cur'd.
There eight-and-thirty years he laid,
And no man did he find
To give him any help or aid,

With actions that were kind.
Till Jesus came along that way,

And saw his piteous state,
And knew how long he there had laid,
But could no further get.

Ask'd him, if he would be made whole?
With pity in his heart,

The poor man said-none near the pool
Is there to take my part.
But little did he think so nigh

Cure was unto him then;
The Lord who look'd with pitying eye
Heal'd without help of men.
And will he not one day pass by

The place where I am laid,
And say, my daughter now arise,
Here long enough you've laid?
Yes! yes! I trust, tho' now opprest
By leprosy's disease,

That Christ one day will give me rest
From sins which sorely tease.
Though like him at Bethesda's pool,
I long may have to stay;
Yet in his own good time I trust,
Jesus will pass this way.

ELIZA.

A Letter to Mr. W. Bidder, Minister of the Gospel, Bethesda Baptist Chapel, Jamaica Row, Bermondsey.

MY DEAR SIR-I received your's, and am glad to hear that the God of Israel has placed you where you are; and I wish you prosperity in the church, in your family, in body and in soul. Your affliction seems to be of a peculiar kind; is it not for the trial of your faith? which is much more precious than gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, that it may be found unto the praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christand at the present tine, stand more firm in the power of God, and shine forth gloriously in the ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ? It is evident that the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and the storm, when he rideth upon the wings of the wind, and maketh thick darkness his pavilion, and rideth upon the chariots of salvation. He was ready to save me, therefore will I sing my song upon my stringed instrument: the Lord God cause you to touch every string of the gospel with the finger of faith, and let your heart sound forth his praise within, as it is written, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs; singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord.' O, how sweet it is to sing the song of salvation in this strange land, and to see the goodness of God to pass before us; then we glory in tribulation also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, &c. and what a mercy to feel him precious, while we are exposed to the policy of devils, the craft of men, the intrigues of the world, with a heart desperately wicked, and a fallen nature full of sin; these things at times cause me to sigh and groan, and weep, and wish for death; but death flies from me, and I have asked the Lord to let loose his hand upon me-but that hand upholds me, and will not let me go; and I believe he never will, though I am nothing but a lump of rotten earth - but he can wash me and make me whiter than snow, and present me to himself without spot and

blameless.

You ask me, how I am getting on amidst floods and flames, foes and friends. Let the Lord himself answer-for it appears too great a task for me; it is so high, I cannot attain unto it; so deep I cannot fathom it. I know I have a faithful God, who like the sun is not affected by changing seasons, but ' is the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.' At times my faith is firm upon this rock, and 'rejoicing in hope of the glory of God;' feels a union to Christ, and joy in the Holy Ghost-then my feet stand on an even place. Salvation by grace; for of him, and to him, and through him,are all things, to whom be glory for ever. Amen.'

I have

Now, respecting deep waters. passed through many within and without, where I have been overwhelmed with sorrow; sometimes it has abated zeal, chilled my affections, almost stopt the breath of hope, and weakened the vigour of faith, and I should have stumbled until swallowed up in despair, had not the God of Israel delivered me: his own arm brought salvation to me; out of the depths have I cried unto the Lord, and he hath heard me, and delivered me from all my troubles; he drew me out of many waters. Oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and his wonderful works! What a mercy we can never drop out of God's arms into hell: but there is a succession of troubles for the righteous, yet shall he hold on his way; and he that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger.' I find there is no drowning faith, nor is it to be consumed in the fires; and I have been tried by the fiery law, and by fiery devils, and by their fiery darts, and with fiery persecutions of fiery men with fiery passions and fiery tongues, that sitteth on fire the whole course of nature, and are set on fire of hell. But our God is faithful and changeth not, therefore the sons of Jacob are not consumed.' But by these things men live, and in all these is the life of my spirit. We are going on comfortably at J-, there has been some wood, hay, and stubble burnt up, and some chaff blown away, and fallow ground ploughed up, and incorruptible seed sownso the work goes on.

No doubt you wonder I had not wrote before, but a sense of my inability, deep sorrow, suggestions of the enemy, and bodily afflictions, have prevented. I hope you will pay us a visit soon. I have some thoughts of coming to see you in the summer. people send their kindest love. Forget not the smoking flax. Yeovil.

The Lilly among Thorns.

C

G. K.

MY DEAR SISTER IN THE LORD'S ANOINTED

Your letter of kindness I received; its valuable contents can never be sufficiently appreciated, as face answers to face in a glass,' so do the soul troubles of one child of God with another; and Solomon says, 'counsel in the heart of man is like deep waters; but a man of understanding will draw it out.' (Prov.xx. 5.) And somehow or other you have drawn from me more than I tell to one in a thousand; because I find so few professors in a real acquaintance with their own heart, although they chatter a great deal more about it; besides you can see as well as me how they lie in wait to deceive, and they eat up the sin of God's people, as a sweet morsel; what a mercy it would be if they could repent of

N

their own, and watch against their false tongues; it would not have answered their purpose to refer to the Scriptures, nor to try to restore; the fear and praise of man guided into calumny and confusion; and I cannot help thinking that a people's folly is often the cause of a pastor's fall, to teach both the folly of living or looking short of a daily dependance on the Lord himself; for you know the great Master says, 'what I say unto you, I say unto all, WATCH!'

Now for something else,-I tried to say a little last Sunday from Solomon's Song ii. 1, 2. I believe the Lord was present; perhaps you will allow me to tell you how I carried it, and may your soul and mine be refreshed by it. I did not consider the rose figurative of the Godhead of our Jesus. I cannot see it right to compare that to a rose or anything else: unto what will ye liken me' saith Jehovah : but I consider it figura tive of his mediatorial fulness, and the lily of his pure and holy nature; for, dear sister, had he not been holy, you and I could never be happy-but

White is his soul, from blemish free,
Red with the blood he shed for we;
The fairest of ten thousand fairs,
A sun among ten thousand stars.

I tried to look at the root, stem, branch, bud, and full flower. (Read Isaiah xi. 1, 2. -Rev. xxii. 2. -Zech. iii. 8.-Hag. ii. 19.) Yes! he is David's root, Jesse's stem; and this blessed branch did spring in the fulness of time; and who could have thought that beautiful little bud in which was folded up all the wonders of the eternal Three-OneGod to guilty man, should shoot out and come forth in a manger? I never heard of any poor woman being confined, besides Mary, in a stable; I never heard of a beggar's cradle made of a manger: I never heard of greater mercy, unparalleled love to the vilest out of hell, that the insulted God of heaven should ever dwell in my manger heart, surrounded with all the unclean horned filthy beasts of my fallen nature. Change the figure. Here is the lily among thorns; but he is Sharon's rose Sharon was the place where David's flock both fed and rested: you and I can only feed and rest in this field which the Lord hath blessed; how this grew in Jordan, in Gethsemane! oh, how it opened in its bloody-red colour on Calvary! how it sprung up from under the stone of death, and ascended in all its richest foliage from Mount Olivet to glory! there is the blessed rose for ever interceding for us.

Now the beauty and property of this rose is singular-1st, you can never see a greater beauty-2nd, its smell is wonderful, it is a sweet savour to God, it is the odour of the church. Faith revives wonderfully in the garden, for where one grows the other thrives -3rd, when it is distilled, the rose water is a

As myrrh new bleeding from the tree,
Such is a dying Christ to me,

And while he makes my soul his guest, Thy bosom, Lord, shall be my rest. Now for the lily of the vallies-1st, this is our Jesus himself, a lily in the valley of this world, I mean 'formed in the heart the hope of glory'—2nd, its scent is overpowering, what overcomes us like the love of Jesus?-3rd, how white the lily, how white the soul washed in his blood-4th, the lily is very fruitful, produces many bulbs :-from him is our fruit found: may the fruits of the Spirit be ours to enjoy ;—5th, the lily is tall, yet bows its head; our Jesus bowed his, saying, "it is finished;" O that I may grow upwards in him, and bow lowest to him,6th, lily water restores a lost voice; restore unto me the joys of thy salvation, cried David, so do I-7th, it is good in faintings-I had fainted except I had believed-8th, lily oil is medicinal-He only can give health and cure.-Now He says, "As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters"— the daughters I believe to be his people, and are we not in the wilderness, among thorns, which is sharpest? Oh, the thorn in the satan, sin, world, professors, and profane, and flesh-briars, brambles, and stinging nettles are bad enough, but the thorn in the flesh pricks, shoots, throbs, and festers, and there is no getting rid of it till death; yet the lily grows among them, and by the grace of our God the thorns cannot prevent growing, but are made even to protect them; "Let my outcasts dwell with thee, Moab." Oh what a mercy, though among thorns yet a lily, for Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these; then let us sing,

"Since Jesus has sav'd me, and that freely too,
I feign would in all things my gratitude shew;
But as to man's merit, 'tis hateful to me,
The gospel, I love it, 'tis perfectly free."

Yours among thorns, T. PooCK.