in general we see but little difference as to the state of things which have marked-of late years especially-the sad and rapid decline of the multitude from the letter of truth and the most essential and plainly-declared parts of the Christian religion found in the Bible. The growth of so-called free-thoughtwhich means, taking as much of the Bible as is relishable to the carnal mind, and rejecting all beside-has produced a state of things which promises to result in Rationalism, and that at no distant period, unless the Spirit of the Lord lift up a standard against the foe. We have just lately been appalled by reading some things boldly avowed by some of these religious freethinkers and semi-infidels, who sneer at the mention of the inspiration of the Bible, explain away original sin and the atonement of Christ, and, in their teaching, substitute for the eternal punishment of the wicked a kind of purgatory, by which means they suppose the ungodly will be fitted for a paradise of happiness. Oh, how we tremble for the rising race when we see such anti-scriptural and soul-destroying errors taught by professed ministers of the Christian religion, spread abroad by people who seem to grudge neither time nor money, but, by means of the post or by house to house distribution, assiduously disseminate the deadly poison of materialism under the garb of a profession misnamed the Gospel of truth and peace! This kind of teaching, being so congenial to the carnal passions of human nature, is well suited to ensnare the minds of the young, and lead them astray from the good old paths of sound doctrine and Scriptural salvation, revealed and witnessed to by the Holy Ghost. Surely, when professors of the religion of Christ adopt and teach the anti-Gospel tenets of scientific materialists, it clearly proves that they at least love the darkness of agnosticism rather than the true and certain light of the truth of God.

Dear friends, again we earnestly entreat you to give these matters your most serious attention, and, for the sake of the young, the souls of your fellow-men, and the honour of God, whom you profess to love, do all in your power to spread that truth which, with the Lord's blessing, is calculated to counteract the deadly influences of those productions which are sent forth by the various enemies of the cross of Christ. With them there is much worldly wisdom and great literary influence we know, but we have a power which they care not to know, promised us by our Lord and Master as an abiding strength, which is more than all they can bring against either His truth or us, even the Holy Spirit, who is able to frustrate the tokens of the liars, and to drive the diviners mad, and whose gracious influences attending the Word of truth we teach and our feeble efforts to spread it abroad, will produce an effect which no human agency can of itself accomplish, as was

seen on the day of Pentecost, and in many other instances during the early days of the New Testament Church; and, since we believe that "the Lord's hand is not shortened," may we have grace to earnestly and importunately pray that His presence and might may be afresh revealed in Zion, in the quickening of dead sinners and the reviving of lukewarm saints.

And now, dear friends, lest we should be thought tedious, we will close by saying that we once again solicit an interest in your prayers upon, and hope for your kind help in, our labours, trusting that you will do all in your power to promote the spread of both SOWER and GLEANER, both of which we shall endeavour to make specially adapted for opposing the twin evils, Popery and Materialism, by exposing their vile deceits, and publishing that Gospel which "is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth."

Reader, are you a stranger to Christ? Remember that all apart from Him is death; and, if you are not a violent opposer of His truth, still, without faith in Him, you are under the curse, for He says, "If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins." To all who love and fear Him we say, "Grace be with you,” to make this New Year a happy one to you in soul matters and in life's course. Yours to serve,

THE EDITOR.

THE hope of a believer does not hang upon such an untwisted thread as "I imagine so," or "It is likely;" but the cable, the strong rope of our fastened anchor, is the oath and promise of Him who is eternal verity. Our salvation is fastened with God's own hand and Christ's own strength to the strong stake of God's unchangeable nature.-Rutherford.

TAKE a straight stick, and put it into the water, then it will seem crooked. Why? Because we look at it through two mediums-air and water. There lies the deception; thence it is that we cannot discern aright. Thus the proceedings of God in His justice, which in themselves are straight, without the least obliquity, seem unto us crooked. That wicked men should prosper, and good men be afflicted-that the Israelites should make the bricks, and the Egyptians dwell in the houses-that servants should ride on horseback, and princes go on footthese are things that make the Christians stagger in their judgment. And why, but because they look upon God's proceedings through a double medium of flesh and spirit? that so all things seem to go cross, though, indeed, they go right enough.

66

LIFE A JOURNEY.

A SERMON BY THE LATE AUGUSTUS TOPLADY, M.A.

(SLIGHTLY ABRIDGED).

They went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came."-GENESIS xii. 5.

GOD, having decreed to put Abram's posterity into possession of the country, since called Palestine, commanded that patriarch to leave Chaldea, his native land, and to set out, with his family, for the place whither Providence should lead him. Abram, who had obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful, was not disobedient to the heavenly vision; but, as the inspired penman informs us, he "took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all the substance that they had gathered, and the souls [or persons] which they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came." The same unchangeable God who had promised to bring them into that land, actually brought them into the land He had promised; and they not only set out for Canaan, but arrived safely there, according to the purpose and promise of Him who had bid them go.

Now, since Abram is distinguished in Scripture as "Father of the Faithful," or as one whose steadfast, unsuspecting confidence in the promises was singularly eminent, and whose faith, for that reason, stands on record as a pattern to the people of Christ in all succeeding generations; since he was likewise a type of the Church collective, which consists of, and takes in, all true believers, from the beginning to the end of time; and as the land of Canaan, to which Abram travelled, is represented in Scripture as a figure of heaven, that better country to which all God's elect people are bound, and to which they shall all be led ; for these reasons we shall, I apprehend, put no force on the words of that text which stands as a motto to this essay, nor strain them beyond their due meaning, if (beside their literal signification as a history) we consider them in a spiritual light, as importing the safety of those who, in consequence of being called forth from a state of nature by converting grace, are enabled to set their faces Zionward, and enter on a journey to the kingdom of God. The chief business, therefore, of the present attempt shall be to show that, to every real Christian, the present life is only a journey to a better; and that all they who do in earnest set out for the heavenly Canaan, the Jerusalem which is above, shall certainly get safe to their journey's end, and not one of them perish by the way.

When a merchant sends out his fleet on a trading voyage, he is not sure of the event. His ships may arrive at the desired haven, and return with the wished increase, or they may founder on their passage, and both cargoes and crews be lost. Or, when a person takes a far journey, he has no assurance of safety. He cannot pre-discern what is before him; nor whether he shall come back to his house in peace, or no. Such is the uncertainty of earthly transactions with regard to our fore-knowledge of them. We cannot tell what a day, what a moment, may bring forth. The issue of things lies hid in the womb of futurity, till Providence and time make manifest the determinations of God, by bringing those determinations to pass.

Not so clouded are the better things which relate to a better life. The feeblest seeker of salvation by the blood of the Lamb, and the meanest hungerer after the kingdom and righteousness of Jesus, may be assured beforehand that the kingdom shall be his. The inseparable blessings of grace and glory are styled "the sure mercies of David" (Acts xiii. 34), the sacred, i.e., the inviolably certain, and the faithful things of David, i.e., of Christ; or more conformably to the original passage in Isaiah," the sure benefits of David," meaning, the infallible certainty of those benefits, such as pardon, justification, sanctification, final perseverance, and eternal happiness, which are secured to the Church by virtue of that unalterable covenant subsisting between the Father, the Spirit, and Christ, the Antitype of David, in behalf of all who shall be made to believe through grace. This everlasting covenant of peace and salvation, entered into with God the Son by the other Two divine Persons, Paul had in view when he says, "God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel [of his decree], confirmed it by an oath that by two unchangeable things [namely, His decree and oath], wherein it is impossible for God to falsify, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us" (Heb. vi. 17, 18).

Now, as Abram literally set forward from the land of his nativity, so, in a figurative sense, does every person who is effectually called by grace. By nature we are insensible of our sinful state, and ignorant of our extreme danger; impenitent and unbelieving, and (which argues the utmost blindness and depravation) self-righteous, though unholy. This is a compendious map of the natural man He is a native of Mount Sinai; born under a covenant of works; fondly expecting to be justified by the deeds of the law, though he has broke the law more or less in every particular.

From this legal state of insensibility, impenitence, unbelief, self-righteousness, and bondage to sin, every child of God is

delivered by the effectual operation of the Holy Ghost. Ignorant no longer of the danger to which we were obnoxious by reason of original and actual sin, we have recourse to Christ alone, as "the Way, the Truth, and the Life." Retrieved from absolute unbelief, we feel the necessity of Christ, and throw ourselves upon the grace of God in Him for deliverance from the wrath to come, and rest upon the righteousness of Christ as the sole procuring cause of our acceptance in the Father's sight. And now we pant after inward conformity to the divine image, and outward conformity to the divine law. Whosoever is brought thus far is more than half-way to the kingdom of heaven. He has made, through grace, a good progress on the road to Zion, and shall go on from strength to strength, till he appear before God in glory.

Yet let not the follower of Christ cause the way of truth to be ill-spoken of, or bring an evil report on the good land by needless rigour and by affected severity. Do not sullenly reject the gifts of Providence, under a pretence of superior sanctity; but use them without abusing them. If you have them not, be not anxious after them. If you have them, enjoy them in the fear and to the glory of God. Gnat-strainers are too often camelswallowers; and the Pharisaical mantle of superstitious austerity is very frequently a cover for a cloven foot. Take heed however, O believer in Christ, of verging to the opposite extreme. Beware of a supine, lukewarm, libertine spirit. Watch unto prayer; guard against negligence. Advance not to the uttermost bounds of your liberty. It is a just remark, which I have somewhere met with, that the best way to be secure from falling into a well is not to venture too near the brink. Swim not with the stream, if the tide roll downward; neither follow a multitude to do evil. It is the duty of a Christian not to be ashamed of being singularly good, especially in an age like this, when so many are not ashamed of being eminently bad. Better go with a few to heaven than to go with much and polite company to hell. He that fears men, and seeks to please men, at the expense of Gospel truths or of good morals, is not an honest man, much less a servant of Christ. If you find-as in some instances you probably will—that even things in themselves indifferent, prove a snare, an entanglement, and a hindrance to you, in running the race that is set before you, pluck out those things, be they what they may, and cast them from you, though they be useful as a right hand, or as tender as a right eye.

If the believer's journey should prove a long one-i.e., should he live to be far advanced in years-he must expect to meet with diversity of paths. The face of the country will not always be the same. Even with regard to temporal things, perhaps, he may experience a vicissitude of ups and downs. Sometimes