work within me-why, "Oh why am I thus?" Why is his name precious? Why do I hate to hear that dear name blasphemed? Why do I tremble at the very idea of becoming a scoffer, a despiser of his cause, a hater of his people? Why do I feel that I could justify him if he sent me to hell; that I would never there blaspheme him, or speak of him in any other way than as a gracious God? And why do I love his people? and, though at times I feel euvious of their privileges, why at other times do I feel my soul drawn out in love towards them? Why do I so deeply sympathise with them when they are in temptation or distress, and desire that whatever becomes of me, they may be rescued and delivered? Surely it cannot be a mercly natural sympathy that causes me to feel for those whom I have never seen, known, or heard of, but whom my soul travails in birth for? What can it all mean? says such a soul::

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"Tell me, you that love his name,
Tell me, Is it thus with you ?”

But, beloved, what shall we say to you? Say! What can we say? We can only point you to Jesus; we can only tell you the old tale of JesusJesus! He can deliver you in a moment; he can set everything square and straight in a moment; he can baffle the tempter, dispel your fears, and establish you in the sweetest confidence in his power to save, and in his goodwill towards you, in a moment. He can heal your backslidings, receive you graciously, and love you freely, in a moment. The tempter says, No; that if you are reclaimed, if you are restored to his favour, and to the enjoyment of his love, it must be after the performance of a long and trying penance indeed; but it is not so. He is such a wonder-working Jesus, that it is but for him to speak and it is done; it stands fast for ever. One look broke a Peter's heart, though a few moments before he denied, with oaths and curses, that he knew the man; one reproof by the mouth of the prophet showed David his sin, and brought him to his footstool, a suppliant for mercy; one ray of divine light levelled to the earth a persecuting Saul of Tarsus; one arrow from the Almighty's quiver pierced the heart of a dying thief, and caused him to cry, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom." A stretched-forth hand rescued a drowning Peter; and, dear brother, one grasp can pluck you from out of the fangs of the destroyer, place you again in sweet sensible manifestation within the bond of the covenant, and hurl a fawning, tempting, worrying devil back to hell. What is Satan and all his host in the hands of King Jesus-Almighty Jesus-all-glorious, all-conquering, all-sympathising Jesus? What foe can withstand him? What darling lust can venture to rear its accursed head when HE is present? None, none; your enemies then shall be still as a stone. Oh that the blessed Spirit, the testifier of Jesus, may again reveal him in all his loveliness and suitability unto you; oh that he may enable you to cry and sigh before him. Say, “Lord, dispel the tempter; he is too much for me,' I can't stand against him; he has now got me in a seemingly worse condition than ever, and persuading me that I can hold fast my God in one hand, and the indulgence of sin in the other-and yet I well know, that, if I indulge in sin, if I give place to the devil, it will break my bone-it will rob me of all my comfort-it will cover me with darkness-it will throw a stumbling-block in the way of the Lord's family; and if it does not bring my soul into hell, it will bring a hell into my soul. Lord, help me; Lord, deliver me. Mighty Jesus, bring me through to the praise and honour of thy great and holy name."-ED.]

DEAR SIR,

To the Editor of the Gospel Magazine.

Will you be so kind as to throw some light on the 9th verse of the 16th chapter of St. Luke :-" And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the

mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations." I have been reading different works to find out its meaning, but have not been able to do so; I have referred to Stebbing's notes, but his elucidation, I think, is unscriptural. My desire is, to find out the real scriptural meaning of the text; wrested Scriptures are useless and God-dishonouring. I believe that Christ is a whole Christ, and a perfect Saviour, and that nothing is wanting in the glorious scheme of salvation to make it complete. Therefore it is an insult to God to say that worldly riches, or even the proper use of those riches, can, in the slightest degree, contribute towards the procuring or securing a place in the "everlasting habitations." This seems to me to be Stebbing's ideas, which will not stand when compared with the doctrine of a free-grace salvation, procured by the merits of our precious Jesus alone. An answer in your next will greatly oblige

A YOUNG INQUIRER AFTER TRUTH.

[We believe that the passage to which our correspondent refers, may have a two-fold meaning, though by no means a contradictory one. By our Lord's prefacing it with these words, "The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light," we believe he meant to convey the idea of the necessity of foresight, or a man's well weighing his condition, in accordance with Matt. vi. 33. That as the unjust steward contemplated his destitute state, and sought means for his future safety and support; so his hearers should be alive to a sense of their lost and undone condition by the fall, and be led to see the necessity of seeking shelter from the storm of divine wrath, and eternal security and provision in the way of God's appointment, even in and through the person and work of his dear Son. Again, we think that, without doing violence to the subject, it may be regarded in this light, as if the Lord would speak ironically, and, in order to prove the utter fallacy of such a foundation to build their hopes upon, would say, "Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness;" try them, see what they can do for you, that, "when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations."-ED.]

SIR,

To the Editor of the Gospel Magazine.

Is your correspondent, "W. A. M.,” aware, that in Bath he will find the food his soul longs for? His hint respecting the GOSPEL MAGAZINE telling hungry souls where they may be fed, is excellent, and with all my heart I second it; and pray the Lord to make you fearless, and keep you faithful in this sadly compromising day. Your periodical is very useful, and has been much blessed to my own knowledge; and in places where the Gospel is not preached, it is greatly prized by those who long to drink of those streams that flow in the wilderness from Gospel ordinances.

Perhaps it would be well to let God's children know, who are hungering after the bread of life, that they will hear a full, free, personal, and eternal salvation, proclaimed in an obscure corner of Bath-Bethesda Chapel. Corn Street has proved a place of health and mercy to many, and to none more so than to yours in the Lord,

A BIRD OF PASSAGE.

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ORIGINAL POETRY.

Heaven.

SHE'S now before the throne,
And freed from every sin;

She sings redeeming love,

Quite destitute of fear;

She's in full blaze of day,

With her there is no night;

She's out of Satan's power,
And never feels his dart;

Her foes of every kind,

THE BELIEVER'S SAFE ARRIVAL IN GLORY, AND THE FIGHTING SAINT STILL ON EARTH.

[Written at the time of the decease of an aged Christian Friend.]

She's left in this sad state;

And surely them I hate.

Since the foregoing lines were penned, the author has entered into his rest. Particulars of his death were, some seven or eight years ago, published by the Editor, under the title of " MY FATHER'S GRAVE;" a few copies still remain on hand, which may be had at the printer's, No. 1, Long Lane-price 2d.

*The world, the flesh, and the devil.

City Press, Long Lane: D. A. Doudney.

"ENDEAVOURING TO KEEP THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT IN THE BOND OF PEACE." "JESUS CHRIST, THE SAME YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, AND FOR EVER. WHOM TO KNOW IS

WE have now written during a period of twelve months for the GOSPEL MAGAZINE; we have gone the round of a year with it, and during that time we need not remind our readers we have encountered many severe trials; but though we have proved unfaithful, unbelieving, and ungrateful in ten thousand instances, yet, blessed be God, he has neither proved a barren wilderness nor been unfaithful to us. By his good hand we continue to this day; and, notwithstanding all, are enabled to justify him for every step he has taken with us, and for every affliction wherewith he has visited us. All is well; not one thing has failed us of all the good things which he the Lord our God hath promised usall have come to pass. "By terrible things in righteousness" he hath answered us," it is true; nevertheless, " as our day so has our strength been also." And now, beloved, since during a twelvemonth's intercourse with you, through the medium of these pages, we have followed No. VII. Vol. I.-New Series.

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you amid your many doubts, anxieties, and fears ; since we have accompanied you through the path of tribulation; and, as far as in us lay, opened up to you the footsteps of the flock, we desire now to comfort you with the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. If the Lord will, we desire instrumentally to lead you forth in sweet contemplation upon the person, work, suitability, all-sufficiency, and covenant faithfulness of our most precious Christ-yes, ours. God forbid that we should lay the sacred claim without divine sanction; but if he comforts our hearts, warms our souls, gives us a sweet review of the past, and a blessed foretaste of the future; if he leads us by his Spirit to see our ignorance and his wisdom, our poverty and his riches, our depravity and his holiness-in a word, if he leads us to discover our absolute nothingness and his all-sufficiency and exact suitability to all our varied wants and necessities, and then affords us an appropriating faith to believe that what he is, he is for us; God forbid that we should resist the benign influences of so divine a Comforter, and may he forbid it likewise that we should fail to seek the impartation of it to our readers. Oh that the blessed Spirit may descend into some poor sorrowful heart, that is already beginning to write bitter things against itself, and to conjecture that to partake of similar comfort, it must first endure similar trials. It is not so, beloved; our God is not so limited in his operations. He can administer divine consolation, if it be his sovereign pleasure, as well without these solemn bereavements as with them. Afflictions in themselves are nothing; they only stir up the enmity and rebellion of the heart, "all the while they work alone;" affliction is one thing-the grace of affliction is another. And he can, if it pleases him, as effectually raise your hearts, affections, and desires, off from, and above all natural ties, as if he were actually to snap asunder those ties; nay, we go farther, and declare from experience, that even the hand of death does not-at any rate in every case-sever the chords of natural affection; no, there are moments when it does so completely possess every faculty of the soul, that it looks forward into eternity as if in expectation of a natural reunion. The definition is a difficult one; it is a subject better to be understood than described by those who have lost near and dear connexions. But enough; we wish to come to the words of our text.

Reader, art thou in the world, and yet restless and dissatisfied with it? Has thy nest been stirred up? Is there a thorn in thy pillow? Is thy conscience disquieted? Does something gnaw at the root of thy enjoyments, and dost thou feel a restlessness in those pursuits which once afforded thee pleasure? Art thou inquiring what is come to thee? Art thou acknowledging that thou art an unfit companion either for the worldling or the Christian; that thou art not fit to live, nor prepared to die? Does a glance at thy past life cause thee sorrow, and a momentary prospect of the future fill thee with apprehension? Art thou one moment ready to put an end to thy frail existence, and the next do the dread realities of a future state awe thy mind? Art thou at one time exclaiming, "God, be merciful to me a sinner!" and at another lamenting at the thought that thou hast "sinned away the day of