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Finding all my remonstrances unavailing, I then recurred to stratagem; I earnestly besought of him to mention the circumstance to me out of the Confessional, in order that I might apprise the intended victim of his danger, or caution the conspirators against the committal of so inhuman a deed. But here ingenuity itself failed in arresting the career of his satanic obstinacy. The conspirator's illegal oath, and his apprehension of himself becoming the victim of brutal assassination, should he be known as the revealer of the conspiracy, rendered him inflexible to my entreaties; and, awful to relate,—yes, awful, and the hand that now pens it shudders at the record it makes a poor inoffensive man, the victim of slaughter, died a most cruel death by the hand of ruthless assassins.

It is useless to attempt to tell us that this is not the spirit of Popery -the Babylonish whore! We know better; we are not to be gulled by any sophistical arguments; we behold the cloven foot underneath them all; and are thoroughly convinced that it is only for power to be granted her, ere the same bloody transactions as have ever characterised her worthless name, shall be re-acted with renewed energy and virulence. Oh! cursed, cursed system! Ah! unhappy man, whoever thou art, that can sanction such! Whether thou art the pope, surrounded by all thy pomp and splendour; or the poor infatuated peasant who would fain draw nigh and idolatrously kiss his "holy toe," we tell thee that, if the grace of God prevent not, the fruit of thy doings will be to lift up thy head in that dire abode "where the worm dieth not, and where the fire is not quenched." Thou mayest term us heretics for the expression; and, if it will gratify the avarice of thy blood-thirsty mind, thou mayest consign us to the pains of purgatory; but we have too firm a belief in that blessed book which it is our privilege yet to hold in our hand, to be moved by thy curses; we form likewise too high an estimate of the value of thine immortal soul, not to warn thee of thy condition, and the ultimate issue of thy procedure.

It may be in thy power, O Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots, again to persecute the church of the living God; but, blessed be his holy name, though thou mayst torture and put to a cruel death their poor mortal bodies, thou canst never injure their immortal souls. They shall live for ever, and shall rise up as swift witnesses against thee in the presence of Him, who has declared that he will avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him. Oh how lamentable will be thy condition when the price of that blood is charged home upon thee, and thou art visited with a double damnation as a recompence for what thou hast either hypocritically or delusively done for the glory of God.

The Illustrated Watts's
ANDER FLEtcher.
Street.

Hymns. Part I. Edited by the Rev. ALEX-
London: Onger and Meryon, Fenchurch

THE work is got up with considerable taste; the engravings are very superior. One which particularly attracted our attention, was Belshazzar's Feast; the handwriting upon the wall is thrown in very effectively.

City Press, Long Lane: Doudney and Scrymgour.

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"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

VOL. I.]

LIFE ETERNAL."

FEBRUARY, 1841.

[No. 2.

THE HOPEFUL CHRISTIAN.

THOU WHICH HAST SHOWED ME GREAT AND SORE TROUBLES, SHALT QUICKEN ME AGAIN, AND SHALT BRING ME UP AGAIN FROM THE DEPTHS OF THE EARTH. THOU SHALT INCREASE MY GREATNESS, AND COMFORT ME ON EVERY SIDE.-PSALM LXXI. 20, 21.

BELOVED, the words are full of rich consolation. Thou-then it is not the world, nor the flesh, nor the devil, that is showing thee trouble, but the Lord; this is manifest by the words which follow, shalt quicken me again. Now the world, the flesh, and the devil, are foes; and as such, would destroy us if they had the power, rather than quicken us again to life, hope, and expectation. That the trouble springs from one or the other of these sources, or from the whole combined, there is no question; but then the language implies that the trials, of whatever nature or kind, are in the hands, and consequently under the control, of the Lord. This fact established introduces us to another rich mercy; for in Isaiah, liv. 17, we read this blessed promise, No. II. Vol. I.-New Series.

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cise, the soul reposing upon God, and as it were sleeping in the bosom of a promise; and thus realizing quietness of mind, peace and comfort in believing. Thus the Lord's people, long before they are brought out into the liberty of Gospel enjoyment, are often supported by this degree of faith, and kept hanging upon the breasts of consolation, till the time arrives for the sounding of the jubilee trumpet, and possession is taken of all the promised mercy. We well remember one who for many a twilight year was kept up by a word of promise, laid hold of by faith (Hab. ii. 3), It will surely come, it will not tarry; and this promise brought with it such pleasure and sweetness to the soul, as was little short of the blessedness of its accomplishment.

But here we would rather go aside to meet the objections of a large class of Bible readers, who say, "We have nothing to do as Gentiles with Old Testament promises, therefore faith cannot legitimately be exercised upon them." Two Scriptures will suffice to answer this argument, which is only another manifestation of the devil's subtility to rob the church of her food, and "to worry" when "he can't devour." See first, Gal. iv. 28, Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise; we, the church of God, including Jew and Greek, bond and free, male and female (Gal. iii. 28). "For if we be Christ's then are we Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Gal. iii. 29). Therefore, as by right, all the promises belong to us, and must be inherited by us; and are as much ours, being the spiritual seed, as they were Israel's, being the natural seed. But secondly (2 Cor. vii. 1), Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves, &c. Here we find Paul addressing a Gentile church, and urging upon them Gospel obedience upon the spirit-stirring ground of privilege; and appropriating to them, as the spiritual Israel of God, those very promises which were given to Israel after the flesh. The promises referred to are those in the closing part of the sixth chapter of the second of Corinthians. We have the persons definitely addressed in verse 11, O ye Corinthians. The statement raised (verse 16), Ye are the temple of the living God. The proofs given (verses 16, 17, 18), I will dwell in them (Ex. xxv. 8) ; and let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them (Lev. xxix. 45); and I will dwell among the children of Israel (Num. xxxv. 34); I the Lord dwell among the children of Israel. But we must give a Scripture concerning the promise of God walking in his people (Lev. xxvi. 12), and I will walk among you. Again, Paul quotes another promise, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. He goes on to say, Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate (the proof of which we cannot farther enter upon); and then, as it were, raises the edifice upon this superstructure-obedience founded and based upon privilege; Having, therefore, these promises, let us cleanse ourselves. Believer, let none rob you of your comfort in these promises, by asserting that they are not yours: if the Spirit of God apply them, then have you an internal and a demonstrative proof that they belong to you; that you are born according to promise, are fed by the promise, and are living upon the Promiser, who was himself the mercy promised, and who is exalted on high to send the promise of the

Father upon all the ransomed and redeemed of the Lord. These promises are faith's food, and when enabled to lean upon them, we realize the pleasure of faith.

But we now turn the picture, and must touch on the pain of faith. And who can describe pain? What can illustrate pain? We now enter upon the field of experience. Pain must be felt to be understood; and we verily believe the pains which accompany faith but few feel.

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The introduction of grace into the soul brings with it not only new faculties and new affections, new hopes and new desires, but also new anxieties, cares, sorrows, temptations, and conflicts and faith fulfilling to the soul the same office that the eye does to the body, taking in objects and presenting impressions to the mind, thereby performing wonderful things, overcoming God (Cant. vi. 5), and overcoming the world (1 John, v. 5), we must expect has many enemies. To have the eye evil, is to have the body in darkness; therefore the great adversary lays all his stratagems in the view of injuring, if he cannot destroy, this faculty. Unbelief in the word is used sometimes to express the nonexistence of faith, as in Matt. xiii. 58; Rom. xi. 20; and also describes non-action (Mark, ix. 24; xvi. 14). The latter we have to do with now; unbelief is expressive of the non-exercise of faith. Pain discovers disease, but it also denotes life; so unbelief, though evil, testifies indirectly to faith. The ungodly know nothing of the difficulty of hanging on a promise, any more than the blessedness of living on the Promiser. They never knew the sorrow occasioned by the promise meeting the eye, when it cannot reach the case experimentally; the absence of the Bridegroom arousing the dormant suspicions and jealousies of the bride, and causing those heart-burnings which true love feels:

Where love exists, without its object near,
Jealous anxieties will oft arise !

But whence arises this? Faith's eye is impaired-it cannot see afar off. The object of faith abides unchangeably the same-no mutation there. All change is in the believer, whose faith in its weakness or strength, affects the soul and produces wrong or right impressions. Some there are who will tell us in this consists the difference between the two dispensations, the first being of a dark character, dimly discovering Christ; hence the groanings of a David, the lamentations of a Jeremiah, and various other shades of Christian experience unknown in the new dispensation. Now no man ever was, is, or can be justified by the deeds of the law, Scripture declares; hence there is but one way of salvation under both dispensations. By grace are ye saved, through faith. Adam and the thief upon the cross stood upon the same footing here. The law revealed the holiness of God, and showed the sinner his damnable state. The sacrificial rites under the law proclaimed the remedy for the malady, and the spiritual Israel of God looked and lived. That look embraced Christ, and performed a reflex act, as it were; giving the saved sinner to feel his vileness, non-conformity to the divine requirements, and in realizing a sight of a God in

Christ, he beheld his secret sins in the light of that countenance, even as the believer under the Gospel.

The New Testament is not so much a history of experience as the record of truth; which being realized by the Spirit's teaching, produces a corresponding experience with the Old Testament. But in Paul's very precious delineation of the twofold view of the believer (Rom. vii.), first in himself, secondly in Christ, we have abundance of proof directly to the point-not to go to the indirect proof so ample on the subject, contained in the exhortations, injunctions, admonitions, all proving the existence of a contrary principle in the soul. The standing of a believer in Christ is one thing, and the believer's experience of it another. In the former there is neither ambiguity nor deviation, it is as fixed as eternity, and as 'decided as Deity; but in the latter we have the ebb and flow, the full and wane, the light and shade, during our wilderness course: and this according to God's sovereign will (Eph. i. 11), to manifest in the conscience the preciousness of the death of Christ (2 Cor. iv. 10, 11), to discover the efficacy of his blood (1 John, i. 7), and to make the believer long for the time when he shall be for ever separated from a vile heart, an evil world, and a tempting devil (2 Cor. v. 4). Brother-sister in the Lord, this disease-this evil heart of unbelief, is common to the church of the living God while in the wilderness below. The Amalekite is still in the land, and thou must be plagued with it, if thou art of the true Israel of God. To-day thou mayst be on the mount, to-morrow thou must fight the foe. Sometimes in the exercise of faith exulting in a finished salvation, realizing personal interest in it, and glorying in the prospect faith views ; anon the eye becomes darkened, and the wild beasts of the forest creep forth, flesh and heart fail, hope seems cut off, evidences are lost, the word sealed, prayer restrained; till at last the day dawns, and the cry Bring my soul out of prison, breaks forth the glimmering light then seems worse than before, discovering the horrible pit and miry clay; but deliverance is at hand, Ebedmelech's ropes are let down, Jesus becomes the deliverer; faith lays hold of them, and the poor soul is drawn out. When amnesty is proclaimed, self-reproach begins, and shame commences when pacification takes place (Ez. xvi. 63). But to the word and testimony concerning this, the occasional demonstration of unbelief in believers. Abraham could leave his country and kindred at the bidding of God, and in the obedience of faith could follow at his command-could resign a precious Isaac, and yet could not commit the keeping of his body to a covenant God; and therefore on two occasions makes his wife utter a falsehood, in order to preserve it (Gen. xii. 13; Gen. xx. 2). See David in Gath, playing the madman and fool before Achish, under the prevalency of unbelief. Behold Jonah flying from the presence of the Lord, under this evil influence. Regard the conflict of the father of the possessed child under the consciousness of this principle (Mark, ix. 24). View Thomas under the Lord's reproof, because of the working of this leaven (John, xx. 17). Trace the source instrumentally of Paul's imprisonment in Rome-unbelief operating to make him forsake the plain declaration of Christ's Gospel for a Judaiz

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