POETRY. THE RESURRECTION, ASCENSION, AND EXALTATION OF CHRIST. OH! glorious dawn, oh! soul reviving day, When the great Conqueror burst the icy bands As when some mighty king, renown'd of old, Lo! the bright Conqu'ror JESUS, mount on high, Now the bright chariot of the Prince of Light Ten thousand thousand shining hosts ascend Lo! with unclouded splendour through th' expanse, In majesty the glorious Victor rides; The countless millions of the sons of light Divide before him; while he marches through, Up to the radiant throne of Deity. Sparkling with honours there he takes his seat, The universal Lord. The saints in light (The Lord of hosts) their Husband, and their God: Nor he ashamed the union disavows, But owns them as his bride-his love divine, High o'er the pow'rs of hell sublime she sits, ESTHER. LINES Written after meeting with a few Christian Friends at Kersey, Suffolk, May, 1824. How sweet to meet where Jesus shines, Or write, when he inspires the lines; To talk with hearts made warm by grace, Or pray, when Jesus shews his face. My heart well knows his quickening power, When christian friends have spent an hour In tracing o'er his acts of grace,And joy sat smiling on each face. How sweet that unction from above Which opens up the Saviour's love; This knits our hearts in union sweet, And lays us low at Jesu's feet. Then each one's faults are all forgot, Cover'd as though we saw them not; To nature's failings deaf and blind, And each for Jesu's sake is kind. All worldly talk and compliments But when we all arrive at home, Sol. Song v, 4, 5, LINES WRITTEN ON THE DEATH OF A TRULY VALUED FRIEND. "Surely the bitterness of death is past." That heart shall never bleed again. It is not death, to those who rest, And sleep the slumber of the blest; To those who freed from earth's dull ties, Bathe in the splendour of the skies. It is not death, to meet the view By which the almighty heir was born Ere the sun lightened up the morn. O could I tell the wordless thought, That deems the realms of matter nought, All shadowy, failing, false to view, Then could I tell their boundless bliss, Give us such death, then life is ours, secures; A brother born' unsinning stood, And purchas'd priceless rights with blood. A WAYFARER. THE Spiritual Magazine : OR, SAINTS' TREASURY. There are Three that bear record in heaven, the FATHER, the WORD, and the HOLY "Earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." 1 John v. 7. Jude 3. JULY, 1828. (For the Spiritual Magazine.) A SERMON, PREACHED AT CHARLES' CHURCH, PLYMOUTH, BY THE REV. R. (NEVER BEFORE published.) "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."-2 Tim. iv. 6, 7, 8. HAVING called on the spiritual church of Christ, this morning, in our observations on 2 Cor. ii. 14. to notice the triumphs of the great apostle, I thought it might be proper to follow up the subject by speaking of the triumphant manner in which he closed his ministry. This second epistle to Timothy was the last he ever wrote, being written about the year 64, when he was in the full prospect of martyrdom, in the reign of the tyrant monster, Nero, under whom both Peter and Paul suffered in the same year. Now, it will not be uninteresting to read, and consider a little, the former part of this chapter, although it is my intention to confine my observations chiefly to an explanation of my text. "I charge thee," says the apostle, "before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead, in the day of his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word; be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having VOL. V.-No. 51. E itching ears. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry." Verse 1 to 5. 66 I cannot imagine any thing more awful in the contemplation of Paul when writing to Timothy than this solemn charge. The latter was very dear to him, not only on account of his youth, but because, he had been awakened and brought to the knowledge of the truth by the instrumentality of the apostle, so that he was as a spiritual father to him. And further, Paul had taken him as a spiritual help to him in the ministry. He had employed him in the service of his Master; and therefore with his head ready, as it were, to be put on the block, he writes his last charge, in which we perceive that the Lord Jesus Christ was infinitely more dear to him than any of his temporal affairs and connections, I charge thee, therefore," says he, "before God and the Lord Jesus Christ," &c. And then he gives a reason for the particular injunction "to preach the word," &c. &c. "The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine." Paul had the spirit of prophecy given him for the benefit of the church, and he predicted that the time would come when people would not endure the sound doctrines of the everlasting gospel. And what time is this but in these latter days? And what are these doctrines that cannot be endured, but the everlasting love of God the Father to his elect, or to his church in Christ; the everlasting grace of the Son in redeeming them from the curse, marrying and taking them into union with himself, and so rescuing them from the Adam-fall transgression; and the fellowship and communion of the Spirit in teaching them and instructing them in all things necessary to their salvation? Had Paul lived to this hour he would have seen the fulfilment of his predictions, for these doctrines cannot now be endured. And would he, think you (supposing he had to ordain ministers for the preaching of the gospel), would he send forth such as we see in our days, many of whom denying the truth as it is in Jesus? Sirs, would to God that none of us ever lost sight of my morning text. " Now, thanks be unto God, who always causeth us to triumph in Christ:" and what follows?" and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish. To the one we are the savour of death unto death, and to the other the savour of life unto life." And I would also that we were all led to the most serious contemplation of the subject of my sermon. I feel that I am fast approaching my departure, but some of you may be nearer. There are two features of it. that I beg of you to remark before we go on. One is, that without the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, there can be no true knowledge of the Father; and to know the Lord Jesus Christ in his eternal power and Godhead, is to know Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, according to John xiv. 7. " If ye had known me, ye would have known my Father also, and henceforth ye know him, and have seen him." And again, 16th verse, "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth," &c. In the knowledge of Christ, therefore, we have the true knowledge of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and every child of God ought day by day, and hour by hour, to say with the same firmness of mind as the apostle, "Now, thanks be to God who always causeth us to triumph in Christ." The other feature is, that there is nothing more to be desired than the particular enjoyment of this, morning, noon, and night; for it is very blessed to live above the afflicting circumstances of time and sense, and in the darkest night as well as in the brightest day, to sing perpetually the triumph of the apostle, "Now, thanks be to God who always causeth us to triumph in Christ!" The infidelity of which all of us have had ocular demonstration that it abounds in the present day, the Holy Ghost also points out in the preceding chapter." This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come; for men shall be lovers of their ownselves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy," &c. &c. See 1st to 9th verse. These then are the very times when the Lord's faithful ones should contend earnestly for the faith. For my part, I trust I shall never in this sense hang my harp upon the willow, but shall sound forth the glories of Christ as long as I live; and when I sleep in Him I shall continue the same for evermore. Well then, says Paul, contemplating perhaps the rage of the emperor Nero, and in the full prospect of his approaching execution, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day." He was now about to consummate the life of triumphing in Christ. The good fight which he had fought was not his own, nor was the crown of righteousness awarded to him for any of his services. The former was, God fighting in him and by him, making the word instrumental to the converting, building up, and establishing in the faith many of the Lord's chosen, and to the prosperity and increase of the whole church; and the latter was, the sovereign gift of the great Head of the church. I was this morning contemplating some of the circumstances relating to the life of this great apostle. What an instrument in the hands of God was he to the pulling down the strong holds of sin and satan. Fourteen epistles, making about two-thirds of the New Testament, were written by him. How often have these been blessed: end when the mouth of him that now speaks, and when you that hear, shall have ceased for ever, how greatly will they continue to be blessed to the church of the living God! His conversion, if you recollect, as recorded in the ninth chapter of Acts, was by a special call of the Lord Jesus Christ from heaven. The particulars of this are repeated in the twenty-second chapter, and again in the twenty |