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(For the Spiritual Magazine.)

ON SEPARATION FROM A VALUED FRIEND.

My Dear Brother,

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THROUGH the kindness of our heavenly Father I have reached my habitation in safety, and am again permitted to engage in those pursuits which I trust will be for the glory of God, and the best interests of his church. Sitting in my study, I see the fields clothed with living green,' and the little hills rejoicing on every side; the same purling stream, the same animating prospects meet my eye, as when last here; and yet there is some degree of sameness attaches to them all. This I suppose is because I am alone,' without my friend to enjoy them with me. Oh! how sweet is friendship! how it enlivens the mind, and helps us to bear up under the tribulations and disappointments of life. Yes, friendship strengthened by a similarity of feeling, and sanctified by the love of Jesus, that "friend who loveth at all times,' ," is one of the greatest blessings man can enjoy-such I believe is our's.

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We, my brother, have often met in this vale of tears, often walked to the house of God in company, and often felt our hearts burn within us, whilst redeeming grace and dying love' have been our theme. And because we are united by this indissoluble bond, our parting farewell was like a barbed arrow to our hearts. Oh! what an impressive sermon do these events preach on the uncertainty of human things. To-day we enjoy our friends, we are smiling in health, we are gently gliding down the stream of life, and so animating are our prospects we are ready to say, we shall never be moved." But, to-morrow, our joys take to themselves wings and fly away; and whilst we stand wondering at the change, the admonition of the prophet presents itself to our notice, and demands our attention, "Arise and depart, for this is not your rest.'

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But, my dear friend, though separated by distance, it is our mercy to know that we are bound up in the bundle of everlasting life, and that all the changes that take place in our feelings and situations cannot affect him who hath said, "I am Jehovah, I change not.' We are interested in the same eternal covenant, we are redeemed by the same divinely precious blood. We are under the blest influence of the same Spirit of adoption, we are travelling through the same arid wilderness to the place of which the Lord our God hath told us; and we shall soon commence the song that will engage and delight our souls, through the wasteless ages of eternity: "worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing." Then why should we repine? Rather let us lift up our heads with joy, knowing that our redemption is drawing nigh. Will you allow me to intreat you never to forget, that you are called to sustain the high character of a soldier of Jesus Christ? We are fighting in the same field, contending with the same potent foes, and looking for strength and supplies from the same fulness. The only difference is, you are serving your Lord in one part of the field, and I in another; we are not permitted to see

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each other, but we can sometimes join our fellow soldiers in singing, nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."

There are one or two things I wish to communicate to you on paper, since we can no longer talk of him whom our souls love; and I do think if the Lord's people attended to them more habitually they would derive no small advantage from them. First, then, I would remind you, that you are here a pilgrim and stranger as were all your fathers :-

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Under the blessing of our compassionate High Priest, this one thought will reconcile you to the changes and vexations you have lately been called to experience. Very often the people of God forget this, when external things appear to go well with them; yes, they begin to settle on the lees, and talk as though they were at home: and when the Lord arouses them from their lethargy, by some afflictive and unexpected dispensation, they think some strange thing has happened to them, and cry out," all these things are against us." How often have we seen the followers of Jesus thus tried? all their prospects blasted, their fondest expectations never realized, their schemes all frustrated, and they themselves called to lie in the dust, and hear the Holy One say to them," be still and know that I am God." O that you may be restrained from touching the unholy thing; ever being enabled to remember, that the pleasures of the world, though sprinkled over with gold dust and made alluring to the eye, are tainted by the serpent's poison, and forbidden by him whose peculiar character is, "a jealous God." May it be your mercy, my dear brother, to say to all the fascinations of this unholy world, what a devout pilgrim is reported to have said whilst travelling to the holy city, "I must not stop here, for this is not Jerusalem !”

I would further remind you, that it has pleased God the Father to treasure up in Christ all those blessings his church will need to the end of time; and that you as an heir of God and joint heir with Jesus Christ, have a covenant right to seek these blessings at his hands. That charge the Saviour brought against his disciples of old is very applicable to us, "hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name." Alas! how few and small are our requests, when our God has declared it his delight" to fulfil the desire of them that fear him." I have often admired the conduct of Moses, and the boldness with which he approached the God of Israel; every communicated blessing he enjoyed was but a plea, an incentive, to ask for more: the boldness and magnitude of his requests, increased in proportion to the favours he received, till at last he would be satisfied with nothing short of bringing down heaven to earth: "I beseech thee shew me thy glory." We have as much right to address God thus as Moses had; and could we thus act, when ready to succumb under the difficulties of our earthly lot, happy would it be for us. Oh! for that spirit of grace and supplication our God has promised; then shall we

rejoice in him " with joy unspeakable and full of glory," and in our approximations to the throne of grace, shall be able to say with unwavering confidence," doubtless thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not."

One observation more, and I have done : remember that soon your journey will end. I have heard a zealous minister accused of always taking his hearers to heaven before he closed his sermons; and this is the place to which I would now take my friend. Whatever we may enjoy below, it is there that Our best friends and kindred dwell, and God our Saviour reigns.' Delightful truth!" there remaineth a rest for the people of God." A few more billows will shake our little vessels, a few more storms threaten our destruction, a few more pangs rend our hearts, and then-we shall be made like unto the Son of God, and serve him day and night in his temple. It is this one thought that reconciles our minds to parting now. We may no more meet in this "land of deserts and of pits," but soon the garments of mortality will be laid aside, soon our spirits shall return to God who gave them; and, remember,

"When the long sabbath of the tomb is past,

We two shall meet in Christ to part no more."

Now by the eye of faith we sometimes look through the darkened clouds above, and catch the glitterings of eternal stars, but then we shall see the Lamb in the midst of the throne, and shall be altogether assimilated to his image. John in Rev. xxi. 1. speaking of heaven says " " and there was no more sea." No; in heaven there shall be no separating waters, no bar to intercourse: here the children of God are scattered abroad, we must cross the mighty water to meet with some of them, but in our Father's house we shall be united, we shall see and know even as we are known.

In the anticipation of such a meeting, such society, and such employment as that I have mentioned,

I remain, my dear brother,

Your's in him, who is head over all things to the church,

HEAVEN.

There is a land of pure celestial grace
Where all the tenants are for ever blest;

No jarring notes are heard, but all their songs
Harmoniously unite to praise the Lord,

Who has provided for their endless bliss.
To him they are indebted for the right,

To live in that estate of permanent
And endless sanctity. I cannot tell,

While I am clothed with clay, what 'tis to be
Complete for ever, and exactly like

To Christ in all things; but I am waiting

C. G. C.

With hope of passing soon through that dark path,

The eagle's eye has never seen; and when

That solemn day will come, that this clay tent

In which I now reside must be dissolved,

And mingle with its native dust, my soul
Will mount to live where perfect undertsanding

Of the ways of God exists. Then shall I know,
All that a finite mind can comprehend

Of the eternal and all gracious God.

J. B. T.

ORIGINAL ESSAYS.

XXXIX.

THE MERCY SEAT.

"There I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat.”— Exod. xxv. 22.

THE Command given to Moses for the construction of the holy ark or chest, and the propitiatory which was to be placed thereon, cannot be contemplated by the devout mind, without profound awe and holy reverence of the incommunicable name, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth." The abundant mercy, grace, and goodness of God, in this as well as other revelations made to the ancient church, is inexplicable to the most expanded mind, whether human or angelic. "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious," and, "I will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy," imply all of which we can form any accurate conception of the cause uncausedall that comprises the warrant of our aspiring faith-all that will sanction and elicit our adoring love and gratitude to eternity.

It is too often forgotten that the glorious news of Christ, and salvation by his blood, were preached in the whole of the ceremonies and oblations of the Mosaic ritual. We are very apt to open and peruse the books of Moses with dishonourable thoughts of the divine design in the communication of their contents. And it is rarely, compared with other parts of the two testaments, that we recur to them with a view to soul-profit. Accustoming ourselves to speak of 'faint types' and dark shadows' under the law, we also encourage disreputable opinions of the faith of the ancients, and consider, with only here and there an exception, that they were all under the cloud of unbelief, and in the sea of conjecture, with respect to Him that was

to come.

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Praise, everlasting praise to the God of grace, that life and immortality are brought to light by the gospel; and that its more open revelation has been made to myriads of the fallen sons of men, since the Son of God took part in our nature and came to execute the high purposes of redemption. But far be it from us to suppose that eternal life and a blissful immortality were not brought to light' to our elder brethren. "Unto us,' says the apostle, "was the gospel preached, as well as unto them;" yes-unto them the gospel was preached, as well as unto us. The believing Jews clearly saw in the type and in the promise made, what we believing gentiles see in the prototype and in the promise fulfilled, and did all, as we do, "eat the same spiritual meat and drink the same spiritual drink." It is most strange that because the recorded number of worthies under the →VOL. V.—No. 51.

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legal dispensation is small, we should fix unholy limits to the power of sovereign grace, and narrow the path by which our fathers journeyed to the promised land. The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Those who in the flesh preceded the elder brother of the beloved family, as well as those who have been brought into natural and spiritual existence since his incarnation, have, according to the measure of grace bestowed, made the same advances, and arrived at a similar standard in knowledge, and sung the same song of triumph, previous to entering their heavenly inheritance: “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another !"

With these views of the faith of our faithful brethren of old, we turn to the contemplation of the mercy seat, which Moses was commanded to construct and place for a covering of the ark of the covenant. The ark with its sacred deposit was designed to be an eminent type of Christ; so this with its sacred furniture was placed in its assigned situation for the same divine purpose. It were well, we repeat, did we more frequently call to remembrance the means ordained by infinite wisdom for the edification of the ancient church; for, independently of the thought already expressed, very many weighty considerations would press on the enlightened mind, and produce frequent and permanent gain.

The mercy seat was composed wholly of pure gold. Herein the value of the person of Christ was conspicuously set forth. That which is esteemed by men the most costly, and which of earthly commodities is most in repute, might well be chosen to prefigure him whose glories are unrivalled, and whose excellencies surpass valuation. They who worship God in spirit and in truth, in whatsoever age of the church they appear, are presented with the same adorable object as the medium between themselves and the great Jehovah, and are possessed of the like precious faith' which verifies their union as members to him the elect and mystical head. Hence the multitude which kept holy day under the legal dispensation, worshipped him that was to come, as representatively present, and thus truly had access to the Father through the agency and influence of the Holy Spirit.

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The eye of their faith was directed, according to the commandment given them, to the golden throne "above the mercy seat, between the two cherubims." Thence all communications of mercy and grace issued, and were dispensed among the great congregation, so that the tabernacle and the worshippers were filled with the glory of the Lord. And less glorious effects than these could by no possibility accrue to that favoured people: for Jehovah had assured them, by his holy prophet, "There I will meet with thee." We need not that one should arise from his long forgotten tomb to tell in what manner this gracious promise was fulfilled. Let new testament saints speak to the honour of their Lord's faithfulness to his promises in their

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