cannot help you: though they may which BELOVED Onesimus, I hope you will think it no trouble to give a scriptural proof of your assertion, on page 183 of the number for last August, that if we sin wilfully the gospel provides a remedy." Wilful sin is that which wants a cure, If at present is to us unknown. I do not know of a promise that yields the least comfort to wilful sinners, I find a promise for those distressed with guilt; for those who feel the plague of sin. Encouragement is given for backsliders to return; and great consolations are there in the gospel for such as are of a heavy heart, who feel as the apostle did when he cried out, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" But I can nowhere see a promise held out for wilful sinners for if they are sinners for no other reason, than because sin is sin; and they delight therein for no other reason, than because it is evil in the sight of a holy God, and that too when the judgment is well informed; at any rate they cannot join with Paul when he cries but under the load of sin, for he is just the opposite character. A wilful sinner sins against light and knowledge, and he delights therein. Paul when he sinned, hated it. He says, For that which I do I allow not; for what I would, that do I not, but what I hate, that do I." It seems evident Paul, and Onesimus' wilful sinners, must be two different characters, as David and Balaam were opposite characters. My dear hearers, think on the language living on eternals! He had been living on eternals all the way through; not on externals, nor on internals, but on eternals. God the Holy Ghost teach you to pray, as he did his servant David, before you depart hence: Altho my house be not so with God, (as a morning without a cloud,) yet he hath made with me an everlasting (work, a work that never had a be. ginning, and never shall have an end; he established with me an everlasting) covenant, ordered in all things and sure, although he make it not to grow." In a word, my dear hearers, suppose some poor soul is here, saying, sealing, and writing bitter things against himself. I tell them, as plain as I can speak, when the Lord has delivered me sometimes, when I have been in a dreadful state, dare not hope: I tell you how the Lord has delivered me many a time. There has been something in my soul that has said such words of comfort, that "ever I was aware, my soul made me like the chariots of Amminadib:" it was Christ's love; the Master's love in my heart so that I have been led to adore the doctrine of God my Saviour, and I shall be satisfied when I behold his face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness." But I may say at times, woe is me; my soul has long dwelt with him. that hateth 66 peace, that is the devil. But of this be sure, AN INQUIRER AFTER TRUTH. " BETWEEN BY THE LATE REV. JOHN RUSK. T.-Well but, my brother, these things are no marks or evidences of our being the children of God, but I think altogether the other way. 0.-Do you let me alone, and I hope to make clear work of it; only you must have patience. Well, Satan comes again, and strongly suggests that we are hypocrites in Zion, and that all these fears that we have is the same that come on the wicked, for the fear of the wicked shall come upon him," and the sinners in Zion are afraid, fearfulness hath surprized the hypocrite, and now our distress is very great, and some have been tempted to destroy themselves, that they might know the worst of it; but God always keeps his children from that and now the Lord expostulates with them, and says, Hast thou not procured it all to to thyself? Are not my ways equal and yours unequal? Is it not of my mercies that you are not wholly and altogether consumed? I have exacted of thee far less than thine iniquities have deserved? and the good Spirit, whom we have grieved, comes again, and gives us humbling grace; and we now fall down before the Lord, and from our heart confess our sins, iniquities and transgressions to him in secret, and we justify him in all his righteous dealings toward us, and say with David, "He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities ;" and again. Against thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight; that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and clear when thou judgest. Then take this as an undeniable truth, that no one even in heart can justify God in all his righteous dealings with them, but the children of God under the softening influences of his grace; hence Solomon says, that by wisdom January 1845. the Lord Jesus is meant, in Prov. viii. and Christ says, "Wisdom (meaning himself and as though he had fixed his eye on that chapter) is justified of her children." How sweet this is, after feeling so very hard and stubborn so long, and as though we were like Pharoah, given up to hardness of heart. But I will mention one more mark of being a child of God, and that is his love to God, and doing righteousness; for John tells us, that loving a brother and doing righteousness, in this is manifested the children of God and of the devil, and he brings in Cain and Abel. Now this is a nice point, and very hard to define, and for this reason, because natural affection is often taken for this love; and some have a great share of this, and appear to be all love, while a poor tried child of God feels hardly any thing at times but enmity. And how is this to be made out? To this, I answer, that the old man is not at all altered by grace, he is the old man still : That which is born of the flesh is flesh," and nothing but death will remove it. But a child of God has a new nature opposed to this, which he will at times feel, for it is a truth that he is continually puting on and puting off either the old man or the new, as much as a man puts off an old ragged coat and puts on a new one; and therefore Paul says, Put off the old man, which is corrupt, according to his deceitful lusts, and put on the new man; put on charity, which is the bond of all perfectness." Do you really suppose that he means once for all? Oh no, you and I would rejoice at tlis, but to our sorrow we find the contrary, and shall, as before observed, until death. This is the plague of the heart that Solomon speaks of, and "the flesh lusting against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." But, for all this, there are times when this new man C is clearly discovered, and it consists in a love to the image of Christ in a saint, sometimes you will feel it in hearing a good man relate the dealings of God with him, both in providence and in grace, or in reading the experience that such have wrote, your heart has flowed with love to such people. T-I can truly say that I have found this, and at such times we do not love in word and in tongue, but indeed and in truth; but oh how little of this is felt, and how much coldness to Zion is felt. O-It is as you say; yet, blessed be God, it is our burden, and not our element, as it was Cain's. But you will also find this love in reading the Scripture. I have felt it to the blind man, that you read of in John ix. and also to Peter, when he spake so boldly to the rulers, when they charged them not to teach nor to preach in the name of Jesus; and to David, going forth against Goliah of Gath. But it will go further than all this, for it will go out to the Father, for his great love in choosing us in Christ Jesus; to the Son, for undertaking our cause and finishing the great work; and to the blessed Spirit (or God the Holy Ghost,) for convincing us of sin, righteousness, and of judgment, and for testifying of Christ to our heart, as the way and the truth and the life. Then our love will soon be up to the fountain head. But John not only tells us of love, but also of doing righteousness: and here, at times, we are as much at a loss to make this out, as we are to make out love; for it is a particular teaching which God's children have, different from all others, so that they do not see themselves, as pharisees do, no, far enough from it; so that do whatever they are enabled to do, boasting by the law of faith is for ever excluded, and they see it all as thing: "When saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee; thirsty, and gave thee drink." It was all hid from their no 66 66 eyes. Now there are two ways in which we became righteous: 1. By the imputation of the righteousness of Christ; and 2. By being partakers of a new nature. 1. This righteousness of Christ, he wrought out for us in his holy life and death, and it is his active and passive obedience to every command that ever God gave: this is placed to our account, as though we had done it in our own persons. The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness sake. God the Father accepts us, as he did the prodigal, in this best robe; for we are made accepted in the beloved." 'By his obedience shall many be made righteous." This is the wedding garment in which, and with which, the bride, the lamb's wife, is adorned, and it her. is freely given to Much more they which receive abundance of grace, and the gift of righteous ness, shall reign in life, by one, Jesus Christ." And of all the blessings, that ever was conferred upon the children of men, this is one of the greatest. because it takes us at once out of all our beggary and ruin, and fixes us in full possession of every branch of righteousness; for we are made the righteousness of God in him. I never can describe the glory which I see in this; but none know the worth of it, but those that have been deeply convinced of their lost estate, and have proved by experience that their righteousnesses are as filthy rags: then, instead of going to hell in filthy rags, raised to the height of glory above, and shining like the sun in the glory of our Father's kingdom for ever and ever. T.-These things warm my heart, and make me at times long to get home; for this is a wretched world we live in, cross upon cross, heart rending, griefs and sorrows, both from within and without. O.It is so, but our dear Lord has not deceived us, for he has told us that in the world we shall have tribulation; but he says also, "in me 86 : you shall have peace." Blessed be God for that; and I tell you what, if you and I could find things in the world go smooth and easy, and the evils of our nature always kept down, we we should not prize those spiritual blessings, but get carnally secure and self righteous, and our souls would loathe the very things, that now we sweetly feed upon. The needy beggar banquets here, with royal dainties fed. But there is also, what the Scripture calls a created righteousness also you have them both in Psa. 15. The king's daughter is all glorious within; her clothing is of wrought gold." This wrought gold is the imputed righteousness of Christ to the sinner; and the glory within, is the inward adorning of the Holy Ghost, called the new man," which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." You have it again in the text, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand, (there is Christ's righteousness,) and on the left. There is this created righteousness. John might well bring these things forward, to prove that we are the children of God; no pharisee can come in here, for John declares," he that doth righteous is righteous, even as Christ is righteous; " and all this is by virtue of our union with him: and it exceeded the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees. Then you see there are four grand marks, that God's word declares proves that we are children: 1. a living faith in Christ Jesus; 2. The witness of the Holy Spirit; 3. Justifying God in all is righteous dealings, towards us; and lastly, loving brethen and doing righteousness. But now let us attend to what was proposed, namely, "little children." There are five ways in which they appear to be little; 1. They are little in respect of number. 2. They are little in faith. 3. They are little in their >wn eyes. 4. They are but little 1 especting worldly wisdom and spiritual knowledge. And lastly, They are little in the eyes of the world, both professor and profane. To each of these I hope briefly to attend as the Lord shall assist. 1. They are little children in numbers; for although they are an innumerable num. ber that no man can number, yet compared with the whole world of the ungodly they are but few: hence we read that God did not choose Israel because they were greatest in number, for, said God, you are the fewest; and Christ says, "Broad is the road that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat ; but strait is the way and narrow the gate that leads to life, and few there be that find it." Hence our Lord says again"fear not, little flock, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." But 2. They are of little faith, numbers of them, and on this account they may be called little children; they really are children, but yet little as it respects their faith: but a little genuine faith is far better than ever so strong and ever so much presumption or false faith. You may see this little faith in Gideon, when the angel appeared to him, and he was threshing a little corn to hide it from the Midianites, and the objections he made against his going to deliver Israel and although the Lord looked on him, and he was strengthened, yet his unbelief came up again, and he was for proving God's faithfulness by the fleece, and God tried him by reducing his number to three hundred. Again you may see it in Manoah, for he said to his wife, "We shall surely die, because we have seen God." And if we go to the new testament, we find Zacharias, wanted a sign, and he had one, which was this, "Thou shalt be dumb and not able to speak, because thou hast not believed my words which shall be fullfiled in their season." And I am sure that you may see this little faith in Thomas, clear enough; for after having had the testimony of all the disciples, he says, "Unless I put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe," And yet these people were not unbelievers for all that, but they were as Peter was at one time, when Christ said to him, "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt." T.-Thomas is declared by our Lord to be a believer, and although the Saviour said to him, "Reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side," Thomas would not do this: but the Lord increased his faith, and he cries, out, My Lord, and my God." And here is strong faith. 0.-Not so strong neither, for Christ told him that he believed upon sight and added, "Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed." You may see this little faith again in the disciples going to Emmaus, when they walked along very cast down, saying, we trusted that it was he that would redeem Israel, and now this is the third day." Jesus drew nigh to them, and said, "O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken,' And he opened their understanding to understand the scriptures. However I would sooner go on as they did although I am no advocate for unbelief, than some that I know. 3. They are little in their own eyes. The grace of God is always of a humbling nature, and quite opposite to a self-righteous pharisee: indeed this mark belongs to all God's children, let them be strong or weak, have little or great faith. Let us notice some of them. Abraham is declared to be strong in faith, but he had plenty of unbelief also, when he denied his wife and little in his own eyes, when, standing before the Lord, he calls himself dust and ashes. Job was no stranger to unbelief, when he cries out, If I had called, and he had answered, yet would I not have believed that he had hearkened to my voice." And how little in his own eyes, when he says, "behold I am vile." David knew well how little and how weak he was, when he ran away from Saul, and also from Absalom: and he was little in his own eyes, when he said to the Lord," what am I, Lord, and what is my father's house," Oh this was a sweet frame and so also, when he danced before Michal, Saul's daugh 4. ter. And the apostle Paul also says, "Unto me, that I am the least of all saints, yea, less than the least, is this grace given." Thus it is a truth, that God's children are little in their own eyes, under a right influence, whether their path is strong or weak. These little children are weak in knowledge: they are called the foolish things of this world; and, the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light. But not only in worldly things, but in spiritual. Some are very dark in scripture, and their knowledge in the doctrines of grace is very shallow. Paul tells them, that they are dull of hearing; “That for the time they ought to be teachers, they had need that one teach them; what are the first principles of the oracles of God." This weakness of faith and knowledge, appears also in them that made conscience of what they eat, and also of particular days. One believeth that he may eat all things; another who is weak, eateth herbs. Let not him that eateth, despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not, judge him! that eateth, for God hath received him." And then he goes on about particular days. You have it all in Rom. xiv. and he shews how tenderly those that have knowledge ought to walk towards the weak, but they wound their weak conscience and sin against Christ; read Cor. viii. 1. and there he speaks of things offered to idols. From all which, we may see the different stages in exper ience in the church of God, and we do well to attend to these things. And if we look into the church of God in this day in which we live, we shall find some that really are taught of |