living souls-ah! you, beloved, and the poor unworthy writer, too-"might be filled with all the fulness of God!" Oh, weigh as you will this expression, and are we not lost to its immensity and grandeur ?-"filled with all the fulness of God," that we, through the Spirit, may receive the flowings therefrom. And how this shows us that salvation is not a mere abstract or theological term; it is salvation in Christ, and therefore has issues in lively gifts and graces. He is a Fountain Head, from which flow innumerable springs, as the Psalmist says, "All my (fresh) springs are in Thee." He is a depth which is eternal, and every rill therefrom is full of life-giving power. In Him is an inexhaustible supply. And, oh, how precious are the communications of His grace and love! We never can go to Him too often. He has never said, nor will He ever say, to the seeking seed of Jacob, "Seek ye my face in vain." How sweet is that prophecy concerning the fulness that should be found in Jesus, and of the flowings therefrom: "And it shall come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk,. and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord." Although the day referred to may have its complete fulfilment at the second coming of our Lord, yet He has come, and is now the Fountain that has come forth from the house of the Lord, and the mountains drop down with the new wine of the everlasting Gospel, and with the milk of the truth of God. Sweet and nourishing drink for thirsty souls to whom an appetite "is given!" So suitable also for souls who feel their poverty and nothingness! For it is "without money and without price." And then, too, they have given them the grapes of Eshcol, the exceeding great and precious promises of God. Oh, for more of these precious pressings! Our souls pant for such refreshing as this in a weary land.

In conclusion, may the sweet Messenger of morn, the Spirit of God, shine upon our new year's portions to our profit and joy, calling up with us a grateful song of praise as we think that it has pleased the Father that in Jesus should all fulness dwell, that we might receive, through the Spirit, the flowings therefrom according to our need. Oh, we do want those gifts and graces referred to in lively exercise in our experience, that we may become enriched in spiritual things and ripened for eternity. If aught throughout depended upon the creature, if an iota of the work. rested with us to accomplish, I for one should have to say, "Woe is me, I am undone." But it is not so. They are the streams which flow from a Saviour's heart of love, and He who hath begun the good work will perform it until that day. Oh, surely this is solid and safe standing. The Lord keep our feet fast here! Salvation is all of the Lord, and its issues equally so.

Dearly beloved in the Lord, the hidden future is before us, veiled wisely by God from us, but all seen by Him As He lifts the veil, may we feel that we have a confiding hold of His hand, but, better still, that He has an eternal grasp of ours, and, while we press on up the rugged path to the city of Zion,

"Oh, for grace each day increasing,

To pursue our high career;
Trusting, praising, without ceasing,
Through each swift revolving year,
Till in glory

With our Jesus we appear."

Beloved, let the gift and graces of the Holy Spirit be realized in your experience in rich abundance, drawn from the fulness of a precious Christ, and you will have what I sincerely wish you,

"A HAPPY NEW YEAR."

Wanstead.

G. C.

THE FEAR OF DEATH.

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TO THE WRITER OF

I HAVE SO feared it, and I fear it still,
Brother, beloved for the Master's sake.
Talk of the power of Jesus as ye will,
These ling'ring sorrows make my
bosom ache.

Immersed in daily toil and petty cares,
Spirituality of mind seems fled;
And a few forced, unspoken, wishful

|

WAYSIDE NOTES."

Ask Him to ease the torment and the fear

With that sweet love of His and that great power.

You told us truly it is His to clear The onward pathway in the misty hour.

Will He clear mine? Oh, tell Him I am faint;

He knows it-tell Him I am loth to
hold

Joys so tenaciously; that, as a saint,
My place should be His pastures or

His fold.

Pilgrim Papers.

LIFE OF DR. DUNCAN.

SAID a poor woman lately, "I have read somewhere in the Bible, but I can't exactly say where, about a man whose name was Do-do. Now, that name comes into my mind very often when I listen to sermons, and especially when people come to see me. I'm a poor trembler-not at all settled in my mind about my interest in Christ; I'd give worlds to know I was saved, that I was one of God's dear people-but I seem always in the one state-full of doubts and darkness-and then people come and do so torment my poor mind with doings of some sort or other; not with my hands, you know, but with my feelings, which is a deal worse, and so I say to myself, Why your name is Do-do. That man ain't dead yet, though 'tis so many years ago."

Now this simple-minded woman gave expression to thoughts that often trouble God's dear people, by reason of erroneous or unexercised teachers. We would separate between these two terms, because the Lord is pleased oftentimes to give a period in the experience of His people when peace and joy in believing are realized in such sort that the hidden evils of the heart are not felt, and conflict with indwelling sin is but little known. This condition of the soul is ignorance of the way; but, if life is spared, knowledge is communicated and the time must come when the word of our Lord is fulfilled, "The Bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days."

This fasting season not only has its own peculiar grief, but is often increased by erroneous teachers, who have only a letter knowledge of the way of salvation, or unexercised teachers, who have got no further than bridal days themselves in the divine life. They have not been wedded long enough to know anything of the departure of the Bridegroom, so "they talk to the grief of those whom God has wounded," without any intention of adding to their sorrow. They are in the enjoyment of certainty; they have not as yet been "tossed up and down as the locust," nor driven as a leaf before the whirlwind ;" they have a daily allowance from the King's table," and their wonder is that any of His children should " go lean from day to day" when the house is plentifully supplied, and the way to obtain a portion is simply to ask and have. There are bits in the experience of each child of God that come near to this outline; and, if this condition of soul continues for any time, some become lords over God's heritage, "they begin to beat the men-servants, and the maidservants," and, confident in their own security, they deal with the tried and the tempted as Job's friends did with him, laying his trial to the door of his sins, and dealing with his soul trouble as though he had power to remove it. But wait; let such teachers fall into the ditch of heart trial. Then they will find how powerless they are to deliver themselves out of the pit. And, when the sovereign arm of God lifts them out and their own clothes abhor them, they then learn the humbling lesson of their own weakness and their dependence upon God's grace for keeping as much as for their calling. These few thoughts are not out of place in drawing the attention of our readers to a book of much interest, and so widely read that the outline of the history is familiar to the Christian

public-we allude to the "Life of Dr. Duncan." It was the saying of a popular preacher, in bygone days, "God lives with many people I should be very sorry to live with;" and, probably, some very excellent persons would have found it a trial to be domesticated with a man who could drink fourteen cups of tea unconsciously, and eat three dinners in close succession without being aware he had dined at all. But Dr. Duncan was an exceptional man in every respect; and though he has left behind only traditional records of His extraordinary learning and sound religious experience, yet the influence of his mighty mind and Christian walk made him a living book known and read of all men. Born of poor parents, in 1796, in Aberdeen, he was the solitary survivor of a large family. His mother was a gracious woman, but died when John was six years old, and his father soon after married again. The affections of the new mother were drawn forth toward the little lad, whose father was desirous of bringing him up to his own trade of shoemaking; but the early proofs of genius in the boy made the stepmother anxious that he should have an education that he thirsted for. Once, when seriously ill, he was heard to say, "Oh, that God would spare me till I get on the red cloakie!" meaning the red gown worn by the students in Aberdeen at the university. By an attack of small-pox he lost the sight of one eye, and was weakly for many years. At nine he entered the grammar school, and at fourteen he matriculated and obtained his heart's desire, "the red cloakie." His first start in a life of learning he owed to the patient self-sacrifice and devoted affection of his stepmother, and on the death of his ill-tempered father the widow married again, and secured for John the fostering care of a stepfather, whose pride was to watch the advance of the orphan boy up to manhood. His parents had belonged to the secession church,* but, in 1817, Duncan enrolled himself as a divinity student in the esta blished church o Scotland, from which, in 1843, he formally separated and joined the free church. His intense love of learning soon became developed as a student in the university. It was an instinct, a passion, with him, part of his life and being the acquisition of knowledge; but the study of languages was his peculiar gift, and thus God qualified and prepared him for ultimate usefulness.

But with all the advantages of a great mind, a liberal education, academical honours, and a godly bringing up, John Duncan, in manhood, reproduced the condition described by the Apostle, "fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind." Without God and without hope, he worked himself through all the phases of Atheism, Pantheism, and Theism, The powers of his deep reasoning mind being under the influence of Satan, he testified to the Bible declaration, "that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God." After a dreary period of three years of no faith at all, Duncan settled down into a belief that there was a First Cause. For nine years he walked in the pride of philosophy and vain conceit after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Reckless in conduct, godless in spirit, devoted to classical and oriental languages and general literature, his mind, always unkempt in character, ran loosely wild into the extraordinary contrarieties of deep thought and deep drink; Chaldee, Sanscrit, philosophic reason

* A body of men who were led to secede from the Kirk of Scotland through the publication, in the seventeenth century, of a book, written by a divine of the name of Fisher, entitled, "The Marrow of Modern Divinity;" which exposed the formal, cold, and Arminian theology into which the Church had drifted.

ings, and lectures upon profound subjects, united to a life of frivolity and intemperance. Though wholly unfit for the ministry, he was licensed in 1825, and preached his first sermon in the West Church, Aberdeen, which he admitted at the time "was the most artful neology perhaps ever spoken, explaining away every evangelical doctrine." Impressed with the "German school of thought," a phrase of our day that covers over scepticism in all its satanic forms, meek or mischievous, John Duncan entered upon his ministerial life. This seemed the culminating point of iniquity. But in the darkness of night the morning star appeared. "Thus the eternal counsel ran,

The time, place, and means were all preordained by sovereign grace when and how John Duncan should be brought to the feet of a despised Redeemer. The state of his mind at that time is best described in his own words: "I have come to believe in the Jewish religion, and in Christianity as the complement of it, but the doctrines I can't and won't believe. I mean the divinity and atonement of Christ. To tell you the truth, the words heaven and hell sound in my ears with as little effect as "tables and chairs.'

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There are a huge number of teachers and preachers abroad in the world now who are firm believers in this sort of modified infidelity. The editor of Dr. Duncan's Memoir, who was his companion through all the misty phases of scepticism, about this time was brought to the knowledge of Christ; and, according to his light, he dealt with Duncan's conscience upon a point where he was vulnerable. "Are you holy?" was the question he put to his friend. "No, I am not," was the decided answer. "Nor ever will be,” was his friend's reply, so long as God's way of salvation from sin is to such Greeks as you foolishness; but to us who believe it is the power of God." Said the scholar, Ah, David, that is just what I can't take in. Can't I be saved without the doctrines ?" Here all the powers of his great mind stuck fast, but there was evidently a shaking among the dry bones, and the Lord made use of Cæsar Malan as the instrument of blessing to his soul. No doubt in a memorable interview with him divine life was dropped into John Duncan's heart, and he came forth an evident illustration of God's testimony, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are past away; behold, all things are become new." The great truths of the Gospel burst upon his view in sovereign majesty and swept away the mighty mass of errors that encompassed him on every side, mental and moral; he threw off all his speculations and entered into the divine realities of a holy, heaven-breathed religion. It was a wonderful awakening, showing out the sovereignty and freeness of divine grace. The letter of truth, so well known and vehemently rejected, was now received as a little child. After his interview with Malan, he gives us his early spiritual history in these words, "Next day, as I sat down to study, and took my pen in hand, I became suddenly the passive recipient of all the truths which I had heard and been taught in my childhood. I sat there unmoving for hours, and they came and preached themselves into me. There was now no investigation such as I had desired, but presentation of the truth passive, and I felt, sitting there, as if I had got matter for sermons for a life-time." Dagon had fallen before the ark of God; the head and hands were cut off, but the stump was left, and the tone of his reasoning mind was his torment to the last.