grace He exercises according to His divine will in taking one here_and another there, and bringing them into the fold of Christ, that, as John says, "He may gather together in one the children of God that are scattered abroad." Thus two may be sitting side by side listening to the Word preached; the one shall be melted under it into tears, the other remain as hard as the stones of the building; the one shall receive the quickening influence of the Spirit of God, and the other know nothing of what is passing within. Saul, on his way to Damascus, was suddenly struck to the ground by a light from heaven, and, when a voice called to him, he recognised that it was the Lord's, and said, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" The men who journeyed with him knew that something was going on which caused them to stand speechless; they heard a voice, but saw no man. Oh, how many hear a voice, but never feel that it is the Lord Jesus speaking home with power to their souls. There were two thieves crucified with Jesus, the one on the right hand and the other on the left; one railed on Him, but, mighty grace touching the heart of the other, he appealed to the Saviour, and said, "Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom, and Jesus said unto him, To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." Can anything more strongly prove the divine sovereignty than this fact? And was it not so, beloved, in our own personal experience? When the Word pierced and penetrated our heart, those who were round about us knew nothing of the matter; the secret was with ourselves before the Lord. Ah, there is a reality about a work like this that is not to be found in connection with man-made revivals, and experience thrusts upon us the observation that we have no sympathy with the work of excitement which is going on at the present day, together with extravagant mottoes to catch the eye and play upon the feelings we see around; all of which leave the heart untouched, unsanctified, unsaved.

We will not affirm that there is nothing genuine accompanying the work we refer to, nor would we limit the operation of the Holy Ghost, but in the main it is all so unlike vital godliness and its accompaniments that it occurs to us to savour far more of the creature than Christ; and a religion that springs from mere animal excitement, from a startling event of Providence, or a striking appeal from the pulpit, is all of frames and feelings, and passes away like a morning cloud or the early dew.

Another matter well known to the children of God in connection with His dealings and discipline with them is that of the LORD's withholdings. Jacob, when under fear and trembling on account of his brother Esau, appealed to the Lord thus: "Thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude." What a blank there was put upon the promise as he thought; afterwards Joseph was taken from him, Simeon was to go too, deep called unto deep in His experience. We cannot wonder at His reminding God of His promise, "Thou saidst, I will surely do thee good." The Lord never says anything, never promises anything, He will not perform. In Jacob's case, as in every other, what the Lord said, He did, and His "withholdings" are pregnant with blessings. It is the hovering of a cloud over our pathway that is

"Big with mercies, and shall break
In blessings o'er our heads."

Then, as we go on in divine things, there will be deeper paths to enter, the traversing of which will often cause us to sigh out, "O Lord, I am oppressed, undertake for me." Ah, we are sure to get all of us a cross in one way or another, and to think our own specially heavy to carry; and, as we go on in the pilgrimage of life, the Lord, for very wise reasons, leads us, in connection both with providence and grace, in paths that we have not known, and depths we never dreamt of. "Nevertheless"——oh, sweet "nevertheless," the Lord's own declaration-"nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail." And, if we have to go down into the depths of God's providences, we shall find treasures there amidst the darkness that we should never gain if we experienced only the surface of things; and, if the waters do compass us about, even to the soul, and the depths close round about us, while weeds are wrapped about our heads, yet shall we learn down there in the depths with Jonah that "salvation is of the Lord;" and, if the waves and billows do toss our little bark upon their crested upliftings, yet they shall not overwhelm us; on the contrary, they will but waft us more quickly to the haven of rest. And how these deeper leadings bring us to a mellowing silence; and, if we say but little, it is because we think the more. "I was dumb, and opened not my mouth, because Thou didst it." Ah! what a secret is here-a watching and waiting while the Lord does His own work-a feeling that the creature, in connection with such leadings, is so utterly helpless that his wisest position is to "sit still." And this not attributable to weakness, but really to a gaining strength in the Lord, for their strength is to sit still. And, when the Lord thus works, there is nothing abortive, no hasty or imperfect fruit is the result, but the real fruit of the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit enjoyed and developed. All this is apart and distinct from anything that the creature can do it is the operation of the Holy Spirit upon the life of God in the soul, it is the life more abundantly which is the work of the Holy Ghost; and all this tones down and tempers the child of God, mellowing him for a brighter and better world.

Ah! are not these things so, beloved? Do you not know the truth of them in personal experience? Is not the Lord verifying His declaration to us, 66 I will bring the blind by a way that they know not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them;" and, in the accomplishment of this, we must meet with much that staggers and silences us; but never mind, those sweet words break in upon the soul, "Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens, and Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; Thy judgments are a great deep. O Lord, Thou preservest man and beast. How excellent is Thy loving-kindness, O God; therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings." These are things to trust in, beloved; God's mercy, God's faithfulness, God's righteousness, God's loving-kindness; and, if He has put in His "judgments," it is for a wise end, and they all work for our good and His glory.

And, in conclusion, we would say that, whatever we have to experience in connection with the Lord's dealings with us, yet is there ample reason why we should trust Him, and not be afraid to trust. He has many and many a time stood by us in hours of need, and what we could not possibly do for ourselves He has done for us, and in some cases made even our

very enemies to be at peace with us. Oh! then, we repeat, beloved, "TRUST HIM."

"Sure the Lord thus far has brought us,

By His watchful tender care,

Sure 'tis He Himself has taught us
How to seek His face by prayer;
After so much mercy past,
Will He give us up at last ?"

Emphatically we reply, "No, no, He will not."

And now, as once more, beloved, we close our "Notes" and drop them into the post, our prayer is, O Lord, accompany them with Thy power and blessing to some some felt poor and needy ones of Thy family, and to Thy own name shall be all the praise and glory. Amen. Wanstead.

G. C.

DIVINE LOVE.

"God commendeth His love to us. ""

Ir is worthy of observation that Paul does not say God commends His mercy, or His grace, but, which is yet more emphatical, delightful, and wonderful, His love. It deserves also to be remarked, that the Father's giving or sending of His own Son, and the voluntary death of Jesus for us, are most commonly ascribed to the love, not the mercy, or the grace, of the Father, and of the Son: but the blessings bestowed for the sake of Christ are more commonly represented as flowing from grace or mercy. Mercy, grace, and love, are different modifications of goodness, which may be thus distinguished: mercy is goodness to the miserable, grace is goodness to the unworthy, and love is goodness "delighting in the happiness" of its objects. When God has completely delivered His people from all the penal effects of their apostacy, they will no longer be the objects of His goodness, under the strict notion of mercy; because mercy has regard to misery. When they are perfectly free from all the unworthiness attending depravity and guilt, they will no longer be the objects of divine goodness, under the apostolic notion of grace; for grace, in the writings of Paul (Rom. iii. 24; Eph. ii. 5-9), respects the unworthiness of a sinful creature. But saints will ever be the blessed objects of divine goodness, under the delightful notion of love. Holy angels are the objects of divine goodness, under the notion of love, but not of mercy, or of grace, in the apostolic sense of those terms, when used respecting sinners.-Booth.

OUR dear Lord oftentimes visited Gethsemane, saith the beloved disciple, no doubt to pray and meditate when His soul was to be sore amazed and exceeding sorrowful. Should not we oftentimes in faith visit Calvary, where our blessed Lord finished the cup of wrath, and pray and meditate with "Lord, remember me?" Jesus gave up His sweet conversation with His disciples to go to that place, saying, "Arise, let us go hence;" and so should we yield all up to go with Him there; love will draw our hearts to Calvary, our faith to the cross, and love, even everlasting love, we shall find and enjoy there.-S. Adams.

PRAYER is the polishing stuff of the Christian armour; for it is communion with God; it is sweetest sympathy with Jesus; it is fellowship with all the saints.

FIFTH LECTURE UPON THE OFFICE OF THE HIGH PRIEST, BY THE REV. THE HON. SAMUEL WALDEGRAVE, BARFORD ST. MARTIN, APRIL 5, 1848.

To bless, in the name of the Lord, was a distinct and a very important part of the duties of the high priest. It is, accordingly, sometimes mentioned by itself; sometimes in connection with his other offices (see Deut. xxi. 5; 1 Chron. xxiii. 13).

We have already considered the offering of sacrifice and the burning of incense by the high priest; we have seen how they shadowed forth the one Sacrifice made once for all, and the perpetual intercession of the Lord Jesus, that Great High Priest, who, having "by Himself purged our sins," "is passed into the heavens," ""now to appear in the presence

of God for us (Heb. i. 3; iv. 14; ix. 24).

Let us proceed now to see how Aaron, in blessing the people, was a type of the Lord Jesus, of whom it was said, Acts iii. 25, 26. Before doing so, I would have you clearly understand the Scriptural meaning of that word, "bless." It has, in Holy Scripture, three distinct senses. In the first place, it is used to signify the giving of thanks and praise to God. Thus, for example, Psalm ciii. 1; 1 Chron. xxix. 10, 20; and surely this is a duty His people owe to Him (Col. ii. 6, 7); it is a duty they owe to themselves (Ñeh. viii. 10). Hearken to Paul in Eph. i. 3; to Peter, 1st Epistle i. 3; see also Rev. v. 11-13. This, then, is the first sense of the word "bless," to give thanks and praise to God.

In the second place, the word "bless means solemnly to express and declare to another, one's own desire that Jehovah would confer temporal and spiritual good upon them. Thus did Jacob, in all his father's fondness, bless Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph (Genesis xlviii. 15, 16). Thus did the same Jacob, when he was dying, bless all his children, and Joseph especially (Gen. xlix. 25, 26). In the third place, to bless means to confer spiritual and temporal good; and in this sense Jehovah alone can bless (see mention of temporal blessing, Gen. xxiv. 35; of spiritual, Eph. i. 3).

Hence we see, first, that man blesses God when he offers Him thanks and praise for His great benefits bestowed upon him. Secondly, man blesses man when he declares unto him his own desire that Jehovah would bestow benefit upon him. Thirdly, God blesses man when He bestows benefits upon him.

Now, it must be at once evident that when Aaron was said to bless the congregation of Israel, it was only in the second of these senses that the word was used. He solemnly, and in the form of a prayer, expressed to them a desire that Jehovah would do great things for them. More than this he could not do. But what Aaron could not do, that Jehovah graciously promised that He would do. "I will bless them" (Num. vi. 22-27). We have, in the passage taken for our text, both the prayer and the promise.

And now see the superiority of the blessing of our Great High Priest to the blessing of Aaron. Our High Priest both declares the good will

D D

of Jehovah concerning us, and also executes to us those His gracious purposes (Num. xxii. 6). Did I say that our High Priest declares the good will of Jehovah concerning us? (John xvii. 6, 26.) Did I say that our High Priest executes all Jehovah's loving purposes concerning us? (Isaiah liii. 10.) Thus again, as it respects the expression of Jehovah's good will, what was at the beginning of Jesus' ministry? (Matt. v. 3-12.) What was its ending? (Luke xxiv. 50, 51.) And what is, in respect of the execution of Jehovah's goodwill, declared (as we have already seen) concerning Jesus in Acts iii. 26?

Having now established the meaning of the word "bless," let us proceed to consider

I. The words of the blessing of Aaron.

II. The person blessed.

III. The time of blessing.

IV. The place of blessing.

I. Notice the terms in which the blessing was first given (Num. vi. 24, 25, 26). Observe the threefold nature of this blessing; it consists of three clauses. May it not very well be compared with that threefold blessing which is written in 2 Cor. xiii. 14? and again with the threefold blessing which we have in Rev. i. 4, 5? Surely (as the Jews themselves, from certain peculiar marks in the letters, acknowledge) there is a mystery in this threefold blessing of Aaron; and what mystery can that be save the mystery of the ever-blessed and glorious Trinity?

Let us look into the blessing more narrowly; how does it begin? What is the first of the three clauses? "The Lord bless thee, and keep thee." Doth not this remind us of the origin to which the Lord Jesus traces all the blessings of the everlasting covenant? What is that origin? It is the love of the eternal Father (John xvii. 6, 23). Was the Son given "a Ransom for many?" (Matt. xx. 28.) Yea, "a Ransom for all " (1 Tim. ii. 6) them that believe in His name (John iii. 16). Are the redeemed called in? Are they taken one of a city, two of a family, and brought to Zion? Who is it that thus blesseth them? (Rom. viii. 28, 29; Gal. iv. 6.) Indeed, there is no one else can achieve so great a work (John vi. 44). Well, then, doth the triune blessing begin by the prayer, "The Lord"-Jehovah, the Father, bless thee; for, indeed, He it is who doth bless His people "with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus" (Eph. i. 3); yea, and John vi. 65. Which of us can truly say 1 Peter i. 3? Many, I verily believe, are ready either to acknowledge, or to ask for great temporal benefits, but will not some take the prayer

of Jabez as recorded in 1 Chron. iv. 10?

Notice, further, that the blessing runs, "The Lord bless thee, and keep thee." If the Lord the Father hath been pleased to bless any poor soul, can that poor soul keep itself? No! Its wants, as respects the body, are manifold; its needs, as respects the soul, are much greater. The Father will provide for the body; the Father will preserve the soul (Matt. vi. 31, 32; John x. 29). Let me beg the dear people of God to remember this part of the blessing of Aaron (Ps. xxxiv. 10; Ps. cxxi. 7); and then, to crown all, call to mind the word that is written in Ps. cxxi. 4. We must now proceed to the second clause of the Levitical blessing: "The Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee." It is in Jesus, the eternal Son, that the Father is able to be gracious. Are His people chosen? They are chosen in Him (Eph. i. 4). Are His people spared through many years of rebellion? It is in Christ Jesus