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they are looked upon as outcasts, called straitlaced, narrow-minded, &c., and are told their prayers are not fit to be heard, &c.

May God the Holy Ghost enable you, or some of your correspondents, to strengthen our weak hands, by showing whether it be not possible to preach the gospel to every creature, without taking the children's bread, and casting it to the dogs; and whether we poor creatures who come so far behind others in our love to the world, may not still love the brethren. Sept. 10, 1835. A SPECKLED BIRD.

CHRIST AND THE CHURCH.

Dear Brethren,-You have somewhat refreshed me in the bowels of Christ, by being enabled to favour us with the Standard of the everlasting gospel, which is so much wanted in these days. I trust the great Head of the church is with you in your work, and I pray it may be held in his hand, as an ensign to the nations, and that he will never suffer it to be taken by the enemy, though they lay round it as the Midianites did round Israel, in the days of Gideon. I trust the Lord has raised you up, as Gideons, with lights in your pitchers, and the trumpet of truth in your mouths, to sound in the enemy's ears the word of the Lord; and I pray him, if it be his blessed will, to send a few more, to lift up a standard for the people.

This standard is the One omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent Jehovah, who did, in eternity, in his foreknowledge, according to his purpose, predestinate his chosen people to the adoption of children, by Jesus Christ to himself, and gave him to be Head over all things to the church, which is his body, and which was in him, in the everlasting covenant, as Eve was in Adam in the Adam covenant. The church was in him as his sister and his spouse; his sister. as being of God in the everlasting covenant, begotten of the same Father, and brought forth by the same mother, which is Jerusalem; and as his spouse, as he received her at his Father's hand, engaging, as her Surety, Covenant-Head, and Husband, to answer for all she would ever contract. So he gave himself a ransom for her, fuifilling all the requirements of the law, and shedding his blood for the remission of her sins, without which there could have been no remission; and, though endless misery was her duc, he giveth unto her eternal life, and is made unto her wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, blessing her with length of days for ever and ever. And when the blessed Spirit is pleased to apply these things to the conscience, and shed abroad his love in the heart, forming Christ there the hope of glory, and bearing testimony that he hath betrothed her to himself in judgment, in righteousness, in loving-kindness, and in faithfulness, then surely she shall acknowledge that Christ hath done great things for her, and truly the meditation thereof shall be sweet. Holy is his name. Sept. 10, 1835.

AN OBJECT DESIRABLE.

V. D-R.

TO THE EDITORS OF THE GOSPEL STANDARD. Esteemed and beloved Friends,-I have just finished reading the first number of your periodical, and not without spiritual profit and cordial approbation. Hence I feel strongly induced to address you upon the sub

Ject. I approve of the object, the plan, the cheapness, and the contents A publication of this kind was much needed in your own immensely populous town, and adjacent parts. It will be felt a blessing by not a few in the populous district in which it hath pleased the Lord, in his providence, to fix my lot; and I shall feel a pleasure in doing what I can to promote its sale in this neighbourhood. Your Standard will prove a rallying point, in this part of the kingdom, for the true lovers of Zion; and, it is hoped, will draw forth the fruits of the meditations, the views, the readings, the experiences of the Lord's dear but despised and exercised ministers and people, resident in these parts, which, through an attendant unction of the Holy One, will doubtless prove a blessed means of comforting and edifying many of the poor, despised, and tried subjects of Zion's King. This little work will, I doubt not, find its way into the habitations and hands of some of the disciples of Christ, who, as yet, are the subjects of indistinct vision, as to those precious, distinguishing gospel doctrines which you propose to give so prominent a place; and thus, under the blessed Spirit's influences, will prove a happy means of clearing up their views, and also of comforting and establishing their hearts. Again: your work may also be the honoured instrument of leading some of the Lord's family out of the dark and dreary labyrinths of error, in which, for a length of time, they may have been entangled. (John viii. 32.) In addition to these objects, should it embolden any of the lovers of the truth as it is in Jesus, draw them from their retreats, and lead them, with sling and stone, to advance valiantly in the name of the God of Israel, against the proud, boasting champions of error; should it afford a cordial to the Lord's warriors in the field of conflict, or to any of his pilgrims, fainting through the heat and burden of the day; I say, should it please the Lord Christ to make your little work promotive, even in the least degree, of such objects, you will feel yourselves greatly honoured by the glorious Captain of our salvation, in whose name, and to whose glory, you have erected your Standard, and will have much cause to bless the Father of mercies, and God of all grace, for having put it into your hearts to commence this work.

In conducting this work, which proposes objects so truly desirable, and so deeply interesting, may the Lord enable you ever to keep in mind, that the efficacy and success of all instrumentality depends solely on the rich and effectual blessing of God the Holy Ghost. (1 Cor. iii. 6, 7.)

Commending you and your work to the Lord, and praying the great Head of the church, that it may be the means in his hand of doing much good, I remain, &c.,

CLAY IN THE HANDS OF THE POTTER.

Shelton, Potteries, Aug. 24, 1835.

STRONG FAITH.

A HINT TO MR. WOODROW.

Messrs. Editors,-In looking over the Gospel Standard for October, I was struck with some little surprise upon perusing a piece, by a Mr. Woodrow, of Liverpool, on the important subject of faith. First he informs you, he was "certainly gratified to perceive the confidence with which some of the writers assert their certainty of salvation, &c." But, behold, he very soon lets us know what we must understand by his gratification; for it evidently appears that his gratification was, that it afforded

him an opportunity to fall very foul upon such statements; and the best name he appears to give them, even in Job or Paul, is enthusiasm, and in others, "boasting, vaunting, or talking with dogmatical confidence, bombastic vapouring," &c. Really, Messrs. Editors, is this the religion of Christ—that the inspired penmen, when triumphing in the glorious Redeemer, feeling their own personal interest in him, under the solemn teachings and holy unction of God the Holy Ghost, had only arrived to sublime enthusiasm? What! the blessed Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, "Abba, Father,"-" the Spirit itself bearing witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God" (Rom. viii. 15, 16), at best only sublime enthusiasm in the inspired penmen, and in others, bombastic vapouring? I say, can this be the religion of Christ? No, Messrs. Editors. I feel persuaded that a many of your readers, to the praise and glory of the God of grace, can, under the sweet unctuous teachings of the blessed Spirit, glorify God in and for this blessed truth, that "because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." (Gal. iv. 6.) And this is not as the reward of their strong faith neither, as Mr. W. taunts no, no; but as the glorious fruit of the Spirit, the blessed shedding abroad of the love of God in their hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto them. (Rom. v. 5.) "Now, he which establisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God, who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." (2 Cor. i. 21, 22); "In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory." (Eph. i. 13, 14.)

The blessed witness of the Spirit with our spirit, and the solemn anointings and sealing of God the Holy Ghost, are truths of such glorious blessedness, that I cannot conceive how any man, with the life and fear of God in his heart, can call them enthusiasm, much less bombastic vapouring. I readily admit that many of God's dear people are not brought into the sweet enjoyment of these truths for themselves, and it becomes the ministers of Christ to encourage their hope, and, as instruments in the hands of the Spirit, endeavour to strengthen their faith in the Lord, by giving a Scriptural definition of the work of God the Holy Ghost in his life-giving and light-communicating power, and the various intimations of his mercy and grace made known in his divine operations in the soul of the quickened sinner, and so encourage them to "wait on the Lord, and to be of good courage, for he will strengthen their hearts." (Ps. xxvii. 14.) But to exhort them to sit down satisfied without the Spirit's witness in their hearts that they are the children of God, would be to make light of the work of the Holy Ghost. Indeed, Messrs. Editors, after I had read once and again Mr. W.'s piece, I was obliged to conclude that we did not hear therein whether there be any Holy Ghost or not; for I cannot observe anything of his work in giving faith, and in drawing that faith into holy act and exercise, either in a greater or lesser degree, in anything he has said. I should be sorry to be censorious; but I greatly fear Mr. W is not in the habit of hearing or feeling much of the glorious work of the Holy Ghost and a religion without His divine operations is a religion without life or power. As to the "many" Mr. W. has met with who doom the whole human race to damnation except the few who are disposed to adopt their own peculiar strong language, I believe but few, if any, of your correspondents are of that sort. I have no doubt Mr. W. may know a few awful characters of the sort, who also deny the eternal

duration of the miseries of the ungodly. I heard one of the sort myself say that nothing short of the full assurance of faith was faith, &c. But what have such awful characters as these to do with the glorious witness of the Spirit in the hearts of God's family? If God has given such up to strong delusions, that they may believe a lie, &c., this does not make the truth of God of none effect. That remains the same, and the awful delusions of others should be a means of leading us to search diligently the word of God, and to cry daily for the glorious witness of the Spirit in our hearts, and that its unctuous power may be daily felt, that our fellowship with the Father, and with the Son, and with the Holy Ghost may be solemnly sweet and daily maintained. As it respects dooming the whole human race to damnation except a few, &c., let Mr. W. remember that there are but the elect and the rest, and that the elect are, in God's own time, born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. Unless this divine change takes place in our souls, our profession of religion is all vain, and this change is wholly of God, and is accomplished with invincible power: "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." (John iii. 8:) The child of God may not, at the time, know what is the matter, nor from whence it cometh; but overcome it he caunot, and in the end he blesseth God that he could not. But wherever this glorious change takes place, the soul will never rest satisfied till, by faith and in feeling, it can say, "My Lord and my God." Yet with some of God's people there are thousands of heart-rending sighs and groans, and deep pantings for God, the living God, before they are experimentally brought into the glorious liberty of the gospel; and they are mostly in some deep water or hot fire, when the Lord is pleased to bring them to the sweet enjoyment of personal interest in himself: " And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people, and they shall say, The Lord is my God.” (Zech. xiii. 9.)

If it be the sovereign pleasure of the Lord, may your correspondent Mr. W. be led deeply into the deep things of God, by that glorious Spirit who alone can search them; and may he daily feel that without the teachings of this blessed Spirit he does not know what he should pray for as he ought; and then I think he will not be induced to write another epistle similar to that I have just noticed in this.

Wishing you, Messrs. Editors, your correspondents, and readers, much of the life and power of vital godliness, I remain, yours faithfully, October, 1835.

A LOVER OF ZION,

LETTER FROM A MINISTER TO HIS FLOCK.

To the Church of Christ meeting for the Worship of the most glorious Three-One God, in the Baptist Chapel,

Dearly Beloved,-May grace, mercy, and peace from our covenant God be with you.

Since I saw you in the flesh, and broke the bread of life unto you, I have, to all human appearance, been within a few minutes of my journey's end; but my dear Lord has greatly restored me, and I hope it is for the good of the church, and his own glory.

Dear brethren and sisters, I wish above all things that your souls may prosper, and that you may drink deep into the deep things of God. Soon, very soon, we must bid a final adieu to this world, with all its glare and show, yea, and with all its care and woe too. O for daily intercourse with God the Father, in his eternal, free, sovereign, electing, unchanging, almighty love; and with God the Son, in his eternal, free, betrothing, redeeming, sympathizing, heart-melting, soul-ravishing love; and with God the Holy Ghost, in his eternal, watchful, soul-quickening and enlightening, spirit-reviving, teaching, prayer-enditing, love-communicating, sealing, anointing, confirming, supporting, and gratitude and praise-giving love. May we in very deed have daily communion with this glorious Three-One God, as our own God, and Father, and Husband, and All and in All. Then come what will, all will be well. When my soul sweetly enjoys these glorious things, I am willing to spend and be spent for the good of my dear Lord's family, and his glory, or to be laid by and make room for another, as will most end in the honour of my dear God and Saviour.

My dear Brethren, strive together for the faith of the gospel, and endeavour to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Let all selfseeking, self-thinking, and self-acting give place to the well-being of the church and the glory of God. Remember, one is our Master, even Christ, and we are all brethren, bought with the precious blood of the God-Man Mediator, the Lord, our loving Husband and life-giving Head,-one family, yea, one body, in him; for by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, and have been made to drink into one Spirit. God grant we may daily and deeply drink! O the glorious mysteries of God's grace! We are made members of the body, the flesh, and the bones of Christ. (Eph. v. 30.) The Lord the Spirit enable us to put on the whole armour of Christ, that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. See Eph. vi. Read the whole. We live in a day of dreadful blasphemy and rebuke, when the glorious sovereignty of God is despised and set at nought, and charged with having a licentious tendency. May it be your happiness so to live as to give the lie to their malignant slanders. "Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel, nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God." (Phil. i. 27, 28.) May you live in the Lord, and for the Lord, and daily fetch blessings from the Lord, by faith and prayer. Trials you must expect a smooth path long together is not the lot of the family of God, nor would it be for their real good. We are called upon to rejoice, inasmuch as we are made partakers of Christ's sufferings: "If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you." (1 Peter iv. 13, 14.) Remember, Christ suffered from the sins of his people, from the world, from the devil, and from false brethren, and we must expect a share of the same; but God forbid that we should suffer as evil-doers, &c.

The Lord be with you all, and bless you with a spirit of prayer, and much of the enjoyment of his love and presence; and do, my dear brethren, pray for me; and if the Lord bring us together again, may we meet in the Spirit and power of the Lord Jesus Christ, and may our souls be filled with the fulness of God, is the prayer of your loving pastor in the Lord, and for the Lord's sake.

London, Sept. 26, 1835.

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