wearied soul wants. If there were one thing more asked of it, it would be a brazen door in its way; it could not make one inch of advance; but since it is free as air, since there is a welcome to all comers, since it is salvation "to the uttermost," since "the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin," since there is no rejection of one that comes, be he who he will, that truth clears away his darkness. "He that followeth Christ" now doth not "walk in darkness." The guilt upon his conscience is removed. He has caught a glimpse of "the Light." "The true Light shines" within him; and his soul rejoices therein. But observe this in all the after actings of faith. When it is said, that "he that followeth Christ shall not walk in darkness," it does not imply that he shall never be in darkness. The Lord knows what a dark and mysterious providence can sometimes do with us; when messenger after messenger comes, and we are ready to say, 'There are no more to come,' and yet there comes one after them, and that seems ready to overwhelm, and the heart begins to entertain hard thoughts, and there seems a mystery that cannot be unravelled, and it looks as if there were a depth that could not be fathomed. Yet, beloved, faith, travelling upwards, goes to Gethsemane, follows Christ to the garden, remembers-' Here was One dear to the Father as "the apple of His eye," here was One in whom the Father ever delighted, here was One the beloved of God, here was One His own Son, His only Son, His only begotten Son, and yet all Thy waves and Thy billows are passing over Him!' And oh if the faith, of which God is the author, does but lead us to "follow" Christ up to that garden of Gethsemane, the deepest providence has at once its clue line, that takes us through the labryinth. Perhaps it may be, a soul takes such views of its own sin, as never before it had. There are periods, when a man seems to regard all the past views he had of his own transgressions, as so many superficial views; perhaps through some indulgence of sin on his part God takes up the veil, to show the man to himself, and then he takes such a place as he never contemplated as his possession in this world. Ah! beloved, but if darkness come upon him, and it seem for a time to overwhelm him, yet if the eternal Spirit lead him up to Calvary, and there is seen the finished work, the complete blotting out of sin, the complete doing away of iniquity, the complete "finishing of transgression," the complete righteousness of Jesus, the darkness is gone-the darkness is gone! Yes, and so if he find day by day as he travels on, the deeper and deeper conviction-'I knew not that I should have such a struggle as I have with inbred corruptions; there was a time when the enemies seemed to be like dead men upon the sea shore, there was a time when I seemed to have them under my feet, there was a time when I seemed to master them, and now I seem to be called to ceaseless conflict: for day after day it goes on, and the spirit beginneth to sink, and then at these moments darkness may come into the mind. But if my faith travel up to the right hand, and I see Jesus my intercessor; if I see Him in heaven itself as my representative; if I see Him taking possession of heaven's glory in my name, and all the fulness of grace in His hands, strength for my weakness and wisdom for my utter folly; I see that although I find it so hard to fight, He can enable me to say, 'I am strong in the consciousness of my own weakness, and though I find myself unable in myself to contend with the least, yet in Thy grace I will contend with the worst.' Oh! beloved, there is in this truth a depth and a sweetness and a power, that one would desire to look into all the days of one's life. But there is another point of view, in which the subject may be looked at, and in which I would desire to look at it. The pathway of holiness is the pathway of happiness. It would be so, as I believe and oftentimes tell you, if God had never said so: it would have been just as true. Holiness is happiness in heaven, and holiness must be happiness on earth; and we can only find the pathway of happiness, as we are walking closely with God by faith in Christ Jesus. Now this is true-that the pathway of obedience oftentimes brings in light into our minds. How many of you can stand up and give a witness for this! If you are called upon to preach in courts and bear reproach; if you are called upon to incur contumely for the name of Jesus; if in the way of trade you are enabled to trample upon self-interest, because God commands you; if in the midst of your families you are enabled to return good for evil; if in the way of this world's business you are enabled to display the honest integrity of a Christian man, count ing not your own interest dear to you, but the interest of Jesus; if you are called to acts of faith and labours of love to the saints of God in their desolate hours; let me say, is there not oftentimes in this that that causes the darkness to pass away? I believe, that as such moments drive you upon the atoning blood, as theysend you to the finished work and the glorious righteousness of the incarnate God, as they make you live upon the complete fulness in the consciousness of your own weakness, so do you find that the pathway of obedience is the pathway of happiness. I might just refer you to one passage, in the fifth of Ephesians, in reference to the saints of God there addressed as "children of the light;" and I would have you mark it, and I pray that God may mark it in your heart and in mine. "Let no man deceive you with vain words; for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light." Now look at the parenthesis that follows; that parenthesis takes in heaven. "For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth." Is not this the pathway of light? Is not this holy frame, is not this hallowed temper, is not this sanctified spirit, the very element of holiness? Surely. Once more; let me commend to your prayerful notice a passage in the 119th Psalm, bearing on the same subject. Oh! how clearly is it there written out, that the path of obedience is the path of light! "Thou art my portion, O Lord: I have said that I would keep Thy words. I intreated Thy favour with my whole heart: be merciful unto me according to Thy Word. I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto Thy testimonies. I made haste, and delayed not to keep Thy commandments. The bands of the wicked have robbed me: but I have not forgotten Thy law. At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto Thee, because of thy righteous judgments. I am a companion of all them that fear Thee, and of them that keep Thy precepts. The earth, O Lord, is full of Thy mercy teach me Thy statutes." As I look over this paragraph of eight verses, I never seem to read them, but it appears a region of light. It is a region of holiness; therefore a region of light. And when, under the constrainings of the love of Christ, under the drawings of the Spirit of adoption, under the sprinklings of the blood on our conscience, we are led to say—' Here am I, Lord; circumcise my heart, that I may love Thee as a child and walk with Thee as a child,'-surely we then begin to have some practical understanding of that truth-"He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness." But I must not detain you longer on this part of my subject. There are some concluding remarks, that I would make. One sees clearly how it is that the great mass of our fellow-men are in darkness. They follow not Christ. They do not see their need of Christ; they do not feel their want of Christ. Therefore they are in the region of darkness. The darkness of nature the darkness of death; the darkness of a legal spirit-the darkness of death; the darkness of the dread that oftentimes is upon their conscience-the darkness of death; the darkness of the fear of death-the darkness of death; and the dread of hell. Some of you know it. You know it; you could say as before God, you have it not. All this is the region of darkness. And what said our Lord to such? Oh! see how He reasons with them; and you, my dear brothers, that see not as I see with regard to reasoning with sinners, oh! I pray you, look over this twelfth of John, and see how the Lord treats with them and counsels them. This was the people, not His disciples: "The people answered Him, We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth for ever: and how sayest thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? who is this Son of man? Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you; walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth." And that is just what you are ignorant of; you "know not whither you are going." If you did but see the precipice, if you did but see what lies before you, if you did but see the fearful, dreadful consequence of the next step, oh! you would turn (as it were) in horror from your present sleepy condition, and cry to the Lord for mercy. May the Lord open it to your heart, and fix it upon your conscience! "While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of the light." Oh! my brother-my brother, do not attempt to wrest the Word of God; do not wrench it; do not bend it; do not make it subservient to human systems; take it as God gives it, and have (forgive the word) the honesty to let it have full play. | darkness at times. And some there are, "These things spake Jesus;" and now that are greatly concerned about the inthere comes one of the most awful words "these things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide Himself from them." This may be the last sermon, that ever you hear; this may be the last word. You may from this hour be hid in a sick chamber; you may be given up to perfect imbecility of mind; the possession of intellect may be taken from you; God may cause you to betake yourself to that dreadful solitude, from which there is no escape. "These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide Himself from them." Oh! take it home and pray-take it home and pray. Trifle not. It is heaven or hell. Oh! trifle not. The Lord lay it with almighty power upon your hearts. go ner walk, greatly and mainly concerned We see too why it is, that many who are awakened and brought to a real concern for their souls, yet are still in great darkness they follow not Christ. They follow their own impressions; they follow their own convictions; they follow their own thoughts, their own imaginations; they listen to Moses, they go to Sinai; but they do not follow Christ. They turn their back upon the freeness of the salvation as if this were not true-" To him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt; but to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness:" as if it were not the very glory of God to give salvation, and as if the merest beggar wanting it, stretching out his poor palsied hand, empty as emptiness, yet coming "with out money and without price," should ever have a denial. "Him that cometh I will in no wise cast out." We see at once, wherefore there are those, who are brought to such a point in the Divine life, and yet are still in great darkness. sun, Be Oh! to "follow the Lord fully!" it true, that Jesus is the light? Is it true, that He is the sun? Supposing 1 could follow the sun, I must be in perpetual light; if I could follow the if there were no interposing medium, I must be in ceaseless light. loved, the more we are led by the eternal Spirit to follow Christ, the more light there must be. Oh! to follow Him fully! Oh! to follow Him earnestly! Oh! to follow Him with all our hearts! Oh! to follow Him perseveringly to the very end, sustained by the grace of God and the love of Christ Jesus! And we perceive too, beloved, why it is, that many who are real believers are little enjoying the true happiness of the Gospel: they "follow," but they "follow afar off." They are more conversant with just the walls of the city, than with its citadel. They can look at certain truths, and believe that there is no salvation for them but in Christ Jesus-(if they did not, they were no believers at all); but with regard to the completeness, the glory, the freeness, the finished work and the complete righteousness, they hitherto look at it as a thing rather fearful than otherwise, afraid to trust it; and thereby they remain for years in a state of much And I would say, beloved, (and let that be my parting and concluding observation,) follow Him so closely, that you may see the eye of a covenant God. Oh ! I would not in that sense rest even in Christ; I must come through Christ to God. I must find access to a Father through the Beloved-through Him in whom He delights; and the desire of my soul is, that I may rest beneath a Father's eye. And when I see my covenant God, my Father, forgiving, blessing, healing, strengthening, upholding; when I see the full treasury, when I see the open fountain, when I see more than a father's tenderness and more than a mother's love, then I find there is a region, that has but one door beyond it: and that is-the LIGHT where darkness shall be no more. May the Lord of all grace give you and me grace to realise it in the inner man! And the glory shall be Thine, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. THE CHURCH NEVER NATIONALISED IN SCRIPTURE.-A Correspondent of The Record observes "We never meet with such expressions as the following in the New Testament -the Corinthian, Ephesian, Laodicean, or Roman Church. "Neither can we find the words 'Church of Laodicea,' or 'Church of Ephesus,' in the Greek; and I name these, because they afford the only instances of this mode of expression in our English version. In the first of these passages (Col. iv. 16) the Apostolic expression is the Church of the Laodiceans." In the latter (Rev. ii. 1) it is 'the Church in Ephesus'-and this scriptural form of expression has been carefully preserved by our translators in the addresses to the other Churches. "We read of the Churches at Jerusalem, Antioch, Babylon, &c.; but this case resolves into the last, the Greek being in variably in. "But while so much care is taken by the sacred writers never to nationalize any individual Church, CHURCHES, in the plural, are nationalized without scruple, and we read of the Churches of Galatia, Judea, Asia, and Macedonia.'" UNION.-It was lately proposed that a deputation of Non-Intrusionist Ministers of the Established Church of Scotland should visit England with a view to interest Christians here to aid them in their resistance to Patronage, as now exercised by Laymen and without any Veto on the part of the people. Sir Culling Eardley Smith having endeavoured to induce Dissenting Ministers to open their pulpits to them, received letters on the subject, from which the following are Extracts: From the Rev. Dr. Harris of Cheshunt." I have no doubt whatever of the propriety of admitting the Non-Intrusionist clergymen into the Voluntary pulpit. The objection to it proceeds on the principle that his admission would imply that the Voluntary only objected to lay patronage; inasmuch as the Non-Intrusionist still holds ecclesiastical patronage. But do I admit the truth of the sentiments of every man I admit, and even welcome, to my pulpit? If so, the Dissenter must cease to blame the Episcopalian for closing his pulpit against him; for, by the Dissenter's own showing, the Episcopalian would, by so doing, be publishing his indifference to an Establishment. Whereas, we are accustomed to blame the Episcopalian for not admitting us, on the ground of our holding so many great truths in common." From the Rev. Dr. Pye Smith." It would afford me sincere pleasure to show all the respect and attention in my power to any of the ministers of the Church of Scotland, on their proposed visit to the south for the vindication of their conduct, and the exposition of their principles; and I shall gladly welcome them to my pulpit for that purpose. All that is due to them, on the ground of human justice and Evangelical love. In relation to the differences which may exist between ourselves and the Scottish anti-patronage advocates, assuming them to be men of sincere and practical godliness, I cordially apply the apostolic decision,- If in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you: nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.' They should enter my pulpit without any stipulations, cautions, or requests whatever." From the Rev. Dr. Wardlaw, of Glasgow." It is not of opening our pulpits to these good men, considered in their capacity of Christian ministers, that I now speak; but of opening them to these ministers in their character of anti-patronage deputies from the Established Church of Scotland. I strongly feel as if, in the proposal on which you wish my judgment, there were a deficiency, on both sides, of that open, straightforward honesty, which is in all things so desirable. In your letter I find this sentence: It is considered that the good feeling of the Scotch clergy will prevent their entering upon an abstract defence of Establishments, while occupying Voluntary pulpits. Now, don't call me ultra-squeamish, when I say I don't like even this. Here is a good man and a good minister with his conscience trammelled. He is pleading for one thing, but he is suppressing another with which it stands intimately and inseparably connected; and, in suppressing it, is, in truth, concealing his main object, which, were he to speak out, would be to exhibit the excellence and paramount claims of an Establishment, when cleared of such Erastian abuse. Even his pleading against patronage is an indirect pleading for the Establishment; just as when we plead for the removal from a favourite building of aught that is detrimental either to its symmetrical appearance or to its stability, it is for the structure itself that we are asserting our advocacy. This is very scrimp honesty on the one side; nor, on the other, is the measure of it much larger, when the Dissenting minister, by admitting his anti-patronage brother to his pulpit, appears as if countenancing the object of his advocacy, when the secret reality is, that his mind, and the mind of the pleader, are, on the main point, at utter variance; the one desiring the putting down of patronage for the sake of the independence and stability of the Church, that Church remaining an Establishment,— while the other is regarding the independence of any Established Church as a chimera,—as neither, indeed, possible nor desirable; and contemplating the anti-patronage movement with a satisfaction the very opposite in its source to that of its advocate, as tending, not to its stability, but to its overthrow-its overthrow I mean, of course, as an Establishment-not to the confirmation of its connection with the State, but the happy dissolution of that connection? Both hold the independence of the Church; but the independence of the Church for which the Churchman pleads, is the independence of the Church continuing established: and this is an independence which the Dissenter holds neither can be, nor ought to be if it could. In these circumstances, as it seems to me, appearances and realities are not at all in harmony. On both sides there is too much of mental reservation, and a deficiency in the primary Christian virtues of simplicity and godly sincerity.' To my eyes, there is too much of hypocrisy in uniting for the attainment of any present and partial object, when the general views of the parties, are so widely different, and their ultimate aims the very opposite of each other. It is more consistent with integrity, candour, and mutual honour, for each party to prosecute its own ends by its own means and its own agency." Review of Boobs. SCRIPTURE ILLUSTRATED BY ENGRAVINGS, Designed from existing Authorities. Part I., Price 1s. Religious Tract Society. THIS is the First Number of a Work, which is to be issued monthly, and the object of which is to present a series of Engravings, that shall convey accurate ideas of events narrated in Scripture. No doubt, the paintings of the old masters are in this respect defective, however finely executed; they are too often fancy-not fact; nor indeed were oriental usages then so well known as at present. It is often easier to convey a clear idea and fix a deep impression on the mind by a picture, than by a long narrative; and therefore no one ought to despise this medium of instruction, nor should Christians leave it in the hands of ignorance and superstition. The present undertaking we think highly laudable. The number contains four Engravings, to each of which is appended a very clear account of the subject, with a few appropriate reflections. The subjects are-Jacob tending the flocks of Laban, Manasseh carried captive to Babylon, The infant Moses found by Pharaoh's Daughter, and Caleb's Daughter soliciting Water-Springs with her gift of lands. The Engravings are well done; but their main feature of excellence is, we apprehend, their accordance with what we know or can fairly conjecture of the facts, as they really occurred. To this point great attention appears to have been paid; and in consequence, the work deserves high praise. THE ANTIDOTE: A Monthly Magazine for the Refutation of Modern Delusions, and for the Defence of Christian Truth. No. I. July 1842. pp. 16. Price 3d. Nisbet and Co., Berners Street. MR. BRINDLEY, the avowed Editor of this Periodical, is a very earnest and zealous man, and has been extremely useful in opposing Socialism in various places. The present work includes an exposure of other errors, and indeed of 1nfidelity in all its phases; and we are almost afraid that more is undertaken than can be well done in so small a space. The first Number, however, is very good, and the work promises well. There are some marks of hasty composition-a snare against which the Editor should watch; the matter might also have been better arranged; but if due attention be given, the publication will certainly prosper. |