doubt this young man's restoration and renewal to repentance.

Since then he has met with another case, but as he has only authority to mention it generally, he can give no particulars. Suffice it to say, that this person, after giving many strong proofs of conversion, was ultimately drawn away from the profession of the gospel by the blandishments and seductions of the world, and continued for several years under the dominion of them, quite contented, and with no wish to return to God at all. When God's time, however arrived, the fire of his wrath came down upon him with a suddenness and a fury that was irresistible and awful. He had not a shadow of a hope left, and firmly believed that there was nothing whatever but hell for him. And yet this person was recovered, and restored, and pardoned. The case which we have before alluded to, as mentioned by Miss Plumptre, is to be found in her published Letters, pp. 410-13. Writing to an afflicted friend in the year 1829, she says:- ." I have, as you desired, my dear afflicted friend, been on my knees, begging, that as the pen is in my hand, so I myself may be in the hand of my God; that I may be only moved and guided by him; and that the words he teacheth me to say may indeed be a message from God' to your precious soul; for truly except he speak, vain is the help of man. The Holy Spirit has therefore been pleased to take

to himself the title of THE Comforter,' not a comforter, but the only one; for you and I have both found, my dear fellow-traveller, that until he removes the burden from us, not all our companions, however kind, however desirous, can move it one inch; and if he give the quietness, if it be but, as it were, with a look, who then can make trouble? I have earnestly entreated him thus to turn and look upon you, my sorrowing friend; but before I could ask, he seemed to say, How is it that thou dost not understand that I am looking upon her, or whence would arise those groans of deep distress, this horror that hath overwhelmed her? Does Satan thus disturb his own? Would drowsy, dead nature thus give the alarm? Oh, Lord, I do see, and I would acknowledge, thy might. I find no seared conscience here, but the cries of thy own spirit, long indeed resisted, long unheeded, but not quenched; no, nor ever shall be, till a worm be found stronger than Omnipotence, and exulting devils cry over the ruins of a deserted soul, Behold here proofs of weakness and impotency in the all-wise, all-powerful Jehovah, inasmuch as he began to build, and is not able to finish.' Oh, be such a thought far, far from us! You ask me if I have ever known such a case as yours; I am truly happy and thankful to have to tell you, that within the last three weeks, the blessed deliverance from even worse thraldom than you are in, of a poor woman in this place, has

6

come under my immediate notice. One with whom I used to take sweet counsel, who seemed to enjoy spiritual things, and whose only concern was, that her husband did not help her on in the way, was drawn away by the wiles of the devil, and has been a fearful backslider. She said she felt that God had forsaken her; that SATAN HAD FULL POSSESSION OF HER; that there was not a promise that could reach her; that all I said about her soul was useless, &c. In this awful state she has continued above a year.

Last week a message was sent by a pious neighbour, to beg I would go and visit this poor woman, who was seeking her long-lost Lord, sorrowing. I went, and found that the faithful Shepherd had indeed brought back his silly sheep from the wretched mountain on which it had been wandering in the cloudy and dark day. In the night she had been roused with the inquiry, 'What must I do to be saved?' and the God of peace spoke his own sweet answer to her very heart, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou SHALT be saved.' Once more she looked into her long unopened Bible; once more she bent her stubborn knee; once more she went up to the courts of the Lord. This was about ten days before I saw her. Her hope is indeed very faint, but it comes from the God of hope, and shall not make her ashamed. She

appears like the poor backslider spoken of in

Ezek. xvi. 63, as if she would never open her mouth

66

any more because of her shame, 'When I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord.' I read to her Hosea xiv., to which she listened with many tears; she now and then sobbed out, 'Oh, I am afraid I am lost!' I said, 'I am very pleased to hear you call yourself by that name; you are the very one then that Jesus came to seek and to save. I don't ask how far you have been, for he does not; I don't ask how many calls you have slighted, for he does not; but I can tell you this message from his own mouth, “ I will heal their backslidings, I will love them freely; mine anger is turned away. They may remember, and go sorrowing at the remembrance; but I will remember no more, it shall not be mentioned unto them.' Oh, my friend, don't think yours are the first wounds of the sort, or the worst that ever were taken in hand. The first they surely are not, as many a well-healed David could testify; and the worst—oh, yes, say you, but they are the worst. Well, be it so; but what are your wounds, that they should exhaust all the balm in Gilead, and withstand all the skill of that Almighty Physician? Oh, no, no, no! you shall yet sit at the feet of Jesus, watering them, it may be, with many tears; but you shall sit and sing as in the days of your youth, and as in the day when you came up out of Egypt (Hosea ii. 15). The Lord shall speak comfortably to you, and the days of darkness and de

E

sertion shall be ended. My paper is full, but my heart has not yet emptied itself. I will pour it out again to the Lord for you, and beg that he may put his blessing in this letter, and then it shall be blessed indeed.

We shall close this portion of our subject, by a consideration of the past state and future condition of God's chosen people Israel, which we think the apostle, from his extensive knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures, from his intimate acquaintance with the then condition and future prospects of his nation (Rom. chap. ix., x., and xi.), and with his deep and ardent love for them (Rom. ix. 1-5, and x. 1, &c.); writing, as he was, to Hebrews themselves, and speaking primarily of Hebrews; could hardly fail, from its extreme aptness, himself to have had in his mind at the time.* We shall ourselves see its aptness as we proceed. For when the apostle speaks of those to whom he addressed this Epistle, as "beloved, we are persuaded better things of you," &c., he speaks, no doubt, not only charitably, as is his wont, in all his Epistles, but prophetically also, if we may so say, contrasting those to whom he

* But whether the apostle himself had this in his mind or not, we believe that the blessed Spirit, who spoke by him, clearly alludes to it.