I've one day less my watch to keep,
My foes to fear, my falls to weep;
I've one day less to view within
Conflict, defeat, remore, and sin.

I've one day less the ground to tread,
Where storms abound, and snares are spread;
To view a world of sin and care,
Disease and sorrow, pain and war.

And O! reflect, my fainting soul,
Thou'rt one stage nearer to the goal;
Thou'rt nearer to the happy shore,
Where sin will never grieve thee more.
Thou'rt nearer to that holy state,
On which thou lov'st to meditate;
Thou'rt nearer to that heavenly home
Where all the ransom'd soon shall come.

If the sweet presence of thy God
To-day has bless'd and cheered thy road,
Think, what must be that glorious place,
Where he will never hide his face.

If thou hast found it good, to call
On him to whom thou owest thy all;
Think how the white rob'd choir above
In ceaseless songs exalt his love.

If thou hast oft been led astray,
And mournfully review'st the day,
Still strive the more that state t'attain,
Where thou wilt never sin again.

If thou hast wept for friends endear'd,
Whose converse once thy journey cheer'd;
Think, how in heaven no cause will sever,
The bond that reunites for ever!

Let ev'ry gift by God bestow'd,
And kind refreshment on the road;
Let ev'ry sorrow, hope, and fear,
Incite my soul to persevere.

And thou, my only Help and Guide,
Than whom I have no Hope beside;
Whose eye beholds me when I fail,
Whose arm sustains when I prevail ;
O hear me! grant what I implore!
And if on earth I wake no more,
Receive my last, my dying prayer;
Hear it in heaven, fulfil it there.

FOSTER, PRINTER, KIRKBY LONSDALE.

FRIENDLY VISITOR.

No. CLXIX.]

OCTOBER, 1832.

[VOL. XIV.

WORD OF WARNING.

"I beseech you by the mercies of God, by the salvation of your soul; by your comforts when your eye-strings shall break, and the face wax pale, and the soul shall tremble to be out of the lodging of clay; and by your appearance before your Judge, to make sure work of your salvation. Oh! if there were a free market of salvation proclaimed in that day, when the trumpet of God shall awake the dead, and when so many thousand thousands shall stand wailing before Christ, trembling, shouting, and making their prayers to hills and mountains, "to fall upon them and hide them from the face of the Lamb," how many buyers would be then! what are all the sinners in the world, in that day when heaven and earth shall go up in a flame of fire, but a number of beguiled dreamers! Every one shall say of his hunting and of his conquest; "Behold it was a dream." Remember

what peace with God in Christ, and the presence of the Son of God, and the revealed and felt sweetness of his love will be to you, when you come to the black and swelling river of death. My earnest desire to you is, that you would, in the fear of God, compare your hand-breadth of time with vast eternity, and your thoughts of this now fair and blooming world, with the thoughts you shall have of it, when corruption and worms shall eat your flesh, and make that body dry bones: what thoughts will you then have of idol pleasures that possibly are now sweet? what would you then give for the Lord's favour? and what a price would you then give for pardon! Death is the last thief, that shall come without noise, and take our souls away, and we shall take our leave of time, and face eternity; and our Lord shall lay together the two sides of this earthly tabernacle, and put the one half of us in an house of clay, the dark grave, and the other half of us in

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heaven or hell. Beware, beware of unsound work, in the matter of your salvation: build not upon sand; lay the foundation upon the Rock in Zion; for I see many leaky vessels before the wind, and professors who take their conversion upon trust, and they go on securely, and see not the under-water, till a storm sink them. It were wisdom for us to be free, plain, honest, and sharp with our own souls. Your soul is of more worth to you than the whole world. No loss is comparable to the loss of the soul; there is no hope of regaining that loss. O how comfortable a thing shall it be to you, when time shall be no more, and you shall depart out of the house of clay, into vast and endless eternity, to have your soul dressed, and prepared for your Bridegroom. Many are beguiled • with this, that they are free of scandalous and crying abominations; but the tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, is for the fire. The man that is not born again, cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Alas! that men should think they ever met with Christ, who had never a sore heart for sin. Search yourself, and try if the life of God and Christ be in you. The righteous are scarcely saved; and many who run fast, miss the prize. When so few are saved, as God's word saith, what cause have we to shake ourselves out of ourselves, and to ask our souls, "whither goest thou? Where shalt thou lodge at night? Where are thy charters and writs of thy heavenly inheritance?" Sleep not sound till you find yourself in that case, that you dare look death in the face, and durst hazard your soul upon eternity. Why will you die and destroy yourself? This is "the accepted time," this is the day of salvation." Consider in this your day, the things that belong to your peace, before they be hid from your eyes." O betake yourself to Christ without further delay; you will be fain at length to seek Him, or do infinitely worse."*. "Christ is able to save you from the pollution and defilement of your foulest lusts and sins; and that "by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost." Tit. iii. 5. Those spots of

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*Rutherford,

defilement, that have so polluted and stained your consciences, that no tears, though your eyes were turned into ever-running streams, would ever be able to wash out, yet the sprinkling of the blood of Christ can. It can purge the heart and conscience from "dead works;" and change the scarlet and crimson complexion of it, into whiteness and purity. Christ is able to save, not only from the pollution of the foulest, but from the guilt and condemnation of the greatest sins; and that by a free pardon and remission of them. Is it the numberless number of them that affrights thee? Were they yet more, Christ can save thee from them; (1 John i. 7.) "The blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin." Dost thou complain, that thy sins are as many in number as the sand upon the seashore? Yea, but dost thou not know likewise, that the sea can cover the sands? So the everflowing blood of Christ can reach the uttermost borders and extent of all thy sins; and keep them from the sight of God, that they shall never more appear. Be persuaded therefore, to accept of the tenders of an all-sufficient Saviour: if you now neglect so great salvation, as the Lord Jesus in the Gospel proffers to you, your death may be so soon, as to prevent another offer of Him to you.'

ON THE NATURE AND THE SIGNS OF OUR LORD'S
SECOND ADVENT.

(From the Christian Observer.)

What are the signs of the advent of the reign of the Redeemer? and, What are we to understand by that advent?

1. With regard to the signs of the coming of our Saviour's reign, he himself in Luke xxi. distinctly specifies three.

The first sign we have in verse 14, namely, that Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the hour or time of the advent of the Saviour's reign. Now it is clear that that hour has not yet arrived; for, from the ruin of Jerusalem to the present time it is the Gentiles, that is, people who are not Israel, whatever religion they may profess, who tread under foot the hills of Sion. But it further results from our Saviour's prediction, that, since it is only until that period that Jerusalem will be

thus trodden under foot, she will no longer be trodden down when that period shall actually have come, but, on the contrary, Israel shall be re-established in Jerusalem. If we do not admit this, Jesus would have spoken a word without meaning. And this is perfectly in accordance with innumerable promises in the word of God. For instance, we read thus in Zech. viii. 7, 8, "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country; and I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God in 'truth and in righteousness." Here are two things which clearly shew that Zechariah is not speaking of the seventy years' captivity; because, first, this prediction occurs in the writings of a prophet who flourished after the Babylonish captivity; and secondly, the Lord declares that he will save or bring back his people from the east and from the west, and, in other passages, from all the lands or countries of the earth: which can in no respect be applied to the return from Babylon, for that was a return only from the east. But it is perfectly applicable to the present captivity of the children of Israel, who are now dispersed among all the nations of the world.

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But what is to precede Israel's return to Jerusalem? The conversion of Israel, according to St. Paul (Rom. xi. 26): “All Israel shall be saved; as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and he shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob." This conversion of Israel, which is to precede the advent of the Redeemer's reign upon earth, has not yet been accomplished. But do we not behold in our days the symptoms and first beginning of that conversion? For from the time that Titus planted the Roman eagle on the ruins of Jerusalem, when has so much care for Israel been evinced by the Christian church, and so much zeal to bring that banished people to the knowledge of the Redeemer? How many Christian Missionaries are there, both Gentile and Jewish, who are saying to Zion, "Thy King cometh unto thee full of meekness." Establishments are forming in this and in other countries to receive the returning fugitives of the house of Jacob; and among the dispersed tribes there prevails a spirit of inquiry and of anxious expectation; many are looking to Him whom their ancestors pierced. In Holland and in Germany, converted Jews have consecrated their learning to the glory of their Redeemer; and