When in marble magnificence stainless and high, Like a hill clad in snow wreaths all fresh from the sky; It sparkled in sunshine, fit emblem to be, Insignificant dwindle when likened to this. And high in the midst, in the posture of prayer, LINES. REZENEB. Suggested on hearing a Sermon preached by Rev. R. Luckin, at Woodbridge Chapel, Clerkenwell, on Sunday, April 24, 1842. "Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought !-Num. xxiii. 23. Lord, how secure thy people are, For they, are ever thine. God has declared his word shall stand, His people shall be brought; Shouting "What hath God wrought !" What hath God wrought? He saved from hell His bride who had in Adam fell, And all her battles fought; no more; Yet soon he returns, and our sky becomes bright When Jesus appears to our then ravish'd sight. Then hope is our anchor, and faith is our shield, Which under his banner we manfully wield; Nor fear we the foe while our Captain is near, For his presence subdues our every fear. Then hasten, ye moments, how tardy your flight, Which keep us from Jesus in whom we delight. We long, Oh we long for that glorious day; Yet, Lord, if thy pleasure we should longer stay, Oh give us contentment, whate'er be our lot, Nor let thy past goodness by us be forgot. Now the foes of our God are thick gathering round, And the whirlpools of error more widely abound: While thousands are caught in its deadly embrace, God's saints are preserved by his Spirit and grace: This truth her security, time shall fulfil, However discouraging, nought but his will. THE SPIRITUAL MAGAZINE, AND ZION'S CASKET. "For there are Three that bear record in heaven, the FATHER, the WORD, and the HOLY GHOST: and these Three are One."-1 John v. 7. Earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.-Jude 3. Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience."-1 Tim. iii. 6. JULY, 1842. A SALUTATION FROM AFAR. Messrs. Editors,—Dear Brethren, WE stretch out the land of christian fellowship to you across the wide Atlantic, and greet you in the name of our most precious Christ; and congratulate you on the favour he has conferred upon you, in continuing you so long in so conspicuous a place on the wall of Zion, while so many of her faithful watchmen have been called home to glory. Not for your sake, but for Zion's sake; for if you have been detained a little longer from the banquet above, you have been more useful in collecting viands for the feast below. We use the plural pronoun, not because we affect the princely style, but because we write in the name of a small portion of that afflicted and poor people, whom Jehovah hath left in the midst of the great professing multitude who rejoice in their pride, and are haughty because of their numbers and their doings (Zeph. iii. 11, 12). In the present estate of the church, while so many have a name to live and are dead, the remnant according to the election of grace are described as walking with Christ in white. Oh! what a body July, 1842. of divinity is contained in these few words. They appear in white! -naturally they are black, yea, and filthy, and polluted, from the crown of the head to the sole of the footnow they are wrapped in á vestment' of pure white, even Jehovah's spotless righteousness (2 Cor. v. 21), They walk with Christ.-they can walk with him, because they are agreed, they are of the same mind. And they walk after his example. They walk up and down in this great and fearful name of the Lord their God: up the mountain of sensible enjoyment, and down into the valley of humiliation and self-abasement. We have been favoured with your periodical from its commencement in 1824; and as we have no stated pastor, we assemble together on the Lord's-day, and read Gospel Tracts, and such portions of your Magazine as are best adapted to that purpose. And we would just hint to your able Correspondents, that if they would furnish more pieces in the shape of short sermons, they would be employed as the Lord's servants in spreading a table for many of Christ's poor in the wilderness, of which they' may have no knowledge until they meet them in the world cʻ glory. U Being separated from you by the wide ocean, it frequently happens that we receive several of your numbers at one time. This was the case in the Autumn of 1841, in which we observed with grief and surprise a controversy about Family Prayer, conducted in such a way as we think likely to do much mischief. You will excuse our allusion to that unhappy event after you have dropped it, when you consider that what is And if old with you is new to us. we should be rather prolix, you will remember that we seldom occupy your pages. Believing as we do, that every man who is created after the image of God, possesseth the organs of spiritual respiration, and that they are essential to his existence; we deemed it strange indeed that one making such professions of spiritual life, should ask, Where is the precept or example for family prayer? ?? Did not your correspondent Gad know, that the words secret, family, and public, are distinctive epithets of local signification only? and that Paul, in 1 Tim. ii. 8, says, "I will therefore that men pray everywhere" (en panti topo in every place?) Why then should he ask one of those foolish and unlearned questions, which the apostle exhorts Timothy to avoid. knowing that they engender strifes; which was abundantly manifested by the way in which the controversy was aanaged. Our most glorious Christ set us the example of praying in every place (especially with his family), in the sense the apostle means, when on earth, by his bodily presence. And what is his employment now, as our exalted High Priest, but interceding for them above! Should it be objected that our precious Christ had no family we answer, If a Father and Husband, a Wife and Children, constitute a family, then our dear Immanuel had, and still has a family; for he is the Everlasting Father, and : the Husband of his Hephzibah, who is the Bride, the Lamb's wife; and the election of grace are all his children, and of him the whole family in heaven and earth is named. The truth is, prayer is no where in the word of God enjoined as a precept, because the Holy Spirit, who is the author of the scriptures, is in every regenerate child of God a spirit of prayer. This Holy Breath of Jehovah is as essential to the life of the new-born soul, as the vital air is to the life of the body: hence prayer in scripture is expressed by breathing, crying, and groaning, &c. And it is worthy of remark, that the first expression of the new-born infant in nature, when its lungs first inhale the vital air, is that of crying: so in grace, Behold he prayeth.' ་་ The apostles did not ask the vain questions, when or where they should pray? but how they should pray? And the answer was, "After this manner pray ye." For Jesus knew that the Spirit would influence them to pray always, and in every place. When the humble believer returns from the crowded assembly or the thronged street; enters into his house, and shuts his door, and prayeth in the audience of his family; he is following his Lord's directions Matt vi. 6, as much as though he should go alone into some private corner and there pour out his soul into the ears of his heavenly Father: for it was not the place, but the spirit of the ostentatious hypocrite that Christ condemned. And those to whom the in directions were given understood them so; for we found them afterward praying in every place and on all occasions. If our Lord is to be understood in any other way than that just mentioned, his design must have been to forbid public prayer altogether, which we know was not the case. And if his people would follow his directions and example, in being more brief and comprehensive in their supplications, the objection against family prayer, for want of time, would be entirely obviated. As for ourselves, we are not afraid to affirm, in the face of a troop of Gads, that every true believer, who walks in the light, and has a family under his care, will be led, by the Spirit and word of God, to breathe out his desires after holiness, bless God for his mercies, groan under his burdens, and cry out for deliverance in presence of his family; and that statedly and perseveringly, instead of asking, Where is the precept or example for family prayer? A few words on the way in which the controversy was managed. We on this side of the Atlantic, are truly amazed at your rough and uncourtly manner of handling each other in the public prints. We are sure the word of God does not countenance such bitterness among brethren, nor did the primitive christians set the example. When the sheep continue to fight, we shall not be surprised to see the wolf sent among them to drive them together. Wishing you much of that prudence which foreseeth the evil, and that zeal which is according to knowledge, we remain, yours, in the love of God, [IN our present correspondent we recognize one from whom fifteen years ago, we received and inserved some beautiful lines, beginning," From Wakefield's distant wilderness I send," &c. We hope our future communications will not be so few and far between. Although we have never, and may never meet in the flesh, we believe we are travelling to the same home, and amid the toils and the temptations of the pilgrimage, it will be encouraging to converse of the expected inheritance, and to cheer one another with accounts of love visits to each from the Lord of the Hill. We hope some of our Correspondents, will bear in mind the request of Metrios, as to the nature of communications which will be most valued, and in which we fully agree with him. We insert Metrios, letter just as he has sent it; his views respecting the controversy on family prayer will be seen: but as we do not believe it would be profitable, so neither is it our intention to re-open the discussion.-ED.] LITERARY NOTICE. Published this day, a New Edition of Cobler How's celebrated Sermon on the Sufficiency of the Spirit's Teaching without Human Learning, 18mo, cloth, lettered, 1s. 3d. AN ORIGINAL LETTER OF THE LATE REV. SAMUEL EYLES PIERCE. Never before Published. My Dear Friend Mrs. J. I AM informed that our blessed Lord hath been pleased to visit you, by afflicting your body with very great weakness, the effects and consequences of which must be left wholly with him. From the real respect I have for you, I cannot but feel for and sympathize with you. It is faith in the Son of God which alone as exercised on him, and his plenteous redemption, can bear you up, and carry you safely through the whole process of his divine dispensation; and there is in Christ that which is all-sufficient to support us in life, to carry us through trials, pains sickness, and weaknesses; to comfort us in the hour of death, and to fill us with hopes full of immortality. Oh that the Lord Jesus may sanctify and bless the present visitation to you, that as the outward man decayeth, the inward man may be renewed day by day. My dear friend at such a season you will be naturally led to pore on yourself, to look on your sins, to look within yourself for some ground of hope to fix your faith upon, to look on your beloved partner and dear children and to have and entertain distressing cares and fears, and overlook Christ who is a present help in time of need. As to your poreing on yourself, no good will rise to you therefrom. You are a poor, guilty, sinful, helpless person in and of your-, self, therefore you need an almighty Saviour who is able in himself, and by himself alone, to save you with an everlasting salvation. As it respects your sins, Peter tells us, Christ himself hath borne our sins in his own body on the tree;" and John tells us, The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin:" and Zechariah tells us that Christ's blood is" a fountain opened for sin and uncleanness." It is of the utmost importance to know Christ in his 66 great work of salvation, and to trust by simple faith on him alone for everlasting life. Nothing is more clearly revealed and set before us, in the holy scriptures, than man's fall and Christ's salvation. By the former we are each and every individual of his posterity eternally undone, in and of ourselves; equally and alike guilty, sinful, and defiled: one heart is not more corrupted than another: all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." The Eternal Three, out of infinite love, and grace, and mercy to the elect of human race, did, before all worlds, contrive the method of saving an innumerable company of sinful, guilty creatures, from the ruins of the fall and eternal damnation. The eternal Father laid his help on Christ, his co-equal, coeternal, and co-essential Son, who at his Father's call, and in agreement with his Father's will, engaged to become the Surety and Saviour of his people, who were considered in a state of sin, laying in darkness and in the shadow of death. As soon as time began, and sin had corrupted all flesh by the fall of the first man, Christ as the Lamb of God, the serpent-Bruiser the almighty Saviour was immediately revealed and made known, and from that time to the present moment he is set forth in the everlasting gospel, as the friend and saviour of all who put their trust in him; he says, Lock unto me, and be ye saved, or ye shall be saved." To save his people from their sins, he, according to his covenant engagement with his Father before all time, became true and very man, in the fulness of time by taking our nature into union with his Divine Person, and thus he became God and Man in the person of one Christ, by which means he became capable of obeying and suffering in the law-place and room of his people, the just for the unjust. He as the Saviour, had all the sins of all his people laid by his Father on him, and he bore them in 66 He was his own body on the tree. made sin for us, and died under the imputation of all the guilt and filth contained in the sinfulness of the nature, hearts,- thoughts, and lives of his people; and he died for our sins, and suffered in his holy soul and immaculate body all the punishment due to sin. Jesus Christ did taste of that death which sinners for themselves must otherwise have undergone, for he died as our surety and in our stead. Hence sin, our sins, being imputed to him, he was sore amazed; his soul was very heavy, sorrowful even unto death; was filled with astonishment at the overwhelmings of divine wrath which came in upon him; was in an agony, and sweat great drops of blood: yea, when the whole fulness of the curse and wrath due to sin came in upon his righteous soul. he cried out,“ My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?" By our Lord's obedience and soul-travail, he finished salvationwork, abolished sin, brought in an everlasting righteousness, made peace, vanquished Satan, conquered death, and opened a way for us into the holiest of all by his blood. And this Jesus, and his great salvation is set before you to look at, to trust in, now and evermore, for justification and pardon. Do not therefore look at yourself, at your sins and miseries, but obey the Lord's command to look to him. to him. Are you looking into yourself for some ground of hope to fix your faith on, this is altogether wrong. It is Christ in his own person, righteousness, blood, and sacrifice is the foundation God has laid for your faith and hope to fix on, and there is every thing in Christ to engage and encourage your faith and hope in him. Christ's heart is all love, his bowels are bowels of mercy. He is for sinners just such as you and I are. His blood is effectual, everlastingly effectual to cleanse from all sins, to take out every spot and stain, to justify and make us in the sight of God our |