might not rain, and it rained not for the space of three years and six months; he prayed again that it might rain, and it did so, because he prayed aright in the spirit of faith; yet he was a sinner, and a man of like passions with ourselves.

But we are such cowards, and so childish, that we are slow to ask, because we know that, if it should rain, our heavens may be overcast with blackness and darkness, and it may thunder and lighten; and as we remember these things as we felt them when at Sinai, and recollect how we trembled, being terrified with all that we heard and saw, we are almost ready to endure drought, rather than be thus scared again: but now mark the love and condescension of the Lord, and see how this feeling is kindly met :-" Ask of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain; so the Lord shall make bright clouds," and not dark ones, that so his timid dear little ones may not be frightened. He will make clouds on purpose for them. Is not this kind and encouraging? And need we go without showers of blessing? Our dear Brother is the Lord of the heavens, and he can send rain either for correction for his land, or in mercy. Yea, he can make heavenly weather, to suit his blood-bought heavenly people, who love to sit together with him in heavenly places. Oh, let not little faith be dumb, but open his mouth wide that it may be filled. Let him, with importunity, ask the Lord to give him rain; so will he make bright clouds and upbraid him not, but shower down wisdom bountifully upon him, and make the wilderness and solitary place to be glad for him, and the desert to blossom as the rose.

Ropley, May 20, 1841.

JAZER.

(To be continued.)

DEGREES IN GLORY.

A POINT in theology at which I am at a loss for information, I now lay before my readers, trusting that some one interested in the things pertaining to life eternal, may follow it up; which will afford, both to the writer and to the reader, contemplations profitable and instructive.

The point I refer to is, whether there are degrees in glory or not. Now it may excite in the mind of the reader an anxious concern, whether there are such degrees. By the term degrees, I am led to imagine what I may call the raising of the estimation of one above another, in the mind of Him in whom they live, and move, and have their being. Is it not recorded in the Scriptures, "He maketh one star to differ from another in glory;" from which we may infer, he maketh one angel of light to differ from another (in the same glory) inasmuch as that person, who ascribed much to him on earth, will in proportion be expected to ascribe it in heaven, to a greater extent; as it is written, "to whom much is given from him much will be required." This, I conceive, together with many other points in Scripture, to be such conclusive evidence of the point in question, that the

Christian in whose mind the inquiry arises, may be encouraged by the words of the apostle that "they shall be all of one fold and of one Shepherd." JAMES S. [Whatever the "difference" of which the Apostle speaks in his fifteenth chapter of Corinthians may be, of one fact we are assured, to which our correspondent will do well to take heed, lest the enemy should lead him out into mere speculative ground, and entrap him in the labyrinth of error in which thousands in the present day are involved an error which is nothing more nor less than setting forth creature-merit and creature-performances, derogatory to the glory of our God. The fact to which we allude is recorded by David in his 17th psalm, verse 15, “I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." To describe fully in what this satisfaction will consist, is beyond the power of any finite creature; we must die to realize it. "Eye hath not seen, nor hath ear heard" what it shall be; but "this we know, that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." He he will be the burden of the song, and the glory of the place. To follow out, however, the generally-received ideas of "degrees in glory"-with which, too, we apprehend our correspondent is in some measure tainted-would be to set up a number of idols in heaven; spirits which were once polluted as we now are, would become objects of admiration, and so detract from the excellency, the loveliness, the glory of Him to whom every eye shall be directed with untiring wonder. Upon the commonly-received principle, the imagination conjures up ministers with a train of converts in their rear; and we had nearly said, how there will be room found even in heaven for those whom some ministers in the present day, and in the days of good old John Wesley, have made, we are at a loss to conjecture; for we are sure there was never room made for them in the covenant arrangements of our Triune Jehovah. When he prepared mansions for his chosen family, he never took into the account mere moralists, empty professors, and men who are foremost to contend for the preceptive parts of Scripture, but who at the same time are ignorant of the depravity of the human heart, the craft of Satan, and the requirements of God's righteous law. We tremble for men who thus mislead souls, and for souls who are thus misled by them; because we are certain, if the word of God be true, such men will find themselves in an awful predicament at last, when instead of being admitted to the courts of heaven with a long train of followers, they shall be found among those whom the Saviour says (in Matt. vii. 23) he shall say unto them, "Depart from me, I never knew you." So far from merit or degree in glory, in the common acceptation of the term, the man by whom God the Holy Ghost has most wrought here, will stand with greatest wonder, amazement, and humility there, to think that so great a Being should have condescended to have made use of such a feeble instrument; and so far from seeking an exalted position, so overcome will he be with the glories of the place, that gladly will he take his seat beside a Mary Magdalene or a dying thief. To those who are exercised with these notions of "degrees in glory," we recommend the perusal of one of dear Erskine's Gospel Sonnets, entitled, "The Strife in Heaven:" upon reading that precious piece, the soul sinks into sweetest nothingness before God, and longs to fill the humblest place among that happy throng. ED.]

OUR PORTRAIT-REV. R. PYM.

are

As an accompaniment to our portrait for the present month, we have received a few CRUMBS FROM ELMLEY; and if we not greatly mistaken, THEY FELL FROM THE MASTER'S TABLE (Matt. xv. 27). As such, we present them to the tried, the needy, the hungry ones of the Lord's household; beseeching him, that as he sharpened their appetites by trial and suffering, he would now deign to bless the provision which his own hand has supplied. "Bless thine own truth, most precious Lord; carry it home with divine, unctuous, irre.

sistible power to the hearts of thine hidden ones; yea, let those of thy family the halting, the doubting, the fearful ones, venture to take of the bounties of thy hand, to eat, be nourished, and refreshed; looking out of poor sinful, needy, helpless self, up unto thee, their all-sufficient, all-suitable, ever-bountiful, ever-loving Lord. And wilt thou grant another rich blessing, gracious Lord; even that the halting, the stammering of thine own sent servants, may be encouraged by the testimony which our brother has given of the sweet leadings of thy hand, to venture forth before thy people in a simple dependence upon thy Almighty power, for the needed communications of grace, and love, and mercy? Lord, is it not thine own truth; and hast thou not said that it shall not fall to the ground; that it shall not return unto thee void, but that it shall accomplish that whereunto thou hast appointed it? We beseech thee, then, on behalf of thy church, to fulfil thine own promise, to do as thou hast said, to remember thy word unto thy servants upon which thou hast caused them to hope; that thou wilt make thine own word suitable and efficacious to thine own family; that the weak ones may be strengthened, the doubting ones encouraged, the weary ones refreshed; that both ministers and people may be comforted together, and that the glory of our Triune God-Father, Son, and Holy Ghost— may be everlastingly revealed." Amen and amen.

To the Editor of the Gospel Magazine.

MY DEAR BROTHER IN THE LORD,

It has been on my mind to endeavour to gather up some of the crumbs of our last Sabbath-day's provision at Elmley, for your GOSPEL Magazine, should you think it well to give them store-room (John, vi. 12). Though our ministrations are among but a few poor sheep, we are often, in the sensible deadness of our own heart, and painful contractedness of our mind, constrained to say, whence should we have so much bread in this wilderness as to satisfy in any measure the cravings of these hungry ones, though but few in number? The suggestion of our own heart too frequently is, what we have is old; it is too much of the same sort. We fear the cry will be, "Our souls loathe this light bread;" yet we are again and again encouraged with this thought, if what we have is old, it is that wherewith our own soul is being fed, and such as we have we freely give (Matt. x. 8).

We do not keep back precious morsels for our own private feasting; we have not a fire-side truth, which we reserve for our own private meditation, either through the fear of man or from any vain imagination, that the truths which we find most sweet and precious to our own poor souls, are not to be publicly preached. No; such as we have we give to the poor sheep, to those to whose spiritual wants the Lord has called us to minister. On the contrary, we have a peculiar pleasure in breaking and distributing any of the food which we have found most sweet and nourishing in our own experience in divine things. It is though, at times, but a handful of meal that we can find on the Sabbath morning in the earthly barrel, and but a little oil which we can discover to be in the seemingly leaky cruse of our renewed mind. Yet remembering the "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel" (1 Kings, xvii. 14), we are encouraged. How often is it, my dear brother, that we have thus to go and appear before our dear people, seemingly empty-handed; the Lord has, though, often met us under such circumstances, with a gladdening effect produced on our cast-down soul by once more beholding the countenances of his sheep and lambs in their accustomed places of sitting. We think of