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vex Ephraim" (Isai. xi. 13). Let it be perfectly understood I am not for amalgamating the church with the world. I want to see a proper distinction kept up, and maintained by the Lord's believing family. What my soul pants for is, to see those who really love and fear God united as the heart of one man, and strenuously oppose every species of heresy; fighting under the banner of the cross, and "earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" (Jude 3). Suffer me to say, let those who are led by the Holy Spirit into a discovery of the grand essential points of Christianity, agree to differ upon minor points, an 1, instead of seeking their own things, seek the things" which are Jesus Christ's," and thereby "Endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Let us look forward to, and anxiously wait for, the period to arrive, when Zion's watchmen "shall see eye to eye" (Isa. lii. 8). "And the Lord shall be King over all the earth; for in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one (Zech. xiv. 9). Every description of nominal professors who are destitute of the grace of God, are at war with vital godliness and the professors of it; and ought not the children of God to be united in love, which is the bond of perfection?

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I would farther add, let those who are united in church fellowship adhere to, and put into practice, the exhortation in our text, and there will be no discord and no schism in the body" (1 Cor. xii. 25). Let the officers of the church, the pastors and deacons (for I know but of two officers in the Gospel church), and the people unitedly endeavour to preserve and keep, to support and maintain a union of heart and of spirit—a unity of sentiment, interest, and affection; and all will be harmony and peace, "and the God of peace shall be with you."

Should these few remarks be the means of stirring up the Lord's dear people to attend practically to the injunction, I shall consider myself amply rewarded. If any good is done thereby, I feel assured the Lord must do it, and to him shall be all the glory.

RICHARD LUCKIN.

SIR,

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the Gospel Magazine.

The accompanying letter from a minister in America, was read in my presence in a little company of Christians, and feeling my spirit refreshed by hearing it, I requested a copy of it for your truly Gospel periodical. I considered it so rare a thing to obtain so choice a flower from that land of briars and thorns, that the household of faith ought not to be deprived of its fragrance; and if you think as I do respecting it, I shall feel gratified by its insertion in your next Number. I am, dear sir,

Very faithfully and affectionately yours in covenant bonds, Camberwell, August 14, 1841.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

JOSEPH IRONS.

Your letter was received in due season; it breathes that peculiar spirit which is possessed only by those who have been breathed upon by the Lord of life. To all the vessels of mercy this Lord Jesus says, as he did to his disciples, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." As with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, so out of the abundance of a believing heart the child of God speaks or writes, when he sets forth the realities of the kingdom of God; and he does it with a certain savour and

simplicity which the children of God discern and love, and which distinguish the individual in whom they manifest themselves, as having been with Jesus, and as having participated in the savour of his good ointments.

I have shown and read your letter as extensively as circumstances allowed, and the contents are heartily approved of by a goodly number; the language is understood, and the experimental truths set forth are identified as sealed up in their peculiar beauty, force, and power, among the household of faith. Christians on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean belong to one family; locally they may be separated far enough from each other, and through a lamentable spirit of strife and division (of which, alas! I witness not a little) there may be temporary alienations, but in Christ they are gathered together into one. Their unity in Christ continues through all their visible estrangements from each other, and all the disorders which attend the body in this state of woful imperfection, shall for ever and entirely be done away, when he that sits upon the throne shall make all things new (Rom. xxi. 5), and the time of the restitution of all things shall have come (Acts, iii. 21). On what an immoveable basis has God from everlasting determined to erect that kingdom which is destined to stand for ever. The good pleasure of his will, and the counsels of his infinite wisdom, are the eternal spring whence the whole device of mercy originated. An everlasting, well-ordered, and sure covenant established in Christ, and ratified by his blood, is the platform on which the whole superstructure rests. All contingencies, uncertainties, peradventures, and probabilities, are entirely set on one side. God's mind on this subject is like his promise in Christ-" yea and amen;" no confidence is put in the creature-no issue is left dependent, in the smallest degree, upon the will or power of the creature. The end, the glory of the Triune God in the salvation of the elect, is determinately fixed, and God irresistibly accomplishes and works all things after the counsel of his own will; "not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit saith the Lord of Hosts." Every promise in Christ shall be fulfilled, every elect sinner gathered in, and kept by the mighty power of God through faith unto salvation. A thousand varied subordinate influences and agencies, some evil and some good, are employed in this stupendous work; but these influences and agencies are his servants who builds the temple of the Lord, and bears the glory, He employs them, but is not dependent on them; he powerfully controls them, and irresistibly manages them, whether they be devils, saints, men, or angels. An immutable decree, the bond of everlasting love, the blood of the covenant, the seven spirits which are before the throne, ten thousand promises, which shall stand the inviolable truth of God when the heavens shall pass away, and time shall be no longer-all these linked in with the consideration, that the God that decrees also executes, that everlasting love works by almighty power, that he who died upon the cross is alive for evermore, and has the keys of hell and of death; that the grace which is the heritage of the saints, the Spirit of God is all-sufficiently able, and stands engaged to dispense in every time of need from the fulness of the Lord Jesus; that the promises secure to the saints just what they need to carry them safely through the wilderness-all this, and a vast deal more, declare that come what will, Zion with all her subjects is safe; and that as to the certain issue in regard to every follower of the Lamb, it matters not whether he travel a road bestrewed with flowers, or one where dangers thicken all around, and make the issue to a faint heart and an unbelieving spirit appear doubtful. Here is faith's stronghold (Nahum, i. 7), here she runs in every time of trouble (Prov. xviii. 10), here the believing soul hides (Isa. vxvi. 20); and when here we look, not at the things which are seen-viz. present difficulties, obstacles, apparent impossibilities, but at the things which are not seen -viz. by an eye of sense, but which are revealed to faith-viz. the immutability and faithfulness of God, the fulness of the Saviour, the provisions of the covenant, &c. Oh, my esteemed friend, did my believing practice bear a fuller proportion to my convictions of truth on this subject than it does, I should be much more stable than I am; my mind would be habitually stayed on God, and I should be kept in perfect peace (Isa. xxvi. 3). But, alas! my heart will not keep pace with my judgment, and nothing but the immediate influences of the Holy Spirit will bring the power of truth into my soul; but when that blessed Comforter publishes the name of the Lord, then doctrine drops as the rain, speech distils as the dew, as the small rain

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upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass (Deut. xxxii. 2). God keeps his people dependent, and he is very faithful and loving to a poor dependent people; a proud heart wants a stock in hand, and aspires after independence though it should stand in grace received. Even this the Lord will not allow, he will have his people trust in him immediately; and to this end he shuts them up by a variety of pinching dispensations, of which we may sometimes think it strange, and under which at other times we behave like a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. But the Lord is of one mind, his work is before him, the counsels of his love shall stand, though pride, ignorance, and carnal reason, may rebel; and we are brought in the issue to acknowledge that his way is best, and that in faithfulness he afflicts us. remembrance of former days of prosperity, when you went with the multitude to the house of God with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holy day (Ps. xlii. 4), does no doubt impart a sort of mournful pleasure to your soul-a pleasure, because these were good days; and a mournful pleasure, because they are past: "but your God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Phil. iv. 19). The seed which was sown in your soul many years since, is still there; and although the house in which God recorded his name may be now closed, yet you are still a plant in the house of the Lord in the better sense of the word, and you shall flourish in the courts of our God, and still bring forth fruit in old age (Ps. xcii. 13, 14). When you were a child, you were trained up in the way you should go; and now, when you are old, you shall not depart from it (Prov. xxii. 6). The day has come in which the glory of Jacob is made thin, and the fatness of his flesh has waxen lean; and now a man shall look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel (Isa. xvii. 7). The Lord has made provision for the comfort and support of Zion and of her subjects, in her lowest state of oppression and adversity. Though her visible order be much broken up, her friends scattered, her teachers removed into a corner; though her desolations appear to be perpetual, and there be a conspiring to burn up all the synagogues in the land; though we see not our signs, and the weary heritage of the Lord despondingly inquires, How long? yet there is enough then, yea, an abundance for faith to stay itself on, and to encourage him that stands on the watch-tower, to look for the morning light. "For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not 'lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry" (Hab. ii. 3). I do not know that there is a condition to which the promises of the word of God are more abundantly directed than that in which Zion now is, and into which it appears she is still sinking; your soul, no doubt, has often been, and is refreshed by them. Well, faith is the substance of things hoped for; and when the glory of the Lord arises upon your soul in a word of promise sweetly applied, is it not as though the rays of Zion's future glory were already beginning greatly to beam on her; although as to present matter of fact, she is in a mourning, widowed condition. Faith is possessed of a most wonderful power to change the face of things, because it apprehends and discerns the smile and favour of God as reflected from his blessed word. And what can look dark when he smiles? The dismal gloom that overhangs our souls when his face is hid and temptations abound, is entirely dispelled, and the dark shade of Zion's pressed condition is lost sight of in the glory and light of her future prospects reflected on the soul by the promises of the Gospel. With these lights and shadows my soul moves in close harmony and concert; when the cloud is upon me, all to me is dark; and when the light of God's countenance is lifted up upon me, I am light in the Lord. This is the dawning, or the breaking forth of my everlasting light; my God is my glory, and my days of mourning come to an end. This is the blessed sun-rising towards which the face of the heavenly pilgrim is always set; Mount Zion, with her glories, stands reflected in these beams, and towards her gates we direct our steps. And though the days of darkness, as you remark in your letter, are many; yet we may be assured that the ransomed of the Lord shall come to this glorious mountain of his holiness with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away (Isa. xxxiii. 10). I need not tell you to wait for the light when your soul is in darkness, for in this you have been exercised during all the days of your pilgrimage. The faith of God's elect instinctively turns towards its blessed object and author, and believes that he is behind our wall when we cannot

see him, and waits till he looks forth at, the windows, showing himself through the lattice (Song, ii. 9). And it is a most consoling reflection, that the word upon which he caused our souls to hope when we first believed, abides for ever; for it is himself, his mind, his will, his grace, his love. The changes through which we pass, afford him an occasion of teaching us that he is "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." The belly of hell, if a child of God be plunged into it, shall be the way to the third heavens; and we shall know that even by these things we live, and in all these things is the life of our spirits. Everything changes but the immutable Jesus; and through vicissitudes and changes we cease from that that can be moved and shaken, and are brought more clearly to discern him who is the rock of ages, who abideth faithful, and cannot deny himself.

I am yet supported in the work of the ministry, and divine strength appears to be made perfect in my weakness. My spiritual infirmities are many and great, my path is uneven, and my spirit disposed to faint under tribulation; but I am not given over unto death, the Lord undertakes for us as we cease from our wisdom and strength. Passing through the sea with affliction, and riding upon his horses and chariots of salvation, he gives us a little reviving now and then in our bondage. His word does not return to him void-the weary spirits of his people are refreshed; but the adversary is busy, and the times upon the whole are with us such as we may calculate upon until the end of Daniel's wonders (Dan. xii. 6) shall have come. I trust my apparent delay in writing will not discourage you from continuing this exchange of sentiment and feeling, if it is agreeable to yourself; and you may certainly, as the Lord spares me, expect my returns. May the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, favour you with much of his presence, smooth your declining path, and let you gently down to slumber in the arms of death.

Hackensack, New Jersey, March 22, 1836.

DEAR SIR,

Yours in Gospel ties,

To the Editor of the Gospel Magazine.

C. J. P.

Knowing the pages of your valuable publication are at all times open to receive the testimonies of those who have tasted that the Lord is gracious, and who speak of that which they have heard, which they have seen with their eyes, which they have looked upon, and their hands have handled of the word of life; I have sent you the copy of a letter I received from one whose name will be ever dear to me, and I believe to all the Lord's little ones who have heard or known him: and that the Lord will bless it to the souls of his dear children, as he hath to mine, is the sincere desire of your unworthy correspondent,

Plymouth, August 16, 1841.

RICHARD HEATH.

DEAR RICHARD AND JANE, BELOVED OF AND IN THE LORD,

It is written, both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren; because, as he is, so are we in this world, and we are made partakers of Christ. This is our position of blessedness in spiritual grace union with the Son of God, sanctified by God our Father in him, and that he might sanctify the people with his own blood; and we, through the sanctification of the Spirit, are brought into the obedience of Christ and belief of the truth. And in this blessedness we exist and live, and who can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord? Cheer up, beloved of the Lord, all is well, sure, and certain; for our God abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself. Amen and amen.

It is with pleasure I say, bless the Lord, O my soul, the Lord liveth; and blessed be my rock, and let the God of my salvation be exalted. I trust this will find you just as I am-that is, living in the fulness of eternal life and salvation in our most glorious Christ. I have not the least grain of trouble in mind relative to these eternal verities; I am decidedly happy concerning them, and they are most precious

unto me day by day. And why? because Christ is all and in all, and will rest in his love-Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Therefore, as we have one heart, one mind, and one spirit, it is our blessed privilege to be daily rejoicing in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh; for we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, and are the called according to his purpose. What a mercy that the Lord hath made us feeling witnesses of these truths, and having received his testimony, we set to his seal that God is true. All the profession in the world is nothing, except we are witnesses for God and his truth; and that not in theory, but by the demonstration of the Spirit and with power-that is, the Gospel coming not in word only, but in power, in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. Then, by its blessed operations in the mind, and according to its divine properties in its spiritual import, we receive its sacred contents; whereby we have a spiritual knowledge of the same in its blessedness, and thus are brought to know God, and Jesus our Lord, whom to know is life eternal. This, beloved, is what I call real experience; and to me is a complete antidote for and above all my sins, miseries, and corruptions; and by this, in the completeness of redemption, salvation, reconciliation, and justification, I have the peace of God in my heart, and daily live in peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: and not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! for of him, and to him, and through him, are all things, to whom be glory for ever. Amen. These dear truths, received in the heart, and mixed by faith, prove and demonstrate us to be believers, God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus; and to us he is preciousJehovah, our everlasting light, our God, and our glory. Not only so, but we sweetly experience the work of righteousness to be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. Nor must we stop here; but of him (God the Father) are we in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption; that, as it is written, he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord that is, in him who is Jehovah our righteousness. And thus we honour the Son even as we honour the Father; and these truths in their divine properties, as they are experienced by us, blessedly develop to our minds the fulness of the following words—" The king's daughter is all glorious within, her clothing is of wrought gold." Thus we stand and live, delivered from all condemnation, sin, death, curse, and wrath, in Jesus the Lord our righteousness, and his obedience imputed unto us for righteousness. Who can calculate the heights, depths, lengths, and breadths of these eternal realities? or who can speak out the full blessedness of the church in Christ? Everything short of these is a complete blank; nor can I count anything in the abstract from Christ, and what he is in himself—what he hath wrought, suffered, and obtained—of any value, solidity, or blessedness. Himself is our life, and he saith, "because I live, you shall live also." How blessed, then, to be dead to self, sin, world, and law, but alive unto God by Jesus Christ our Lord; knowing we are not our own, but bought with a price; therefore, let us glorify God in our bodies and in our spirits, which are his. I am certain you will agree with me, when I say, we never can glorify God in looking at self, poring over our miseries, drawing inferences from the workings of our corruptions, and setting up these things, with the temptations of the devil, as a standard of experience to live and walk by. Let us hear what the Lord saith, "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me, and let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord who exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, saith the Lord." Surely, then, this is our mercy; and thus we live above self, sin, and corruption, and live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us, and gave himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God of a sweet-smelling savour. Here I pause and say with you, "What hath God wrought? All praise and honour to him, he hath done all things well! Nor is this all; but it is plain and clear in his own most holy word, that the personal acts of the Holy Ones, Father, Son, and Spirit, all concur for their own glory; and that all the perfections of Jehovah in the Unity of the Self-existing Essence, should all meet and harmonize-yea, and shine forth gloriously in equal holiness and glory, in the salvation of the church by Jesus the Son, the great mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh. And he being the eternal God incarnate according to his eternity, dignity, glory, and un

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