is faith, which is his constant gift; and so the life that we now live in the flesh, we live by the faith of the Son of God. Reader, if you can thus see Jesus and stay on him, the promise of Jehovah to you is, that he will keep you in perfect peace. These things were once strange to me, but it pleased God to open my heart to receive his truth little by little; and though, when he withholds the light of his countenance, "I walk in darkness, and am sore let and hindered," yet I have always this as a last resource to cling to-viz. I have that in me which never grew in nature's garden, for "One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see." J. W. GOWRING.

Clapham, Jan. 10th, 1842.

GOLDEN RULES.

To the Editor of the Gospel Magazine.

DEAR BROTHer,

Having lately met with the following very excellent "RULES FOR PROMOTING BROTHERLY LOVE," I forward them for your Magazine, if you think proper to insert them; and remain

Yours, in covenant bonds,

RICHARD LUCKIN.

1. To remember that we are all subject to failings of some kind or other. 2. To bear with, and not to magnify each other's infirmities (Gal. vi. 1).

3. To pray one for another in our social meetings, and especially in private (James, v. 16).

4. To avoid going from house to house for the purpose of hearing news, and meddling with other people's business.

5. Always to turn a deaf ear to any slanderous reports of a brother; and to pay no attention to any charges brought against such, except well-founded.

6. If a brother be in fault, to tell him of it first privately, before it be mentioned to others.

7. To watch against a shyness of each other, and to put the best construction on any action that has the appearance of opposition or resentment.

8. To observe the just rule of Solomon; "Leave off contention before it be meddled with" (Prov. xvii. 14).

9. If a brother has offended, to consider how glorious, how God-like it is to forgive; and how unlike a Christian it is to revenge (Eph. iv. 2).

10. To remember that it is always the grand artifice of the devil, to promote distance and strife among Christians; and that, therefore, we should watch against anything that would farther his end.

11. To consider how much more good we can do in the world at large, and in the church in particular, when we are all united in love, than we could do when acting alone, and indulging a contrary spirit.

12. Lastly, to consider the express commands of Scripture, and the beautiful example of Christ (Eph. iv. 32; 1 Pet. ii. 21; John, xiii. 5, 35).

[Golden rules! worthy a frame over every chimey-piece, and a place in every heart! Were persons professing a love to the truth-and especially those united in church-fellowship-to act upon a principle, which some twelve or fourteen years ago, we heard laid down; how much less cavilling, disputation, and backbiting, we should have ;- See you a fault in your neighbour? look within, and you'll discover two."-ED.]

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THE USE AND INTENT OF THE ROD.

EVERY planet has its own orbit; and every believer, however insignificant he may appear in his own eyes, or that of others, is of infinite importance in the covenant of grace, and has an allotment of service marked out for him in his time-state, so that he is immortal till his work is done.

We select, out of many others, four primary uses in the rod.

I.

For correction.

II. For instruction.

III. For the good of the church.

IV. For the glory of God.

With regard to the first point, correction, we discover two Bible truths, as characterising God's elect, Sinnership and Relationship; the former rendering correction necessary, the latter being the reason stated in the word for every corrective act; "You only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities" (Amos, iii. 2). “For I am with thee, saith the Lord, but I will correct thee" (Jer. xxx. 11). 66 If ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons (Heb. xii. 8). "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten (Rev. iii. 19); and this not in the way of judicial punishment, but fatherly correction, even as we see again, Ps. lxxxix. 30, 31, "If his children" (God's elect) "forsake my law and walk not in my judgments, if they break my statutes and keep not my commandments, then will I visit their transgressions with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes." There is a visiting for sin during the time-state of God's children, and that because of the everlasting relationship established between them and God, by virtue of which, they are accepted, pardoned, justified, and saved in Christ; freed from all condemnation; and concerning them God hath declared, "Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.' "I have blotted out as a cloud thy transgressions." This is their standing in grace, but their state in time is a sinful state, carrying about a body of sin and death, a will opposed to God, affections full of evil, a fleshly nature cleaving to the dust, a corrupt mind grasping everything suited to its depraved taste; and this being the case when temptation is presented, guilt is more or less contracted, and grace is for the time concealed while sin prevails; hence the need of the rod, and with it this soul-searching interrogatory, "Hast thou not procured this unto thyself?" (Jer. ii. 17). The poor smitten sinner justifies God under every stroke, and again and again has cause to say, "It is of the Lord's mercies that I am not consumed, because his compassions fail not" (Sam. iii. 22). Surely he hath not dealt with me after my sins, nor rewarded me according to my iniquities" (Ps. ciii. 10). Thus the hidden things of Esau (the old nature) are searched out, and iniquity is turned up as with a ploughshare. The balance is kept in equipoise, by God's chastisements being placed in one scale, and discoveries of sin in the other, so that "all iniquity shall stop her mouth" (Ps. cvii. 42). They that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine" (Isa. xxix. 24).

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But correction for sin must not be confounded with, or viewed as, any satisfaction for sin. The application of the rod corporally cannot unsay the uttered falsehood, unite the marred fragments, obey the broken command, or alter the injudicious action; but justice and wisdom demand the punishment, and as it regards the corrections of our righteous Father, they have a view rather to the future than to the past. This leads to the second use of the rod-namely, Instruction; "The rod and reproof give wisdom" (Prov. xxix. 15). And the remembrance of the rod often deters from the indulgence of sin. Thus the salutary reflection recurs; That train of thought plunged me in darkness, the gratifying of that evil inclination procured me the rod, that wrong step produced the cross I now groan under. Yea, beloved, though all things are of God, actually or permissively, yet" He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity" (Prov. xxii. 8). The rod has a voice of instruction, and we are commanded to "hear it," not in a spirit of legality, but of filial liberty. The Lord's people are a family of fools,* and as the whip is for the horse," and " the bridle for the ass," so is there " a rod for the fool's back (Prov. xxvi. 3); but by it, wisdom is learnt, sin rendered bitter, self distrusted, and Jesus endeared. There is a sowing to the flesh, and a reaping of corruption, actually and experimentally, though not eternally, which calls for the rod in order that the soul be instructed; hence, wisdom says just as God acts, "Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest, yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul" (Prov. xxix. 17).

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The rod appears to instruct farther, in taking the believer off from, or keeping him out of, general and speculative views of divine truth. When the cross-burdened sinner comes to grapple with trial and temptation, universal or abstract views of the Gospel will not give him comfort. The palmy lie, that Christ died for all, can afford no peace to a poor soul under the discovery of sin, and that dreadful apprehension of God's just wrath. The universality of redemption though held as truth, yet brings no consolation till personal experience satisfies the guilty soul, that Christ died for him; and the cry of the awakened soul, "Lord save me," God be merciful to me," shows the personality of God's dealings with the soul, and the cry for pardon and peace confirms the truth, that God's Spirit-taught children cannot be satisfied with a vague and general experience, however they may be quieted with loose and universal views. General redemption affords no shelter for a convinced sinner; plausible and comforting as it is to the world, it can give the awakened sinner no consolation; and though some of the Lord's ignorant ones may nurse their carnal pity, for (it may be) their reprobate relations, upon such a Delilah's lap as this, Christ died for all, therefore they may be saved; yet this reasoning does not comfort their own soul; they must get it in the way of personality, it must come specially directed in the handwriting of the King of kings. "The

* How does the expression suit you, reader? If you reject it, and if you really are one of this family, you give proof that the pruning-knife is needed, in order to lop off some of the branches of fleshly pride. God support you under the operation!-ED.

blood shall be to you for a token" (Ex. xii. 13), is equally important for experimental safety to spiritual, as to national, Israel. The poor sinner, under gracious awakenings, is forced from the wild waste of general redemption, and rather takes refuge in such an evidence as this, "Him that cometh unto me I will in nowise cast out" (John, vi. 37). "Whosoever believeth on me shall not perish" (John, iii. 16).

Times of trial instruct the soul, by bringing it into close contact with the truth. Thus the soul needs the application of the promise for its peculiar trial. Particular exigencies demand personal experiences, and special straits call out special deliverances. Generalities will afford no peace at such times; and unless the promise meets the case, and the case the promise, the soul is cast upon a sea of uncertainty which swallows up hope; thus Job felt when he said, "O that I knew where I might find him" (Job, xxiii. 3). "He hideth himself that I cannot see him" (Job, xxiii. 9); and out of this darkness the Lord delivered him, when with faith's appropriating power he was enabled to say, “I know that my Redeemer liveth" (Job, xix. 25).

There is another class in our day who satisfy themselves with distant prospects, to the overlooking and disregarding of nearer objects, and thus diverge by degrees from the line of truth till they are lost in the mists of speculation. "No prophecy is of any private interpretation" (2 Pet. i. 20); or, as it may justly be rendered, of its own solving. Events must determine the prophecy, and then all that the Lord has prepared for the church, the church shall be prepared to receive. The word of God secures to her, unalienable and unalterable possession of the property given to her in the covenant of grace; and though she may be ignorant of its exact amount, yet will not this supersede the truth, that she is "heir of God and joint heir with Christ," and therefore shall share in all his glory. An experimental acquaintance with the everlasting love of God; a personal application of redeeming blood, under the anointings of the Holy Ghost; a living upon, and enjoyment of, the promises of God; these are primary and present realities, which are pledges and earnests of future blessedness, and are daily needed by the church of God in her wilderness way. In all Christian love and faithfulness, we assert, that those who put off to a distant day the accomplishment of Gospel promises, and the realization of Gospel privileges, have never entered into New Testament mercies; or they would know by experience, that there is a present participation in all the blessings which were pronounced vocally upon literal Israel; "Is He the God of the Jews only?" "Is he not also of the Gentiles?" "Yes, of the Gentiles also!" The covenant of grace being made with Christ, for all the mystic members of his body, Gentiles nationally, but Israelites spiritually, "that the blessing of Abraham" (or that which was pronounced upon Abraham), might come on the Gentiles, through Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit, through faith" (Gal. iii. 14), which rendered it sure "to all the seed." Hence, the believer's portion is no dark distant thing, no vague visionary future, but a precious present certainty. All the blessings of the new covenant, all the privileges of the Gospel, are his, and

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according to the measure of faith, he enjoys them, gets power to plead for them, has prevalency in obtaining them, and thus out of Christ's fulness receives continual supplies, both in providence and grace. Zion's children, walking under the weight of the cross, contending with inward corruption, and the attacks of the enemy, need the supports of the Gospel to cheer them in their thorny way; and an answer to this petition, "Give us this day our daily bread," will very effectually wean the soul from abstract notions and speculative views, which differ widely in nature and effect from gracious anticipations of the rest that remaineth for the people of God.

Beloved in the Lord, well may you bless God for your cross, and thankfully kiss the rod; since it has been made instrumental in keeping you out of, or leading you off from, the speculations of the visionary, or the homeless divinity of the universalist; teaching you to make use of, and live upon, the present and precious realities of the everlasting Gospel, and to chew the cud, as well as part the hoof.

Camberwell, Nov. 8th, 1841.

R. H.

REVIEWS.

Letters from the late Rev. W. Romaine, M. A., to a Friend, on the most important Subjects, during a Correspondence of Twenty Years. Sixth Edition. London: E. Spettigue, 67, Chancery Lane. ONE would suppose that the name of William Romaine was amply sufficient to command the attention of every lover of truth to these invaluable letters. They savour, sweetly savour-as all his writings do-of Jesus and his great salvation. It is but little opportunity we have for reading, which to us is a frequent cause of lamentation; but when those brief seasons do offer, and we ask ourselves, "What shall we read?" next to our Bible, the letters of William Romaine take very prominent stand. We bless God that Romaine ever lived;

we thank him that the labours of his honoured servant were not confined to the circle by whom he was surrounded, nor to the day in which he lived; and we praise him that he hath so wrought upon the hearts of some of his living family to attend to the divine injunction, "Gather up the fragments which remain, that nothing be lost." Oh, no in this dark-this Christ-despising-this truth-mutilating-this half-law, half-Gospel day, let nothing-no, not a grain of the pure, precious, plain, unvarnished, simple truth, fall to the ground.

Let such men as Dr. Gill, Augustus Toplady, William Romaine, Robert Hawker, and, though last not least, William Huntington, though dead, yet, by their writings, speak; yes, let them still echo and re-echo the achievements-the mighty graceachievements of Him whom now in heaven's unsullied glory they worship and adore; and as years roll on, on each revolution of time brings nearer and yet nearer on the days they predicted; the dark days for which, for the church's sake, they were wont to veil their faces, and weep in pensiveness and sorrow; we will take from their resting