REFLECTIONS. BY THE LATE MR. R. ROBINSON. O LORD JESUS, our approaches unto the Father must be through Thy Eternal Sonship and personal humanity, made in all things like unto Thy brethren, making an end of sin, that the opening of the priesthood should be to a spiritual sanctuary, and the two-leaved doors of holiness and mercy should never be shut. The purchased inheritance shall be kings and priests, arrayed in vestures washed in blood, and shall serve Jesus in His temple in communion and fellowship and spiritual intercourse of eternal love; and, as the renewal of Thy visits are so refreshing, we long for their more frequent delights, that we may be wafted away from care-worn anxiety and foreboding troubles, which are serpents hid in the grass from the face of the Sun of righteousness, which heals the wounded child, but wounds the serpent's head. Give us a morning call on Thee, and let the renewals of Thy refreshing Spirit regale our languid frames, to fit us for that devotion to approach unto Thy throne with becoming reverence, that we may be free from inordinate distraction, and Thy Holy Spirit teaching and leading us with holy undisturbed peace in the services of this day in Thy courts. May it be a holy day to Thy saints; for there is nothing short of Thy love-visits can make us happy in this vale of tears. The company of our brethren here below would be no joy to us only as Thou art in our midst; and, if we could meet all our brethren above, and Thou wast not with us, Ichabod's vail must cover us. How sweet is that journey, however rough the path may be, if Thou art manifestively with us! A "thorn in the flesh" can then be borne, and a temptation leaves no grief behind it. The dark valley is freed from evil, and Thy rod and staff are sceptres of Divine love to us. "Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation; and uphold me with Thy free Spirit."-PSALM li. 12. This is a contrite appeal, and the spiritual fruit of a broken heart, which is only to be found in the vessels of redemption, where mercy keeps their wards day and night; and, though they are ofttimes broken. "in the place of dragons" and "like pelicans in the wilderness," their cry is the fruit of love, and their moans are embroidered with blessings. Sin can no more rest quiet in a believer's conscience than fire and water could dwell together; and, though lust and sin may have formed an explosion, and the shattered fragments remain, there is no quiet while things are out of place. The dove's breast must labour for peace; and, until the cup be restored to the butler's hand, he cannot see the king's face with joy, nor the powers of love make the banquet to be renewed with consecrated delight; for an incomposed throne would be no throne at all, and a king upon a throne without a subject would be no better than a statue or molten image. The throne of grace and the redeemed Church are dignities of lofty delights; the King of kings sways the sceptre, the Lord our Righteousness and Strength. The virgins in needlework of wrought gold and love embroidery hold palms of victory and harps of gold, and the signal timbrels make Divine melody. All sorts of heavenly merchandise are dispatched in Divine order, satisfaction fills the golden bowls, and Divine treasures of all sorts are handed over to the royal heirs with Divine delight. R R "Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son."-COL. i. 13. Every unregenerate sinner in a state of nature is a slave, and must work hard for his master, whom he willingly serves; and his work is done in the dark, for Satan's kingdom is without heavenly bodies, and the Sun of Righteousness never shines on that abode. They know not what they have done, nor whom they have served as slaves, until the lawful captive is delivered, and Satan, the strong one that kept possession of the palace, is bound, and the prey is taken from the mighty. O indulgent Father, how wondrous are Thy ways, bringing forth the covenant heirs of redemption out of the power of sin and death, translated into newness of life in Christ Jesus as sons to a royal inheritance, "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ." "Blessed is that servant, whom his lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing."-LUKE xii. 43. Time is only like a short winter's day, and afflictions are but for a moment. The spiritual workman needs not to be ashamed, nor the watchman make light of his honour. If thou art the Lord's ploughman, thy work is before thee; and, if a shepherd, the flocks demand thy care, and the greatest danger is the wolf secreting himself amongst them; if thou art a daughter, thou mayest assist in leading the flocks to water; thou shalt be blest in all that thou settest thine hand unto, and whether the wool or the flax be thy employ, faith works the thread from the distaff, and in the diligent process forms comforts for the King's household with joy. "Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all."-PSALM XXXIV. 19. Peace, poor tempest-tossed, heavy-laden, harassed child of God, trembling, and at thy wits' end, and ready to sink under thy burden, dark and dismayed by reason of the way; fearfulness and trembling hath taken hold upon thee, so that thou art not able to look up, dear child of trial and affliction. Jesus is looking over thy troubles, and He saith they are many. Jesus knows more about them than you do, for He hath borne them, and carried your sorrows, and He saith, out of them all He will deliver thee. Mark, dear child of many sorrows, Jesus is as good as His word. He will do as He hath said. He will deliver thee. Listen, poor tried child; Jesus will do for thee what thou couldst not ask Him to do; for there are thousands of troubles that would come upon thee did not Jesus prevent them. Ahithophel would have troubled David had not the Lord defeated him. Laban would have troubled Jacob had not the Lord prevented him. Jezebel would have troubled Elijah had not the Lord interposed. The more than forty that bound themselves in a great curse would have killed Paul had not the Lord prevented them. The maddened priests would have troubled the apostles in suffocating prisons had not the Lord prevented them. Dear troubled and afflicted saint, there is no trouble which thou hast to pass, if thou lookest, but what thou shalt see the hand of Jesus preventing, and saying, in rebuke, "Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm;" and thou mayst say, "Many a time have they afflicted me (my internal and external foes), yet have they not prevailed against me, because the Lord suffered them not to perform their enterprize." "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."-2 Cor. v. 17. To be in Christ Jesus is to be in the new covenant of grace, by faith drawn up in the cloudless morning of holy virginity, ratified by immutable oath, and gradually opened up in the day of espousals, until the bridal morn is ushered in with joy. O believer, thou mayst smile at the old covenant deeds, "Do this and live," for thou findest thy life in Christ in the hidden mystery of the Godhead, and the quickening Spirit reflecting the Divine image, "I in them, and Thou in me, that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee." The old man is crucified with its affections and lusts. Does the new man, Christ formed in the soul, and the spiritual union and communion with the Trinity of Persons, stand in need of the old crucified man to give fleshly strength to perfect the Spirit's work? This is just as good an idea as to say that God made Adam in order that He might instruct Jehovah to form creation-work, or to finish that which He had begun, or a carnal man to perfect the work of redemption. (To be continued.) GREETINGS BY THE WAY. To a Sister in the Faith. BELOVED IN THE LORD.-May grace, mercy, and peace reign and rule, and love, blood and salvation abound in your heart by the powerful ministration of the eternal Spirit the Comforter! Without His almighty ministration, the things of eternity are lost sight of and forgotten. He alone can take of the things of Christ, and reveal them unto us, and show us how perfectly complete we stand in Jesus, and how acceptable we at all times are in the beloved Bridegroom of our souls. To us He is "the chiefest among ten thousand, the altogether lovely." We have none in heaven but Christ; and none upon earth do we desire but His glorious self, "To us He is more glorious far, Than mortal language can express!" But it is not to us as natural creatures, that He is so near and dear; for to our earthly mind He is like a root out of a dry ground. Indeed, there is no form or comeliness in the Man of sorrows to our natural heart. He is still despised and rejected of men. It is our new nature alone which can love, prize, and appreciate Jesus of Nazareth; hence says Christ: "Ye must be born again." Most professors are said to be twice dead, but you and I, beloved, are twice born. What a difference! Who can calculate the vast blessedness flowing from so lofty a source? We are born not of the will of man, flesh, or blood, but of God; and the blessed consideration arising from so glorious a fact is this, "Because as He is, so are we, even in this world." He who begets is Love, and of necessity He begets children after His own image. He who begets His children will richly provide for all that are begotten. No matter how numerous His family, there is at all times bread enough, and water enough, and wine enough in His house for the entirety of them; none shall ever be sent empty away. This you and I have abundantly proved many times. We get the best of bread, the best of wine, the best of oil, and the best of honey at the gracious hands of our blessed Jesus. More than this, we possess His glorious Person; we are united to Himself, and are never viewed but in oneness with Himself. All we are, we are in Him, all we have, we have in Him, all we enjoy, we enjoy in Him. He comprehends all, and grants us precious faith to apprehend Him as our all. Without this faith of Him, we could know nothing savingly of Him. We feed upon Him by faith, we walk in Him by faith, we trust in Him by faith; and this is the only faith that works by love. Other faiths, which are spurious, work from varied causes, but this always works by love, and it is called the faith of Him, because He is both Author and Object of it. He never gave us faith to view and admire ourselves with, but to look away from self, creatures, and circumstances. By faith we behold the sun in the spiritual heavens, and, whilst gazing on celestial bodies, we cannot see those which are terrestrial. When viewing the sun, we must lose sight of earth; when beholding that luminous and brilliant body of light and heat, we see nothing beside; and, when our eyes again turn how earth, how dim does all around appear! Indeed, we find that our glorious Sun of righteousness eclipses every other object, and outweighs every other subject. We well know that He always shines, and is never more glorious at one time than at another; but in our apprehensions there are mighty differences. In nature we now and then are witnesses of eclipses; the moon will get between us and the sun, and the earth will intercept that brilliant light; but we are well assured that if we could rise above earth and above moon, above shades and above clouds, we should have at once an unimpeded view of the glorious orb ever brilliant, ever shining. In a spiritual sense, when the Lord is pleased to raise us up in Himself, as He did the prophet Isaiah, we not only see Him seated upon the circle of the earth, but we at once discover that its inhabitants are all grasshoppers, and that the nations are less than nothing, and vanity. Everything of an earthly nature is then beneath us, and everything of a spiritual round about us. We then dwell in the pure atmosphere of love, and bask in the full blaze of ever-brilliant light. There are then no clouds, no bogs, no fogs, above or about us, for we have left them all infinitely beneath us. How then can we turn again to beggarly elements? Does it not seem wondrous that we should? Well, it proves that the bird of heaven is still imprisoned in the cage of earth, that the child of bliss is still dwelling in a tent of flesh, that the heir of glory still appears under the guise of dull mortality, that the sons and daughters of Zion have yet to travel this dreary waste of sin and sorrow during the King's pleasure. What they really and truly are as heaven's own offspring, as God's own children, as love's own favourites, does not appear to the brightest natural mind. They appear here infinitely more like beggars than princes, but King's sons they are nevertheless. They are set at nought by the world, and despised by the pious, but they are more to Christ than is heaven, for He does not say that the Lord's portion is heaven, but He has caused it to be written, "The Lord's portion is His people, Jacob is the lot of His inheritance;" and can we not, beloved, say in sweet and blessed response, "The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in Him?" To be sure we can, and none shall stop us of this boasting. It is, indeed, a pleasant thing for our spiritual eyes to behold the Sun of righteousness, and it is very unpleasant to our pure mind when we hear one word said against it by men of corrupt mind. We speak well of that which we do know, and those who speak against it do not know. We are in Him that is true, hence we are children that will not lie. A deceitful tongue 66 shall never be found in our mouth, and the Lord has promised to turn to us a pure language; but it often takes a long time before we can put words together such as My Lord and my God :" "Abba, Father :" "My Beloved is mine, and I am His:" "Whom have I in heaven but Thee?" But, whether it take a long or a short time, we all must sooner or later give our own personal testimony to its truth. It is sweet to remember that we have a most loving and patient Teacher, who will not give us a harder lesson than He will give capacity to learn, for "All Thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of Thy children.” When He extends peace like a river, how it inundates everything beside! When He gives quietness, none can cause trouble. But, when He, for all-wise purposes, allows the enemy to have his way, there is nothing but confusion. But, amid all and through all, however conflicting, He says, "There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling." And what the poet sings is blessedly true "Who shall harm, or who molest thee, Or thy walls of fire break through? With our united very best everlasting love, believe me to remain, in Him, WAKING THOUGHTS. "Thou holdest mine eyes waking." JEDIDIAH. August 7th.-Awoke very early, and rose to look at the texts for the day, in a little book called, "Daily Food for Christians," which has been the companion of many years. These were they: "By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God;" "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." There, thought I, is the sum and substance of the Gospel, and everything in true Gospel order, grace being the very foundation of the whole plan, "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ," which took its rise in the eternal love of God the Father, faith being the medium through which we apprehend the exceeding precious gift of grace; and that not of ourselves, no, nothing of creature doings must mingle with first causes; it is the free and sovereign gift of God. Then comes another link in the chain: "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works." He who created us does nothing in vain, for He recreates us unto good works; nay, He hath ordained that we should walk in them. In what, then, do good works consist? I should say in setting forth the glory of God to the utmost of our ability. But what if there is not strength of body to act out what the mind suggests? This is not unfrequently the case with the most willinghearted. What is then to be done? Why, we must fall back upon the means which lie within our compass; and one very powerful engine is prayer. This led me to reflect upon the numerous incentives to prayer. It has been said that "prayer moves the hand which moves the world;" and, though the phrase can scarcely be considered thoroughly correct in the abstract, since God works His sovereign will in all that He does, and giveth no account of any of His matters, still we know prayer is an instru |