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silent, yet plaintive, speaking tears of
a broken heart, that He is the good
Physician; that there is balm in Gilead;
and that there is a Physician there.
How sweet, then, in pursuing the
journey to which I have alluded, was
the reflection, that, as Jesus is the same
yesterday, and to-day, and for ever, He
was as well able to meet the case of
that poor, fallen, and degraded creature
who occupied a seat in the same train
as I, as that of Mary Magdalene, out
of whom He cast seven devils. He was
as able now as when He crossed the
Sea of Gennesaret to tell the evil spirit
to come out of this poor miserable out-
cast, as of him who had his dwelling
among the tombs, neither could any man

tame him, but whom with one word He brought to His feet, clothed, and in his right mind.

Moreover, how much wretched pharisaism and self-complacency might many of us in that train have been indulging, at the time we witnessed the violence, and of necessity heard the blasphemies, of that poor fallen one. Hers were sins of lip and life; but what if the heart-sins of her fellow-passengers had been exposed? Equally in need they of that blood which can alone cleanse from all sin. How well may the selfrighteous and the Pharisee remember the words of Jesus, "Publicans and harlots shall enter the kingdom before you."

A.

A SONG TO THE HEART, AND YET NO WORD SPOKEN.

I HAD been for some days unusually | desolate," indeed. With me it was as indulged. Sweet was the access with with the disciples of old, "It was now which I was privileged. Christ was dark, and Jesus was not come." My sensibly near and dear. All was beloved had withdrawn himself. "I felt to be well. I was where I was, sought Him, but I found Him not." and what I was, and how I was, accord- Such passages as these were just exing to the loving and gracious purpose pressive of my state:-"Be not far from of my God and Father. But suddenly me, for trouble is near; for there is none I was called to encounter a most painful to help." "The troubles of my heart reverse. Something like Abraham's are enlarged: O bring me out of my "horror of great darkness" befel me. I lost all my comfort. Every particle of childlike trust, and confidence, and simplicity, had subsided. The "Can God spread a table in the wilderness ?" set in with a host of doubts and fears. Sight and sense seemed to have it all their own way. Deeply depressed in spirit, and broken, and humbled, I felt I would gladly have picked up even a crumb from the veriest babe in the I was, in point of feeling and realizafamily. I had engaged to go and speak tion, brought very low; but now mark, on behalf of my great Lord and Master; reader, the goodness of God, and His but the unlooked-for attack of deep, great care and watchfulness over His deep depression overawed my spirit, and children, when they have least consciousI strove to the utmost to find a substi-ness of the fact. Whilst thus musing tute; but my efforts were in vain, I in pensiveness and sorrow, I suddenly was obliged to go.

At length I started on my journey. At the first station at which the train stopped, a young man stepped into the carriage, and took his seat on the opposite corner. Not a word was spoken by him or the other passenger; and I was too sorrowful to break the silence. My heart within me was

distresses. Look upon mine affliction,
and my pain; and forgive me all my
sins." "And I said, Oh, that I had
wings like a dove! for then would I fly
away, and be at rest." "From the end
of the earth will I cry unto thee, when
my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to
the rock that is higher than I.”
us help from trouble, for vain is the
help of man.'

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"Give

heard the passenger who sat in the most distant corner of the carriage, whistle a tune. I recognised the tune, notwithstanding the noise of the carriage as it progressed. "What tune is that?" said I to myself; "oh, it is that which goes to

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"Begone, unbelief, my Saviour is near,
And for my relief, will surely appear:

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By prayer let me wrestle, and He will perform;

With Christ in the vessel, I'll smile at the storm."

Then verse after verse of that precious hymn flowed into the mind in the most timely and refreshing way. It was indeed most seasonable, and brought home at such a juncture by such a simple and unexpected means the whistling of a tune by a passenger with whom I had not exchanged a word. I felt he was the messenger of mercy to my soul -the bearer of hope, and peace, and a measure of joy, although he knew it not; and, when at the next station he rose to leave, from my heart thanked him from my inmost soul, although no word was spoken: and I prayed my God to bless him, whoever he was, or wherever he was going. Oh, reader, how sweetly, under those circumstances, flowed the words into the burdened heart

"His love in times past forbids me to

think

He'll leave me at last in trouble to sink; Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review

Confirms His good pleasure to help me quite through.

Though dark be my way, since He is my guide,

'Tis mine to obey, 'tis His to provide : Though cisterns be broken, aud creatures all fail,

The word He has spoken shall surely prevail.

"Since all that I meet shall work for my good,

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The bitter is sweet, the med'cine is food; Though painful at present, 'twill cease before long, And then, oh, how pleasant the queror's song." Thus is one taught one's utter helplessness on the one hand, and the sovereignty, grace, and condescension of the Lord on the other. When He giveth quietness, who then can make trouble and when He hideth His face, who then can behold Him ?" And one of the most wonderful features of the Lord's deliverance is this: Under one of those severe attacks of depression, arise from what cause they may whether from merely outward circumstances, or that close sympathy which the mind has with the body under its

varied constitutional or occasional ailments—the feeling under the depression is this-that even if delivered from the present attack, there would always be the fear of a recurrence, and thus one would be in perpetual bondage and fear; whereas, so complete is the Lord's succour and deliverance, when His time shall have arrived to vouchsafe it, that His dear suffering people "forget their misery, and remember it as waters that pass away."

Beloved reader, have you not proved this again and again? Notwithstanding all that yon felt and feared, when under the discipline of a kind and gracious Father, when at length He has appeared, has not the deliverance proved to be of that perfect and complete nature of which I have spoken? Have you not, in very deed, proved that "He giveth songs in the night ?" and have you not blessed, praised, and adored the Lord for these renewed discoveries of His grace, faithfulness, and power? Yea, moreover, have you not found that that very sinking of heart and mental anguish, depression, or dismay, has been a means of leading into sweetest sympathy with a suffering Christ, as you have had fellowship with His Gethsemane groans,

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Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me;" or His Calvary cries, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?" Moreover, if I happen to be addressing one of the Lord's messengers, will he not agree with me in testifying, that his best times in preaching have followed some of these seasons of deep suffering, when he could in very deed realize, that "out of weakness be was made strong-strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might ?" And sure I am, that if we could but learn our lessons more readily, we should at once construe these special seasons of sorrow, soul-travail, or distress, into sweet harbingers of mercy and fore runners of blessings, love-tokens, and enjoyment. We should immediately recognize in them and by them the voice, "Child, thy Father is about to do something for thee."

Lord, give Thy dear children, under all thy varied dealings, to remember that "unto them it is given, on the behalf of Christ, not only to believe, but to SUFFER, for His sake."

D.

IS THERE ROOM?

I HAD accompanied two dear ones to the | or so, the place where the carriages had train. They had seen to their luggage, stood was a blank, and the train only to got their tickets, and taken their seats be seen in the distance. in the carriage. Passenger after passenger was accommodated-truck after truck cleared of its contents; the steam blowing off at a high pressure, intimated all was waiting for the signal to start. The platform, now so empty, presented a singular contrast to the animating scene which one had just before witnessed. Instead of a multitude of persons running hither and thither, porters drawing a truck this way, or carrying a burden that; all was now perfectly quiet, and not a creature to be seen with the exception of the guards of the train, and a stray porter or two. That rapid clearance and perfect quiet, by so quick a transition, seemed quite painful. There was a kind of deathliness about it, that reminded one in a moment of how deep that silence, when men that now give life and animation to our streets and cities and public resorts, shall one and all disappear.

How solemn that universal calm which prevailed, whilst Noah and his sons were shut within the ark, and ere yet the land had thoroughly dried up.

"Is there no lesson here?" thought I. "Yes, this young man is like thousands in the world, who, from the effects of a religious training, know that, if they would be saved, they must be conveyed away from the city of destruction-from a world lying in the wicked one; but they are resolved to tarry in that world, and to have their fill of it, as long as they can. Their leaving the world shall be more of necessity than choice. At length, though led to make a profession; though, like the young man rushing to the railway station, they resort to the house of God, they come unto the Lord as His people cometh, and they sit before Him as His people; yet though they hear His words, they do them not.' Though at the station, they loiter; they linger and look back, as did Lot's wife at Sodom. There's no heart, no will nor inclination to take their place in the train. They would sooner, in reality, it would start without them, and leave them behind to return like the dog to its vomit, and the sow to her wallowing in the mire.' Theirs is proWhat a gloom must have pervaded fession-nothing more; merely a name Egypt at early morn, after the destroy- to live' is theirs. And, though at ing angel had passed through the land. length they may take their seat, showWhilst thus musing, as I stood near ing like the young man their ticket; the carriage which contained those so they may be baptized into this church or dear to me, a young man came running that church-be called by this name or towards the train. He was greatly that name-and travel for a time with agitated, as though overcome by his God's people, yet, after all, there is no efforts to be in time; but, strange to vital change-no real heart-work-no say, having reached the platform he inward experience of that great truth, appeared to be perfectly satisfied. There'If any man be in Christ, he is a new was the train in readiness to start, and creature; old things are passed away, I expected every moment to hear the behold all things are become new. whistle sounded, and the puffing and They know nothing experimentally of snorting of the engine bespeaking in that great and glorious secret, I am proud triumph that she was off; but, crucified with Christ; nevertheless I though all this was clear, the young man live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; in question took his stand deliberately and the life I now live in the flesh, I by the train as if in perfect indifference live by the faith of the Son of God, who whether he went or not. At length, as hath loved me, and given Himself for if roused from an unaccountable reverie, me.' And the inquiry of such, 'Is there he suddenly bestirred himself, and now hurriedly stepped from carriage to carriage, exclaiming, "IS THERE ROOM?" Fortunately for him, the guard found just one seat; and, in another minute

room? is simply the emanation of that feeling which prompted the wicked Balaam to exclaim, Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like His.”

OUTLINES OF A SERMON

PREACHED IN THE PARISH CHURCH OF HAWLING, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, AUGUST 9, 1846,

BY THE REV. JOHN TUCKER, RECTOR.

"Thou shalt not die."-Judges vi. 23.

OBSERVE 1st. The contrast,
"Thou
shalt die." Ezek. xviii. 20, "The
soul that sinneth, it shall die." Mark
John viii. 21, “If ye believe not that I
am He, ye shall die in your sins.”

2. The kind of death here meant. Not
the death of the body, for the sentence
of death has passed upon all men, for
all have sinned. In this sense it is
appointed unto all men once to die; not,
therefore, the death of the body, but
the second death-dying in "sin," with-
out Christ (Rev. xx. 12-15 to the end
of the chapter). Mark John xi. 25.
3rd. The character of those who shall
not die. Those," Thou "
the
penitent sinner, humbled under a sense
of sin. Mark his cry (Psalm cxlii. 4, to
the end).

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Such was the state of Israel, as described in the chapter containing the text; greatly impoverished, feeling their need of help, and crying to God (Judges vi. 6). Rev. iii. 16-18, The case of the church at Laodicea.

What was the effect of Israel crying to God? Help and deliverance granted. Mark

4th. The cause of deliverance-a prophet was sent (v. 8). The Holy Ghost is the Deliverer. When we are brought, under His teaching, to see and feel our own sinfulness and need of salvation, we are then led to Christ, the only Refuge. Mark (v. 9), There came an angel of the Lord-Jesus Christ. See John vi. 53, 54, of which the flesh, mentioned in Judges vi. 19, 20, was a type. And then mark

5th. The certainty of the triumph (Rev. xx. 4-6). In conclusion, pray for grace to be deeply humbled under a sense of self-unworthiness and need of salvation. What did Gideon do? He built an altar (v. 24) to Jehovah-Shalom.

"The Lord send peace." "I thank God, for thirty-seven years I have been able to raise this altar in public and in private, in the public ministry of the Church, in the bosom of my own family, and in my own private devotion." Mark 1 Cor. xv. 51-55. The victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Mark the certainty of the victory. A brief review of the whole (Rom. viii. 35—39). Mark Judges xiii. 22, 23.

"WE SHALL SEE HIM AS HE IS."

A DEAR brother and I were in conversa- | realize with my Father-God! I shall tion. We used to dwell near together, see Him! I shall behold my precious and meet and converse day by day. But Jesus, "no more as through a glass now, in the Providence of God, our lot darkly, but face to face." I shall as is cast many miles apart. Hence, when verily gaze upon Him, and speak to we meet, the moments are so much the Him, as I now gaze upon and speak more precious. Well, as I sat looking with this dear brother." Oh, how pre up into a face I loved to contemplate, cious was the thought, and how did my and whilst listening to his voice, the heart dance with delight in the anticipa thought suddenly crossed me, Why, tion. Moreover, I thought it was worth this self-same thing I shall ere long suffering for and waiting for.

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D.

The doctrinal mysteries of Christianity are bones to philosophy, but milk to faith.-Howell.

"THE SALVATION OF THE LORD."

Ir one part of God's holy Word more than another may be said to be full of comfort or edification to the Christian, surely that part is the few chapters which contain the account of the sojourn in Egypt of God's ancient chosen people, and their glorious deliverance from the heart-hardened monarch.

How do the heavy afflictions and bitter bondage of the sons of Israel, correspond with the struggles and trials of the people of the Lord in every age? When Moses came to them, with the promise of deliverance from the Lord's own mouth, how impatient they were, because that deliverance was not immediately effected. Under their renewed troubles and heavy tasks, they groaned for the expected, but yet delayed, hour of emancipation, which they thought was to free them at once from the hands of their enemies and their cruel burdens; and their chafed and grieved spirits gave rise to the harsh words spoken to the servant of the Lord. And even Moses, the most meek man that ever lived, began to give way to reproachful thoughts towards God, and to call in question the promise of His aid. " Why is it that thou hast sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all." Exactly thus is it with many now; they are in bitterness of spirit; they go to the messenger of their Lord, perhaps the one who was the means of awakening them to a sense of the burdens of the Egypt of this sinful world; and they rehearse to him, that although the promise of deliverance has sounded in their ears, and the light of a happier day has cast a faint ray across their wearisome path, the gloom has now only become thicker around them, and they are almost ready to doubt whether or no the Lord means to keep His promise, because instead of their burden being lightened, it has been made heavier. How often are the hearts of God's ministers made sad when they see those to whom they have, under God, brought home the word with power, struggling against the increased burden of their sins, and

the outward persecutions and snares of the world. Like Moses they go to God at once, and tell Him their sorrows; but too often, like Moses, they lose sight for a time of God's faithfulness, and wonder why He has not delivered His people at all.

Then mark the infinite love and longsuffering of Jehovah. Might He not justly have rebuked His complaining servant, and chastised him for doubting His word? But instead of this, in answer to the appeal of Moses, He graciously renewed and confirmed His promises to the children of Israel (Exod. vi. 1-8), which promises were

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"Fenced with Jehovah's shalls and wills, Firm as the everlasting hills."

The word of the Lord, doubtless received with reverence and gratitude by Moses, was not so received by the grieved and stricken Israelites. They hearkened not to Moses for anguish of spirit and for cruel bondage. So, often the mourner in Zion can hardly be persuaded to give an ear to the Word of the Lord; he refuses to believe that the promise is really to him; his drooping spirit, so long borne down under the weight of his sins and sorrows, finds it hard to rise up into the light and freedom which the peace of the gospel brings; he cannot realize that the great I AM has condescended to call him by his name, and to call himself the God and Father of such a guilty, worthless creature. But the Lord is unchangeable; and now, as formerly, He hath established His covenant with all His people; and although the way may be often cloudy, He will assuredly bring them into the land of Canaan.

Throughout the various and fearful judgments poured out upon Egypt's cruel monarch and his people, how beautifully is the discriminating love of God and His watchfulness over His people set forth. In Exod. viii. 22, we read that the Lord said, "And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there;" and in chapter ix. 4-6,

And the Lord shall sever between the

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