Agrippa, a king, and Paul, a tent-maker? Grace made them differ. Agrippa was an almost christian through the persuasion of man, which of itself is always ineffectual.-Paul was a christian altogether, made so by the Lord, who persuades Japhet to dwell in the tents of Shem. (Gen. ix. 27.)

I am, dear Sir,

March 7, 1825.

Your's, in the best of all bonds,

ELAH.

(For the Spiritual Magazine.)

A LETTER TO A PERSON IN MUCH DISTRESS OF MIND.

My dear Friend,

GRACE, mercy, and peace, be with you! It gave me real pleasure to hear, that you were under some concern respecting the salvation of your immortal soul. I do not wonder at the distress you feel, and that you are so very uneasy day and night, nor do I wonder at your complaints about yourself; for as the Lord continues to let in light upon your mind, the awful pollution of your nature will be more and more discovered; your former sins will stare you in the face, and the liability of swelling the large catalogue of crimson crimes, and adding to the already long list of sins, and not as yet having a believing view of the Lord's pardoning mercy in Christ Jesus to your soul, you will frequently be filled with inconceivable distress.

Satan will be constantly insinuating that your convictions are only natural, that your repentance is not genuine, that your sins are too great to be forgiven; that the Lord Jesus Christ did not come into the world to save such sinners as you are, that it is in vain for you to attend upon the preaching of the gospel, that the children of God do not feel as you do; that none of the saved of the Lord ever committed such crimes as you have committed, nor are they the subjects of such sins as you feel working in your breast. Satan will endeavour to stir up the rebellion of your heart against the most high God; against his sovereignty, in loving, choosing, and saving his people, irrespective of any worth or worthiness in them. You may be left to think that the Lord deals very hardly with you, in suffering you to remain so long in soul distress and bitter bondage. But you will, my friend, do well to consult your bible, and that very frequently, for there you will find that many of the Lord's redeemed have felt as you do; have waited long at wisdom's gates, and have knocked loud at mercy's door, year after year, before the voice of mercy sounded in their souls. But the Lord does now and then encourage you to confide in him, by leading his ministers pointedly to speak to your case, and so to set forth Jesus as exactly suits you. You see your need of a divine Saviour and he is one. You feel your need of a divine righteousness and Christ has wrought out one. You are convinced that a divine satisfaction must be made to a divine law, and to Jehovah's justice:

and the glorious gospel reveals the perfect obedience, and the efficacious blood-shedding of the Lord Jesus Christ. And while you are hearing these delightful subjects dilated on, hope springs up in your bosom, and you are constrained to come to this cautious conclusion: who can tell but God may be gracious unto me?

As

These transient visits are the prelude of better days; and the time may not be far distant, when God the Holy Spirit shall so take of the things of Christ, and make them known to you, as shall turn your sorrow into joy, remove all your distress, silence every suspicion, and remove every doubt respecting your interest in the great salvation of Jesus. As night succeeds day in regular succession in nature, so it is with the christian, and more particularly with young converts. the Lord carries on his work in your soul, you will experience very many changes in your frame; but there can be no changes in your state, because the love of God is immutable, unalterably fixed upon the objects of it. No doctrine more clearly revealed in the word of God. As our union to the Lord is known by our communion with him, and as you are at present but a babe in the Lord's household, (and an unspeakable mercy to be a babe,) I would write in the most encouraging way possible; for it is worthy of our particular regard, how condescending the Lord Jesus is in taking notice of the very first buddings forth grace in the souls of those that he has purchased with his most precious blood. The first feelings of sin, with all the desires to be delivered from it, that is, from the love of it, the dominion of it, the curse due to it, he pays particular attention to. No tender mother can so sympathize for a beloved child in affliction, as Jesus can, and does, for his little ones in all their distresses. How he watched over his Israel in Egypt, and in the wilderness, supplied their daily wants, healed their daily backslidings, caused a proclamation to be made of his great grace, and most matchless mercy, set up the brazen serpent, for the serpent-bitten people to look to for cure: as figurative of Jesus, the great physician, who heals and cures all the bites of the old serpent, the devil, in the souls of the saints.

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May God the Holy Spirit exalt and exhibit Christ to the view of your faith! You will find no rest, nor enjoy permanent peace, until you are led to see from the word, and by the teaching of the Holy Ghost, the fulness, richness, majesty, and perfection of the person and work of Christ. He is the solid rock that the church is built upon,the safe and only place of refuge, for those who are pursued by law and conscience, satan and sinners, to fly unto; and here it is, that millions have found a fresh asylum. His royal righteousness covers and conceals the ugly spots that sin has made in his bride. His most precious blood atones for all her guilt. His almighty arm upholds and defends his weak and helpless ones. The eye of his providence is ever engaged on the behalf of those who fear him. You will do

well to expect much opposition, and many temptations from satan, much persecution from the world; the scandalous conduct of professors will often stumble you, and the inward corruptions of your own

heart will often stagger you: this legacy our dear Lord has left us, In the world ye shall have tribulation—but in Christ there is peace! And no where else but there; not even among real saints.

I wish you many Sunday-showers from heaven, many Bethel-visits from Jesus, many choice crumbs from the master's table, and many applications of the sweet and precious promises. This will strengthen your little faith, enlarge your heart in prayer and praise. This will draw forth your soul to bless the Father for his great love, matchless mercy, and boundless compassion, in providing a ransom and righteousness for poor captives, and naked sinners. You will be led to love the Son of God for becoming incarnate, for standing in your stead, under the curse of the law and the wrath of God, for putting away sin by the sacrifice of himself. You will praise and worship God the Holy Spirit, for raising up and inspiring men to write the blessed bible, glorifying Jesus Christ and his great salvation, sending out ministers to preach the gospel, regenerating the souls of the election grace, and carrying on the begun work. May your mind be led much to meditate upon Christ. He is bread to strengthen you, wine and milk to nourish you, a friend to stand by you at all times, in all places, and under all circumstances. May the Lord bless you, and all who are just beginning to ask the way to Zion, with their faces thitherward.

of

Sir,

Hampstead.

(For the Spiritual Magazine.)

JAMES.

BOOTH ON THE CONDUCT OF MINISTERS.

ITAKE the liberty of sending you an extract from the venerable Booth's "Essays on the kingdom of Christ," thinking it suitable to follow Dr. Owen's "Ministerial Requirements," which appeared in your last number. It appears to me as applicable to some ministers of the present day, as if written after hearing them; though it appeared in print thirty-seven years ago. I shall be glad, and the people of God benefited, if it should lead any minister of God to see his error, and to adopt a more becoming manner in conducting his solemn worship. Many of my friends have long lamented to me, the evil which this extract reprobates; which by inserting in the Spiritual Magazine, you will oblige, as well as,

Your's, in the Lord Jesus,

R. G.

January 21, 1825. "Some, of different communions, have deliberately acted as if the preacher's work were a mere trial of skill, and as if the pulpit were the stage of a harlequin. To display the fertility of their invention, they have selected for texts mere scraps of scripture language; which, so far from containing complete propositions, have not, in their dislocated state, conveyed a single idea upon those they have harangued; while the ignorant multitude have been greatly surprised that

the preacher could find so much, where common capacities perceived nothing. Sometimes these men of genius will choose passages of scripture expressive of plain historical facts, which have no connection with the great work of salvation by Jesus Christ; and handle them (not professedly by way of accommodation, for then it might occasionally be admitted) but as if they were sacred allegories. Such historical facts being spiritualized, as they love to call it, doctrines, privileges, duties, in abundance, are easily derived from them. Nay, so ingenious are preachers of this turn, that it is no hard matter for them to find a great part of their creed in almost any text they take. Thus they allegorize common sense into pious absurdity.-It might, perhaps, be too barefaced, though it would certainly suit the vanity of such preachers, were they frequently to address their hearers on the pronominal monosyllable I: and there are two passages of sacred writ where it occurs in the most apposite manner. The former would make an admirable text; the latter, a noble conclusion : and they are as follow: Such a man as I-Is not this great Babylon that I have built ?

“Others, and often the same persons, frequently use the gestures of the theatre, and the language of a mountebank; as if their business were to amuse, to entertain, and to make their hearers laugh. Extravagant attitudes and quaint expressions, idle stories, and similes quite ludicrous, appear in abundance, and constitute no small part of the entertainment furnished by such persons. But in what a state must the consciences of these preachers be, who can deliberately and with premeditation act in this manner! Or, what must we think of their petitions for divine assistance, in addressing the people, when they intend thus to treat them. I called it entertainment; and, surely, they themselves do not consider it in a religious point of light. For can any man, who is not insane, deliberately adopt measures of this kind, when really aiming, either to produce, or to promote, a devotional and heavenly temper in the hearts of his hearers? Yet that is the general end of preaching. Or, can the preacher have any devotion, while shewing the airs of a mountebank ? And when, if the bulk of his auditory had no more decency than himself, there would be a burst of laughter throughout the assembly! Whatever such declaimers may think, where there is no solemnity, there is no devotion: and we may venture to add, that a person habitually destitute of devotion in his own heart, while pretending to teach others the doctrine of Christ, is a wretched character in the sight of God, and has reason to tremble. "Such a man serves not our Lord Jesus Christ, but, in some form or other, his own interests. He may wish for popularity, and perhaps may obtain it from the ignorant multitude; but people of sense and of piety, will consider him as disgracing his office, as affronting their understandings, and as insulting the majesty of that divine presence in which he stands. For where, or when, upon earth, are we to expect solemnity, if not in a worshipping assembly, and in him that leads the public devotion? In such a situation a man should be solemn as death."

ORIGINAL ESSAYS.

XI.

THE ATONEMENT.

THERE are scenes in nature which the contemplative mind often views with deep astonishment, and acknowledges to be indescribably grand; and the whole amount of the estimate the most enlightened intellect can affix thereon, is that they are inconceivably glorious. How then is the mind in the full exercise of faith prepared to acquit itself, when expressing its holy surprise and wonder at the infinite accumulation of spiritual scenes and subjects demanding attention? To assert that their grandeur is indescribable, and that their glories are inconceivable, is to say little indeed. An apostle, specially directed to speak of matters concerning the well-being of the church, bursts forth in joyful exclamation, proving what is the firmest grasp the finite mind can take of the infinite,-O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out.

There is in the Atonement a subject for meditation which has employed the minds of the Lord's people ever since the first typical sacrifice made after the fall. It is a most pleasing thought, that from the time of righteous Abel, holy patriarchs, judges, prophets, priests, and kings, have united with individual believers, to rejoice in the same theme which forms the source of all consolation to evangelists, apostles, teachers, and others, since the coming of Christ. The harp of faith was attuned, under the former dispensation, to the song of Moses and the Lamb;' the same spiritual melody employed, and continues to charm, the souls of the saints, under the latter dispensation; and when shadows and dispensations shall have disappeared, still, Moses and the Lamb!' will be the basis of harmony to the congregated church, so long as He that sitteth upon the throne shall dwell among them.

Blind, unsanctified reason, may employ her extensive powers in vainly prying into, or rejecting the scripture testimony; but faith gladly embraces the doctrine, and reads therein, the everlasting_security of them whose names are written in the book of life, of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The same love which from eternity was fixed on the church, devised the stupendous means for her preservation through time. The eternal covenant provided for her restoration from the ruin in which, by transgression, she involved herself. By sin she became obnoxious to divine justice, which, unappeased, would have driven her to hopeless perdition: but the attributes of Jehovah are agreed, mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other, in the appointment of the Lamb of