He says there's no God, and I must be a fool; He tells me some judgment shall fall on my head, "Tis all in thy love, when thou flogg'st me, though down; [If a “Watchman" in the above has really expressed the feelings of his heart, we are at a loss to conceive how he could pen some pieces which have come under another signature.-EDS. I have ever asserted, and will assert, that the man who is renewed in the spirit of his mind, blessed with peace, and in union with God, will ever love God's law, and be the most evangelical observer of it, and the most obedient to it.-Huntington. The purpose of God is brought into operation upon and in his people whilst they are in sinful bodies and in a sinful world; and whilst they are the subjects of grace, at the same time they have in their fallen bodies the fightings and workings of sin and corruption. Indeed, Satan, who has lost his former ascendancy, still has the medium of this deceitful nature for his attacks. He is frequently tempting us to the indulgence of our lusts, and has all his snares so secretly and yet so well arranged, in order to entrap us, that, naturally, escape would be impossible. He begins, perhaps, with a religious garb, proposing to us circumstances and positions which would facilitate our service of God, and directing our attention to some unattainable object, and we think we are right in indulging the pleasing prospect, heedless of the interfering impediments, which are sin upon sin; and this unseen religious devil that is lurking in our bosom is telling us how much better we could devote ourselves to God in such a case. Perhaps the silken thread is cast around us for a long time before it is snapped asunder, and we ignorantly go and ask at a throne of grace for the accomplishment of the very thing that Satan has put before our eyes, not perceiving that we are asking that which would be consumed upon our lusts.-Southall. THE GOSPEL STANDARD, OR, FEEBLE CHRISTIAN'S SUPPORT. "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled."-Matt. v. 6. "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began."- 2 Tim. i. 9. "The election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded."-Rom. xi, 7. "If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest.-And they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.—In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."-Acts viii. 37, 38; Matt. xxviii. 19. No. 39. MARCH, 1839. VOL. V. A LETTER FROM A VETERAN TO A RECRUIT. Dear Brother,-May the good will of Him who dwelt in the bush ever be with you to guide you into all truth. I have been longing to hear how you are, and how matters are going on in your part of the vineyard. I hope the dear Lord is giving you many seals to your ministry, and many love-tokens that he is going before you, and bringing up the rearward; for I know that nothing else can satisfy your soul. It is not the smiles and approbation of man that will or can satisfy us, but it is having the blessed approbation of our covenant God manifested in our souls by the divine anointing of the Holy Comforter. It is my soul's desire that you may have much of this. As it respects myself, I am kept very low. Very seldom am I an inch above ground, and very often whispering out of the dust, and many times wondering whether there can possibly be a single grain of grace in my heart. But I am brought again and again to cry from my very heart, "Lord, search me, and try me, and see if there be any evil way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." O what shakings have I had since I saw you last of fears lest I should prove a deceiver at last, a preacher to others, and myself a cast-away! O what a solemn thing it is to stand up in the name of a heart-searching and rein-trying God! My very loins have been loosed, my lips. have quivered, my knees have smote together, and my very soul has groaned out, O Lord, Lord, send by whom thou wilt send; but who, and what am I, that I have dared to open my mouth in thy 66 C holy name, who art so boundless in immortal majesty and glory, that the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, but the whole earth is as the small dust of the balance, and the fathomless sea as the drop in the bucket before thee? O Lord, if I have done wrong, pardon a poor ignorant worm, for I am a worm and no man; so foolish am I and ignorant, yea, as a beast before thee." My path is so very different from what I have wanted, and what I expected many years back. I did indeed hope and believe that I should increase in knowledge and understanding of the Scriptures of truth; but instead of this, I seem to be a greater fool than ever, and more confounded and confused than ever. Nay, my friend, I am an out of the way fool, the fool of all fools; and I am confident at such times that there cannot be such an out of the way wretch found in all the creation of God. When I am left to myself in such places, which I very often am, I wonder that some judgment does not fall upon me for my devilish carnality, pride, unbelief, stubbornness, and rebellion of every description that is either in hell, or out of it; for I am sure that such a cage of unclean birds was never carried in any poor soul as old John carries in his bosom. I wonder sometimes what sort of a God the Lord is that he can and does bear and forbear with me from week to week, from month to month, and from year to year; for as sure as ever I am left to myself, I find I am nothing but earthly, sensual, and devilish, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot one mass of it; truly my wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. O wretched man that I am, monster that I am, devil that I am, beast that I am! So that I can assure you, my dear brother, that I have not a word to say about, "well done I!" and I am sometimes afraid that I shall not have one word to say about what the Lord has done in me and for me. But (honours crown his brow!) he does not leave the poor old worthless wretch altogether destitute, but now and then is pleased to give me a little help by the way, just strength enough for the day, and none to spare. And bless his dear name for moments that I can from my heart praise and thank him that this is the case, and wonder how it is that the dear Lord has ever put up such a foolish thing, such a base thing, such a despised thing, yea, such a nothing, to declare his truth. It is my earnest cry to the Lord that I may be kept from ever thinking I am something when I am nothing; but when the dear Lord answers my poor prayer and strips me completely of every thing in self, when he confounds all my wisdom, and I am brought like a blind man groping for the wall, and have to stand up before eight or nine hundred people, I have something in my heart which rages and roars like a bear bereaved of her whelps, roaring with anguish of soul, Surely I can never go in this pickle, groaning and crying by the hour for the Lord to direct my soul to a part of his holy word, and to give me a little light to preach from it to the comforting of his dear children." But, O my dear friend, what cutting work it is when God appears to take no notice of cries, groans, or tears! I actually fear sometimes that my preaching is going spark out, and I am confident that it will, if the Lord is not present to supply, for I seem at times to have no more life nor light in the word of God than a beast, and I am then afraid it will be horrid presumption for me to attempt to speak any more in the name of the Lord. I took down one of the Gospel Standards a few days ago, and it happened to be that number in which the Editors were giving me a blow for my leanness, carelessness, and selfishness in eating my morsel alone, and not publishing the loving-kindness of a covenant God for the comforting and refreshing of the dear saints at large. Bless their dear souls! it did not break my head, but I believe I found it an excellent oil. For when they compared me to the snail, I felt it was a just representation of old John, as I believe there never was such a poor crawling, creeping thing as I in the whole house of God. But it struck my mind that the creeping things of the earth got into the ark, and were as safe there as the eagles and doves; and I felt my soul melted down at the dear feet of my precious Lord, and I could not help appealing to him; " Art not thou the Ark of my rest? Is the poor snail lodged safely in thee?" And O how sweetly did the heavenly vision that the Lord showed Peter strike my mind," A great sheet knit at the four corners and let down to the earth, wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air." "Bless the Lord," my poor soul exclaimed, and was the poor snail there?" I felt a sweet humbling confidence that it was there, and to confirm my soul in the truth of it, these words dropped into my heart like honey out of the rock; "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant." O what a sweet moment had I in viewing the poor snail safe in the sheet which was knit at the four corners, and fast at every corner, so that there was no road out, but as it was let down out of heaven, so all its contents were taken up again, without one dropping out! It did my soul good, and what do you think? Why, the poor snail came out of its shell, and sang with the poet 66 "Though in myself I nothing am, I can do nothing, Lord, 'tis true, Thus something, Saviour, may I be, Be something, and yet nothing there." When the winter is over and past, and the spring season appears, when the song of the turtle is heard in the land, and the warm showers of rain drop upon the earth and the dew moistens the tender plants, then it is that the snails come out of their holes. O for his doctrine to drop as the rain and his speech to distil as the dew! God bless you, my dear brother, with much of the dew; for it is that which softens the heart and melts it into the very image of Christ. It is then we have no will of our own, but we feelingly say; "Not my will, but thine be done." It is then we can be content to be anything, or nothing; it is then we can take the lowest room, and be less than the least of all saints; and it is then that Christ is all and in all in very deed to our souls, and we can give him all the glory from our very hearts, saying; "Not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy truth and thy mercy's sake." I do all I can to persuade the Lord to let me always feel this heavenly dew; it is so comfortable to feel my soul so sweetly humbled at his dear feet, and to see that nothing but grace, mercy, and loving-kindness have followed me all the days of my life. I can then bless him for every trouble and trial; I can then say, "Who hath delivered, who doth deliver, and in whom I trust that he will yet deliver me." I am then at a point that "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." But he teacheth me that it is not his blessed mind and will that his saints should be always here, for he hath said it, and I am confident it is true; "In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." Bless the Lord, then, whatever conflicts we have by the way, victory is sure in the end, and that will crown the whole. Yes; he says, "Because I live, ye shall live also." But what gloomy work it is when there is no faith in exercise to believe on him, no love to embrace him, no patience to wait for him, no thankfulness to praise him, no godly fear to reverence him, no prayer to supplicate his throne, no humility, nor even a desire after it, to sit at his feet. "Tis dismal work to be here; but bless the Lord, 'tis needful. O what a good school it is to teach us where our help lies and where our wisdom comes from! A few lessons here will teach us to profit, and that safety is not in the strength of a horse nor in the legs of a man but in the Lord alone, and that he blows when he listeth and withholds when he willeth, that he is in one mind and none can turn him, and that though there are many devices in the heart of a man, yet that his counsel shall stand and he will do all his pleasure. Bless his dear name, I have ever found at the end of every trouble, trial, affliction, and grief, whether in body or soul, that I have been brought to see the needs be for it and to bless God for it. And yet, notwithstanding all this, my flesh cannot bear trials and troubles, but fights and rages against them as badly as ever, and dreads the very thought of coming again into the furnace, though I have so often proved that the fire is not to destroy but to refine and bring me again to offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Ah! my dear friend, these things teach us that flesh is flesh, and never will be anything but flesh, and that spirit is spirit, and never can be overthrown. But what are we without the Spirit? what can we do, what can we have without the Spirit's operations in our hearts? Bless his dear name, by bitter experience of our own devilishness and of his blessed operations in our hearts in leading our poor bewildered sunk down souls into Jesus, he hath taught us that all our springs are in him, and this makes us so often cry out, "Draw me and I will run after thee." Our standing is in him, and this makes us cry, "Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe;" our |