THIS IS NOT OUR REST. "Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest: because it is polluted."—Micah ii. 10. "We've no abiding city here, This may distress the worldling's mind; But should not cost the saint a tear, sin and misery we were heirs to through the fall. Yes, to deliver man from the depth of iniquity in which he lay, with Who hopes a better rest to find." the very foot-prints of Satan upon him; Yes, "there remaineth a rest for the and so completely had he become his people of God;" and the Christian feels vassal, that the world is described by the that earth can yield no rest to the hea-pen of inspiration as lying in the arms of ven-born soul: the new principle im- the wicked one. What a picture of miplanted rises upward, attracted by its sery and degradation! but, notwithstandheavenly origin; and when the spirit getsing all, so great was the love of Jehovah a view of the nothingness of all things for his fallen and guilty Church, that he here, it is ready to cry out, Oh that sent his beloved Son, to redeem it from I had the wings of a dove, for then would the power of Satan. Therefore," said I fly away and be at rest!" But, alas! the Saviour, " doth my Father love me, this is only at times; for we have so because I lay down my life for my sheep;" much within us that still cleaves to the and he who had dwelt in the bosom of dust, and we again and again allow our the Father from all eternity, knew what hearts' affections to be engaged, or suffer was in his heart; and thus addressed our wishes to go out on things which pro- him, (speaking of those he loved) "I in fit not, or tend to lower the tone of spi- them, and thou in me, that they may be rituality within us; that our heavenly made perfect in one: and that the world Father has to snap one tie after another, may know that thou hast sent me, and to assure us, that this is not our rest, hast loved them as thou hast loved me." but that there is one in reserve secured Do we really believe this? The apostle by oath and promise. And how much John exhorts us to believe the love of the we need this, to enable us to lift our Father; so much of our peace depends eyes above, and beyond this world of pol- on the receiving this great truth. One lution and sin, for the awful contagion of the titles the Saviour bears, is the has taken possession of the whole family Messenger of the covenant, the sent One; of man. Nor did it stop there, for God's to fulfil engagements previously entered fair creation, which he pronounced "very into, and arranged in that covenant; and good," has felt the shock of man's tre- we also see the love of the Son equal to mendous fall, and groans under it, wait- that of the Father. "Lo, I come," he ing for its deliverance. says, "to do thy will, O God!" We read of his setting his face as a flint, with the full prospect of what was before him. And again; "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straightened until it be accomplished." So ardently was Jesus longing to fulfil the glorious purpose of his mission, and to save the people of his love; he tells us he was set up from everlasting, and his delights were with the sons of men. Nor is the love of the Spirit less, for it is his gracious office to take of the things of Jesus, and present them in all their loveliness to the mind of the awakened sinner; giving us faith to apprehend all those glorious mysteries of love in Christ, inditing our petitions, enabling us to repose all our con fidence in him as our complete Saviour; the law-fulfiller, the sin-bearer, on whose sacred head the full cup of wrath was poured; putting into our hands the cup of salvation. Yes, and it is an everlasting salvation through the atoning blood, O what a polluted atmosphere did the Holy Jesus continually come in contact with, during his sojourn in our fallen world, and if it is grief to the spirit of a child of God, to witness the indifference, the unbelief, and profanity of those around, and if Lot's righteous soul was vexed with those in his day; what must have been the sufferings of the "Holy One of God," when on every side the breath of sin, and the very breath of demons assailed him; and during that forty days' combat with the adversary, his were pangs of which we have no idea, as the assaults of Satan must have been the more keenly felt, because he was that Holy One; there is too much in us, that blunts the sharpness of the attack, in consequence of our sinful nature, trying as the temptation may be. O thou suffering Jesus! what a world of pollution didst thou travel through for our sakes, that we might be redeemed from the bringing peace to the conscience, and rest to the soul now. But it is a rest in Jesus; it is to lose sight of self, and to view ourselves one with him our Covenant Head, our elder Brother, the first-born in the family, whence all our supplies are to come. It is to have the blessed assurance that all that concerns us will be accomplished by infinite wisdom and love, and that having loved his own, he loveth them unto the end, under all their changing frames, feelings, trials, and helplessness. And when faith is in exercise, do we not know the preciousness of cleaving unto the Lord, as a child would cling to a beloved parent in the prospect of danger? or hanging upon the arm of the Lord, as a weak one would hang upon the strong arm of a dear friend? But all such similitudes fail when we come to speak of our strong, and tried Friend. It is said of him; "thou hast a mighty arm: strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand." Ŏ yes, the arm of our Jehovah Jesus is so nerved, that it has, and does, and will sustain the weight of all the trials, cares, and sorrows of the whole Church, and each individual member of that Church, to the end of time. From such considerations as these, there is peace, there is rest, on this agitated and troubled ocean of time; for however terrible the storm, if Jesus is with us in the ship, we must be safe; in the secret of his presence he will hide us —we are called to be still and see his salvation,― "Render'd by his presence fearless, While we see our Saviour nigh." 0 yes, the Spirit-taught Christian can look to the source of rest, the great founlittle streamlet comes, tain, whence every and can trace each drop of peace, comfort, and rest, from the ocean of God's everlasting love! For what else has the tempest-tossed soul to steady it on this troublous sea, if it has not the immutability of Jehovah's counsel; "the munitions of rocks," as a place of defence? for, as the anchor strikes down, and grasps its resting place, so does hope dart upward, entering into that which is within the veil, and rests secure. Glorious security! and notwithstanding our ingratitude, unbelief, and too often rebellion, yet, Jehovah says, "I the Lord, change not," therefore we are not consumed. And our gracious Mediator is now within the veil, presenting his precious blood on our behalf; perfuming our prayers, and our poor services with the rich odour of his merits; transacting all the affairs of his people; watching their every want; listening to their feeblest cry; sympathizing in all their afflictions and trials; and dealing out to them those trials in kind and quantity, according to his wisdom and love; strengthening them in the hour of weakness; rescuing them in the moment of danger; and enabling them to look forward to that glorious day, when he shall come forth to bless his chosen ones; attired in all his glory, as the Bridegroom of his Church! Do not our hearts say, "Come, Lord Jesus, O come quickly!" But while still on our journey, we have to combat with our foes, who are both powerful and subtil; yet, we must remember, that the strength to resist their assaults, is alone in Jesus; it is he who provides the armour, and enables us to put it on; and when the enemy cometh in like a flood, puts us into the cleft of the Rock, saying, "Fear not, I am thy salvation." Oh that our cry may be, " Lord increase our faith!" we want faith to make use of that precious blood, to wash away guilt from the conscience; faith to lay hold of Christ in all his relations to his people; faith to rest assured that not one good thing which he has promised shall fail; faith to realize our title through our covenant Head, to that inheritance above, reserved " for those who are kept by the power of God." O how trifling would the things of earth appear, were our minds more conversant with heavenly things; looking out for that glory which is to be revealed. We are called to be like unto those who wait for their Lord, expecting the summons, Arise ye, and depart this is not your rest." "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away for lo, the winter is past!" O what a glorious prospect for the eye of faith to rest on! It is said, "thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty," and all made perfect through his comeliness, pure as their Lord is pure; for nothing that defileth can enter into that holy city; no tempter there, no sinful heart there "No darkness now obscures the mind, "The love so cold, so mixed before, In heav'n is cold and mixed no more; What a blessed state! Does not every Christian long for this, while groaning under the burden of corruption? No more tears, no more sorrow, the whole redeemed Church glorified together. What a dazzling company! each one reflecting rays of glory from the great centre of glory! and each heart too big to utter all its joy! but they have eternity before them, never-ending bliss! not one discordant note in their song of praise. Patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and all of every clime; nobles of the earth, and the beggar; the wise man, and the illiterate; the aged Methusaleh, and the infant of days; each their own song of praise; but all uniting in one grand chorus. Angels, too, have their holy song; but there are strains in the song of the redeemed, they can never reach; they know nothing experimentally of the sprinkled blood, the pardon of sin, the trials of the wilderness, the many battles fought, and, it may be, bruises by the way, and the healing balm; the tenderness and love of Jesus all the journey through. No, they know nothing of all this; but as they may have been sent on messages of mercy to these heirs of glory. They no doubt will gather round the glorified saints, and listen with rapture to some displays of love and mercy made known to those redeemed ones, during their sojourn on earth, and hear them tell of what Jesus did for them; how he revealed to them his everlasting love, and was with them in the fires, both of persecution and affliction, and was their strength amidst it all; and when on a bed of sickness he was there, bringing home to the heart his precious promises; and when the last hour arrived, Jesus was there, and journeyed with them through the valley, lighting it up with the bright O what mys beams of his countenance. teries of love will be opened out; what tales of wonder told; what we know not now, we shall know then! Methinks I see those holy ones listening to a David, a Solomon, a Peter, telling of forgiving love. Noah, too, recounting his mercies, and telling his wondrous history; and he, who once hung by the side of him, who now fills the throne of glory; whose ransomed spirit was borne away in triumph by his redeeming Lord! will he not tell" how his eyes were opened" to behold at once the dying Jesus as the Son of God, and the Saviour of his soul, and King and Intercessor too. O what a display there will be of the power of the divine Spirit, and many others will join his song of praise to whom mercy had been extended in the eleventh hour; and surely Saul of Tarsus will stand forth as a witness for the sovereign distinguishing grace of God, and tell it out to the listening hosts, that he was the man, who was arrested in his awful pursuit of violence and death, by the hand of his all-conquering Saviour. And shall not we have something to tell also? 0 yes, we shall! each redeemed one being a miracle of mercy, and a trophy of the Saviour's love, power, and faithfulness; and when we get some little foretaste of the happiness above, do we not long to join them? yet, it is ours to say— THE MERCY-SEAT. WITH timid feet my soul draws near, But when my faith gets near to see, Christ and his heavenly mercy-seat; I half forget my misery, In the kind looks with which I meet. And when I cast my eyes around, Expecting somewhere anger shown; Nothing but promises are found, In all directions round the throne. Zion Chapel, Bedford. M. E. L. Or when I strive to call to mind, Harsh justice, and the broken law; Strange-but yet true-e'en that I find Shall trouble and distress no more. Come, sinners, then, who feel the load, Of sin and guilt-come here with me; You'll love-like me-to find your God, When only God in Christ you see. Satan long told me I should meet A righteous God with angry frown; But Jesus filled the mercy-seat, Crowned with a Mediator's crown. JOSEPH PALMER. "DOES THE COMMISSION TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO EVERY CREATURE, AUTHORIZE THE PROCLAMATION TO EVERY INDIVIDUAL, THAT CHRIST DIED FOR HIM ?" Having stated what our view of the Gospel is, we shall now say what we believe it is not; and without the least hesitation, we at once say, we cannot hold it to be that popular system of offers and invitations, of Ifs and Buts, and Uncertainties, whereby an ungodly sinnera man dead in trespasses and sins, may or may not have a chance of salvation. From our inmost souls, we repudiate such a view of the glorious Gospel of the blessed God. Go ye, saith Christ, into all the world, of all those who are made partakers of and preach the Gospel to every creature." God's salvation. Such then is the GosYes, says the universal Redemptionist; pel which is to be preached to every creahere I find my commission to tell to each ture, and with a specific design, which it individual, that Christ died for him: Not shall accomplish, as St. James (Acts xv. so, says the particular Redemptionist, 14,) commenting on St. Peter's words, that is merely your own inference; this (ver. 7,) (" God made choice among us, command conveys to you no such au- that the Gentiles by my mouth should thority, you are to preach the Gospel to hear the word of the Gospel and beevery creature, and you should first prove lieve,") tells us-Simeon hath declared that this Gospel which you are to preach, how God at the first did visit the Genis a proclamation to each individual, that tiles, to take out of them a people for his Christ died for him, before you can arrive name (Acts xv. 7, 14); from whence it is at any such conclusion. But on the con- quite evident, that the extent to which trary, so far is this from being a scrip- the Gospel is to be preached, and the detural and just inference, that Christ him- design of it, are totally distinct, and that self adds, "he that believeth, and is bap- there is no authority in the commission tized shall be saved," at once leading us to preach the Gospel to every creature, to apprehend, that the Gospel which you for telling each individual, that Christ are to preach, is the same, as that of which died for him. (Rom. i. 16) St. Paul was not ashamed, and which he declared to be the "power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth." This therefore is the Gospel which you are commissioned to preach; so that the commission to preach to every creature, by no means authorizes your unfair application and conclusion. It is through the foolishness of preaching, this Gospel, which sets forth a crucified Christ, that it pleases God to save them that believe. His wisdom and his power unto salvation, are, as it were, concentrated in, and accompany the preaching of this sacred name; and when the joyful sound of "Christ crucified" goes forth "in demonstration of the Spirit and of power," it is made the power of God, and the wisdom of God to them, and them only, who are called. To all others it is a stumbling-block-it is foolishness: to them only who believe, it is God's power unto salvation; for them only was Christ crucified. Nor are we to make confusion here, by supposing that their belief is a condition on account of which, Christ crucified is made to them salvation. This would be, to make their belief, their Saviour, and not Christ: no, but their belief is the evidence, the effect, the result of this fact that Christ died for them; that their salvation was already accomplished by him, when he said, "it is finished:""I have finished the work which thou hast given me to do;" and that now it is freely given unto them in believing through the power of God. It is both the evidence to themselves of possession; and it is the descriptive mark No, blessed be his holy name, when we reflect on what we were once ourselves, and now are by nature; and when we think on the condition, at this moment, of many dear to us in the flesh, we bless our gracious God, that it is not so. Alas, if it were so, oh, would not such a Gospel as that be, instead of glad tidings, sad tidings to the poor, helpless, ruined one, described by the Holy Ghost as dead in trespasses and sins; blind and deaf; having the understanding darkened; incapable of receiving and knowing the things of the Spirit of God; alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in him; blinded by Satan, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of the blessed God should shine unto him. What would such a Gospel be to such an one, to such a condition? Ah vain, truly vain indeed, would be the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely in this way. But again and again, for ourselves, for poor fellow sinners, we bless our gracious God, that it is not so. No, it is a Gospel of wisdom, and a Gospel of power unto salvation, that suits a poor sinner's case, and such is the Gospel of the grace of vation, feeling assuredly that it will be our God. To illustrate the difference effectually manifested in all the election between these two Gospels, one of offers of grace, and none else; how it would and invitations, &c., and one of God's save the ear from those jarring sounds, wisdom and power; let us for a moment which grate upon it so frequently; when suppose a case. A poor man falls into a in almost the same breath, we hear saldeep pit, wounded and bruised, the whole vation spoken of as of free grace; man head sick, the whole heart faint; nay, told that he is not able to accept this far worse, dead from the effects of the salvation of himself; and then this helpfall. Well, one seeing his sad condition, less one, called upon to do that which he hastens in pity and compassion to the had just heard he was unable to do. Oh, rescue; he casts down in all the ardency if poor man would but preach, the cruciof excited feeling, a rope to the dead one. fied, and risen, and ascended One, in all He offers it to him, and calls and invites the dignity of his Person; in all the comhim to lay hold on it, and says, by such pleteness of his salvation; in all the remeans he shall be pulled up. Alas! what sponsibility of his suretyship and coveavaileth all this; the man is dead; it is nant-engagements, and all the adaptation but a solemn mockery. Such is a Gospel of his official relationship to his Church, of offers and invitations; but not such is the chief of sinners; in all the fulness of the glorious Gospel of the blessed God. his grace for that Church, of which he is No, it is God's power unto salvation to the head; in all the tender sympathy of every one that believeth, and the omni- his loving heart for the weary and heavypotent arm of Jehovah accompanies the laden; and in all the blessed soul-reviving voice that wakes the dead; and coiling foretastes of his coming presence and this rope by the mighty energy of the glory, with which he sometimes visits the Spirit's power around the helpless, dead lowly and contrite heart; and avoiding one, says, come forth with resuscitating his own doubtful applications, leave it to influence, and landing him alive, whole the Testifier of Jesus to exercise his own and sound, out of the pit of corruption, prerogative, making his indubitable apsets him at large to walk abroad in the plications, when, where, and to whom he glorious liberty wherewith Christ sets will; might we not with more confidence his people free. Such is the Gospel our of faith, hope to see many a poor child own poor soul rejoices to delight in; such of God, though still in darkness, brought is the Gospel we glory in, when thinking into his marvellous light; and many a on poor fellow-sinners, dead in their tres- poor fearful, doubting one, delivered from say to the very chiefest of them, "Is anythe bondage under which his sad spirit thing two hard for the Lord ?" and passes now groans, and brought into the banand sins; and with such, we can respond queting house of the unsearchable riches again, from a heart that was as far off as the of Christ his Lord, made to sit there very farthest; no, blessed be his holy name. under his shadow with great delight; These statements, no doubt, will sound and tasting his sweet fruits, reclining strangely in the ears of all those who under the banner of everlasting love. have been accustomed to regard salvation What is it that clouds the mind, damps as a contingent matter, depending for its the zeal, chills the heart, deadens the afaccomplishment, in some way or other, fection, leads to formal and empty proon the will of sinful man. But to those fession, with such unfailing influence, as who have been enabled to look on it as a a half-taught, half-understood, half-refact, a finished work-the result of co-ceived Gospel? and what is it that lights venant purpose, agreement, and engage- the soul, warms the heart, fires the dement between the persons of the Triune sire, binds the affeetion, bids formality Jehovah-Father, Son, and Spirit; and and vain profession away with such holy specifically designed for the saving of an determination, save the sovereign, free, elect people, a people chosen unto salva- everlasting, unfailing, and unchangeable tion, through belief of the truth. It love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, and will not be surprising if this were more received into the poor sinner's soul? Yes, fully understood, and its humbling effi- without one doubt, one fear, to be encacy more powerfully felt; what a world abled to feel, to say, "He loved me, and of inconsistency, we would be saved from gave himself for me." It is this conhearing in the public-teaching of our strains the heart; it is thisday. Oh, if poor man could but realize his own nothingness in this matter, and go forth strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might, to proclaim his sal That wings the soul to reach the prize, J. W. |