EXTRACT. There are various branches of doing in scripture ; but the doers themselves are ranged in two classes, and the one is opposed or set in opposition to the other by God himself: "O love the Lord, all ye his saints: for the Lord preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer." The one here is called a saint, one separated to God's service, to grace here, and to glory hereafter, in the purpose of God; and they are called to be saints, and are sanctified, being washed in Christ's blood, and renewed by the Spirit: these are called the faithful, whom God preserves; and the other is the proud doer, who works to be seen of men, and boasts of his performances, whom God plentifully rewardeth for all his pride, and for all his doings, as he did the Jewish pharisees. Huntington. POETRY. THE BLESSINGS OF THE FURNACE. "And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning." Isaiah iv, 3, 4. "Thus Jerusalem's daughters shall, And this I do THE SPIRITUAL WRESTLER, OR, ZION'S CHILDREN IN THE WILDERNESS. "Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you." ISAIAH XXXV, 3, 4. "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted." MATTHEW v, 4. No. 5. MAY, 1847. THE WRESTLER. One Penny. "And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day." GENESIS xxxii, 24. (Continued from page 39.) But, while we have to grapple here below with the principalities and powers of the bottomless pit, often fearing lest the good work of the Holy Spirit in our souls is not rightly begun, and that in the Day of Judgment we shall be numbered with the hypocrites in Zion, for our still farther benefit and mutual encouragement, to strengthen and support us, and to cause us to see indeed and in truth that we are treading in the footsteps of Christ's flock, before proceeding onwards with this subject, I will endeavour to illustrate what has already been noticed, by comparing the experience of Christian in the Pilgrim's Progress with our own. Mr. JOHN BUNYAN, being taught and guided by the Holy Spirit, signifies Christian first to be clothed in rags, standing in a certain place, with his face from his own house, a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back. Now, in that his clothing was rags, he had, as have by Nature every one of us, the garments of the first Adam after the fall, which in very best estate, are altogether vanity and filthy rags. His standing in a certain place, was, he stood under the curse of God; for all that are clothed in rags, not having on the Robe of Christ's Righteousness, are included in "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them." "The soul that sinneth it shall die." His face being from his own house, infers him to be born again, agreeably with "Except a man be born again, born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven," which new birth has turned his heart against its own inclinations to desire after holiness. And the book in his hand is the Word of God, which, in this new-born state, declares to him what he is, where he is, and where he is likely to be, which declaration, as a burden upon his back, alarms, and wounds his conscience, sinks his spirits, and causes him to cry and groan because of oppression. And thus, the Spirit implanted in his heart, caused him in this state to search farther into the Word, and in its application, to cry in lamentations, "What shall I do!" This is the first cry of all quickened sinners. There has been such a work begun in their souls by the Holy Spirit, that they discover themselves in so very perilous a condition as it is impossible to forbear to cry. They must cry, for the Law has entered, and their offence abounds. The Law says, "Pay me what thou owest; thou owest me strict obedience, or in breaking one point, thou art guilty of all, and art under the curse, for, "Cursed is he that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them." This, dear Reader, has been our path, or we know nothing of the way yet. The Law must be our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, or we cannot be justified by Christ; for not one of us by Nature know we are depraved and vile, and under the curse of God, and therefore, know not that we have need of an Intercessor with God; but, when the Law comes home to us in the Spirit of it, we see we are sinners indeed, and condemned sinners too; for, as the Law found us disobedient, so it passes sentence, "The soul that sinneth it shall die," and we fall under it, not knowing but what the time for its being executed upon us is at hand. Who then can forbear to cry, and that in lamentations too, "What shall I do!"? I remember well the time of my prowling in the woods and by-ways with this cry in my heart. O, the terrors felt in this state! But, what do such things prove to us? They prove that God the Holy Spirit has spoiled our pleasure in the vanities of the world for ever. And the Spirit manifests itself in groans and sighs for pardoning love and peace and reconciliation with the Holy God of Heaven; and like Christian, we look this way, and that way, as if we would run to obtain this precious balm to relieve our troubled minds, this glorious substance to fill up the great vacancy made in our hearts by the Spirit's driving out Old Enjoy-the-world, but stand still, not knowing the way to either; we know our misery only, and fear our disease is incurable. But shall our souls be Shall they suffer in the Has the good Spirit in this hopeless state for ever? flames of God's eternal anger? turned our comeliness into corruption not to clothe us in the beauty of holiness? Has He also turned all our delicious dishes-our dainty pleasures into bitters, not to give us in their place a more savoury food, that that will endure for ever? Does He kill and not make alive? Does He wound and not heal? Break and not bind up? Will He discover to our souls their polluted state by Nature, their being under the curse of God, and their need of a reconciliation with God, in order to escape eternal punishment, and cause us to groan to be delivered from our burdens and desire after holiness, Will He discover these things to our souls, I ask, and then destroy them? No! No! This would be contrary even to the written Word of God, much more the revealed; for whom He intends for Himself, (according to His purpose in election before Time began) to build up in the likeness of his Son Jesus Christ, he first pulls down, shows them what they are, where they are, and where they will go unless a change take place by His own power to cause them to partake of Spiritual life. And thus, when we feel our malady most, when we see most of our dreadful pollution, when we seem all enmity against God, and appear to have the earnest of destruction, by the Word being applied with thunderings in our souls, "Can two walk together except they be agreed ?" (though not by any ways a comfortable state,) then it is that God is doing a great and glorious work for us, and "Having found a Ransom, is gracious unto us, and saith, Deliver them from going down to the pit." And, when He speaks, the work is done, the bonds of natural objects that hold us are bursted asunder, and Satan is forced to yield up the prey, and shrink from His presence, while we shout our grateful praises in melodious strains to our great Deliverer. And it is thus with every fresh manifestation of God's love to our souls, God speaks, and the power of His voice carries our minds upwards to Him in praises and adoration, while the hellish host, our spiritual |