contrite and humble spirit." Hence there is the presupposition-most clearly so―of sin and transgression; otherwise why and whence the contrition? Then follows the humility, from a sense of sin and iniquity. Oh, what ground is there here for a sinner's hope! What poor sensible sinner need despair with such a gracious declaration from a kind and loving and merciful Jehovah in and through the person and work of Jesus, the sinner's Friend and Advocate, Daysman and Redeemer? Further, there is a gracious intention here expressed-for what end and object the Lord declares He will dwell with the "contrite and humble spirit," namely, in order to "revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.' How explicit, as well as how condescending, the Lord is. And how suitable, as well as how precious, is the assurance. How the need of reviving and renewing runs as a vein throughout the blessed Scriptures. There is so much in the daily experience of the Lord's living family to cause them to be cast down, on account of what they see and feel in themselves, as well as the difficulties they meet with in their pathway, that they stand in continual need of reassurance from the Lord Himself. They saw so little and knew so little and felt so little at first, that each fresh opening and every new discovery of both what they are and where they are, subjects them to doubt and fear and gloomy apprehension; hence the need of the Lord's renewings and revivings. How large a proportion of the Psalms of David and the experience of Job and the Lamentations of Jeremiah are identified with this looking for and longing after the Lord-a condition of waiting and watching and wrestling for fresh visits and renewed manifestations of the grace and favour of the Lord. And how was this very line of things confirmed by the Lord Himself, where He so graciously says, "I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.' Dearest Lord, then do Thou be mindful of Thy word, and come down, I pray Thee, in love and power and precious manifestation. Let there be a holy bedewing a sweet anointing-so that, under the divine power of the Holy Comforter, there may be a calm, holy, and blessed venturing upon Thine own covenant and adorable Self, with a "Do as Thou hast said," "Remember the word unto Thy servant, upon which Thou hast caused us to hope." Amen and amen. I think I can with truth say, that the longer I live, the more dreadful does the sin of unbelief appear. By unbelief I mean, not that want of confidence in God's revelation which is a distinguishing feature in the unregenerate, but the unbelief of God's own dear children; their lack of a holy reliance in, and a childlike dependence upon, Him, after the ten thousand times ten thousand mercies so conspicuously received at His hands. This is the accursed, Goddishonouring unbelief to which I refer; and I do regard it as among the greatest of sins and the most heinous of transgressions. To doubt and fear and call in question His continued goodness and lovingkindness, in the face of such love and such mercy and such tenderness and such all-bountiful provision; oh, it is awful, and would compel any but the God with whom we, poor vile sinners, have to do, to send them at once to the nethermost hell. Now I have spoken of my fear of the article of death, and of how for years and years it was for most part removed, believing that, as dying strength was not needed in a living hour, so, according to the promise, "As thy days thy strength shall be," when death really came there should verily be strength to meet it. But now my present unbelief appears to be the more marked and flagrant, because I have, in a certain sense, proved the truth of the fulfilment of this most gracious promise of daily strength for daily needs. Thus it was: for a time there came over me a feeling as though death itself could not deliver me from the complicated trials and anxieties under which I was then bowed down; I verily felt as if I must of necessity carry certain weights and cares with me into eternity. I know the idea in the estimation of others must appear absurd and ridiculous. Granted; such, however, was the feeling. At length the Lord saw fit to lay me upon a bed of affliction; and, for a season, I had not a doubt but my time was come. I felt assured, that the Lord was indeed saying to me, "Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die, and not live." The world seemed to recede from my view. I felt as though I had done with it for ever. But now here was the striking contrast to what I had so recently been subjected. So far from carrying weight and anxiety with me, I felt not to have a single care or the veriest solicitude about those from whom I thought I was about to be separated. I could leave wife and children, relatives and friends, in the Lord's hands, without any doubt or question whatever as to His taking ample care of them. I had not a thought or wish to express. could leave all and everything with the Lord. Hence, I repeat, that with this experience this test-this proof, in addition to the kind and gracious and most suitable promises of our God, that unbelief which now leads one to doubt and fear and say, "How will it be with me in the swellings of Jordan ?" is sad, sad indeed. And yet such is the unbelief of my poor, thankless, forgetful heart. Oh, how a consciousness of this my state leads me to bless and praise the Lord for that marvellous saying, 'O fools, and slow of heart to believe." " Ah, Lord, this is in very deed my condition. Pity, I pray Thee, and pardon Thy poor unbelieving dust and ashes. Since writing the foregoing, the following lines have come with much sweetness to my heart: "Did ever trouble thee befall, And He refuse to hear thy call? St. Luke's, Bedminster. THE EDITOR. "NO NIGHT THERE." WHERE the golden city lieth, No more night of spirit-darkness, Where the gemmed foundations glitter And the street of pure gold stretcheth- No more night of partial knowledge, Where the gates of pearl stand open, No more night of care and mourning; Where the tree of life is blooming No more night of black temptation ; No more wrong to do or suffer; No more bitter tears to shed. Where the God of glory reigneth; Where the choral harps resound; Where the white-robed saints are walking Are the voices we are missing- H. E. HUNTER. When the nervous system is weakened no one should be discouraged by dark clouds for a season overshadowing the best things. This is our infirmity that we often see, as through the medium of this frail tabernacle. Wayside Notes. THE TYPES AND THE TRUTH. "A shadow of good things to come." ."-HEB. X. 1. BLESSED Lord, we take up the pen once more to point Thy dear people to Thyself; precious Thou art to them. Oh, let that preciousness be seen and felt by them more and more; and now sanctify the writer's heart, that the flowings forth may be Thine own; so that blood-bought souls may be profited, and our dear Redeemer glorified in all. Beloved, you see felt need drives us to prayer ere we can pen anything that will portray the perfections of Jesus. The subject laid upon our hearts at this time is the types as they preshadowed Him who is the Truth-the Alpha and Omega of the word of God-the sum and substance of the Bible-"Jesus." Now, it was part of the divine plan laid down in the council-chamber of the eternal Three before the world was made, that, four thousand years before our Lord should take upon Himself our nature to accomplish the salvation of His people, this glorious and gracious fact should be conveyed to His servants by means of types and shadows. And what grace and mercy there is in this ordering of things; for how could the finite comprehend aught concerning the infinite mind of God unless represented to him by figures, which his littleness could grasp, and which the Spirit of God would put together for him, that he might understand the truth that is veiled in the type? Thus, from the very creation of the world, Jehovah began by type to talk to the creature man he had formed. Adam, our first parent, fell, and that fall and its attendant circumstances set forth the hopelessness of trusting to human nature, and the deep necessity for a Saviour; for, since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all [that is, all that are in Him] be made alive." Thus the fall preached death by Adam, and life, yea, eternal life, by Jesus, the Second Adam; while our first parent's union with Eve, who was taken from the wounded side of the first man, preshadowed the union that should take place between Christ and His Church, His bride, who should be taken from the wounded side of the Second Adam, to be a partaker with Him of His joys and sorrows. Then in Cain and Abel we have the distinction of seed-the seed of the serpent, and the Seed of the woman, concerning which the prophecy was; "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her Seed; it [He] shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel;" a prophecy which was fulfilled in Christ, who, though bruised in the back parts by Satan, yet rose triumphant, and effectually crushed his headship or seat of power. While further, in Abel's accepted offering of the firstling of the flock, we have shadowed forth the accepted Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. In Abel we see a sinner saved by grace, pointing to Christ as the atoning Sacrifice; in Cain, the germ of antichrist, which in after-ages should develop itself in various forms, as in the sons of Belial, in Edom, Babylon, and Rome, all having the same object in view-the dethronement and dishonouring of a precious Christ. But, to go a step further, in Noah and his family, saved in the ark, from P the swellings of the waters, we have a type of Jesus and His people, safe in Him, their spiritual Ark and Refuge; and we are told the Lord called his name Noah (that is, rest or comfort), saying, "This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands," preshadowing Jesus as the source of rest and comfort to His people. As the apostle Paul says, "For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ." Then, again, Abraham comes forth as a type of the Church of Christ. He forsook kindred and country at the command of God, and became a stranger and pilgrim on earth, while there was promised to him an everlasting possession. This is just the position and character of the Church of God: called at His command to forsake all for Christ, His people, like the worthies who have gone before, have to confess that "they are strangers and pilgrims on earth," their consolation being that they desire a better country, that is an heavenly." Blessed Lord, Thy children are increasingly feeling that this is their position and character. Grant them Thy supporting grace, under every wilderness care, and keep their eyes fixed upon the heavenly possession they are longing to gain! In Melchisedek we have a remarkably clear type of our Lord, he being, as declared, a priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him, to whom Abraham gave the tenth part of all, first being, by interpretation, king of righteousness, and after that also king of Salem, which is, king of peace, without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but who was made like unto the Son of God, abiding a priest continually. Oh, what a clear foreshadowing is here of our blessed Redeemer's office now sustained for His people! O Thou blessed and glorious High Priest, keep, we beseech Thee, Thy true worshippers looking up unto Thee! How obnoxious and dishonouring to Thy name and work must the assumption of an earthly priesthood be, a poor mortal daring to stand between Thee and the sinner, leading off the gaze from the Lord to the creature! Away with such! away with them! We want only Thee; Thou art our great High Priest for ever. Then in Jacob also we have a setting forth of Jesus; for the Lord Jehovah said concerning him, "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed." And has not Jesus power with the Father and with men to prevail? He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them; He is our all-prevailing Jacob. Blessed Lord, continue to intercede with the Father for us! Our prayers are such poor, broken utterances, we are ashamed of them. But forget the poverty of our words, and perfume the spirit of them in Thine own blood, and gain for us the blessings Thou knowest are best for us, O Thou all-prevailing Jacob! In Joseph we have a striking type of the Lord Jesus Christ; indeed, it seems to us that in every movement in life he typified Jesus. He was the beloved of his father, the bearer of the truth, and hated by his brethren in consequence. He was tried and tempted, and yet became the triumphant one before whom every knee should bow, and eventually the source of succour and support to his brethren, forgiving them all their past sins against him, and desiring that they might live near him the rest of their days. In these and in many more particulars Joseph stood forth one of the clearest types of our Lord. |