went up, and had his head covered: and then they would tell of the loving sympathy of those who were with him; how that " every man covered his head, and went up, weeping as they went up." David, perhaps, might not speak of this: he could tell how God delivered him from the lion and the bear, from the Philistine and from the hand of Saul; but how God turned the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness, how Absolom was defeated and slain, and how the people again returned to their allegiance—he would say little upon these points. But he would tell how Satan worked upon the pride of his heart, as to induce him to number the people; and how, at that time, through his and their forgetfulness of God's law, the plague broke out amongst them; and when he spoke of the atonement which was not paid (Exod. xxx. 12-15), and of the half-shekels which were not given, he would be led to speak of the atonement which would be made in the latter days, when the Lord would no longer desire sacrifice and offering; when a burnt offering and a sin offering would be no longer needed: but when the "God-man," having come upon earth (as "in the volume of the book it had been written of Him), should have accomplished the will of His Father, should have proved Himself to be THE "One of a thousand," should have made an atonement for the "many;" and, as the Father looked upon this soul, and upon that soul, and upon the thousands of souls plucked from the burning, should have spoken the gracious words, "Deliver them from going down to the pit, I have found the ransom." And then the man after God's own heart would speak of times of spiritual darkness and sorrow, when "the candle of the Lord shone [not] about him," when "the waves passed over his head"—the face of God hidden. And he was troubled at such time; sometimes roaring like " a wild bull in a net," and soon again "waiting patiently for the Lord, till He inclined unto him, and heard his voice;" and then he would tell how he was "brought up out of the horrible pit, and out of the miry clay," and how Sovereign grace set his feet upon the rock, established his goings, and put into his mouth a new song of praise unto his God. Says David, "Come and hear, all ye that fear God;" and those who heard him would remember, and rejoice in the remembrance, of those precious results of God's grace and goodness. And, as he drew near to the close of his life, they would hear him say, "Although my house be not so with God". though troubles and family sorrows have grievously afflicted me- -“ yet hath He made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation and all my desire." Yes, David could look to the covenant faithfulness of God, and feel that it was all his salvation and all his desire, and that "though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him." And David's God is the same now; ages have not changed His nature or His name. The God of David is the God of David's seed, the God of the spiritual, as He was of the literal, Israel. And should not the people of God do now even as David did? May they not say, "Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will tell you what He hath done for my soul?" Ah! those are blessed words, "what He hath done for my soul." Not what I have done for Him; not the glory which I have procured for Him, but "what HE hath done for MY soul." "I was dead in trespasses and sins, and HE quickened me! He fed my soul, and nourished it unto eternal life! I wandered from Him, and He sought me, and brought me back! I would have yielded to temptation, and HE withheld me! Indwelling sin would have prevailed against me, but He kept it in subjection!

Not only in grace, but in providence, He has cared for me! Often, when encompassed with doubts and fears, I have said, 'I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul;' and then the word has come home with my heart, I will never leave thee, I will never forsake thee.""

power to The time is very near when the people of God will no longer be suffered to rest on their lees, and it behoves them now, when they meet together, sometimes, to put from them the cares, the business, and the callings of the world, and in the anticipation of the troubles which are coming upon the earth, to cheer and encourage the hearts of each other with the blessed rehearsal of what the Lord hath done for their souls; and that, having "begun the good work," He will "continue it unto the great day of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ." J. F. P.

Kennett.

LINES ON 2 CHRON. VI. 32.

THE stranger and the fatherless,
And those who "wept apart,'
Were such as Jesus looked upon,
And touched His tender heart.

And He, in ages gone, the same

66

As when on earth He was;
'In the beginning" He was there,
With God, the Great First Cause.
And with Him too, the Spirit there,
Who moved upon the chaos,
And joined in counsel to create
A paradise for us.

But who shall tell the history,
How man that Eden lost;
Or how a better was obtained?
Still less, tell what it cost?
It cost that holy precious blood
Which flowed at Calvary,
To be our ransom from the fall,
And Satan's slavery.

And on through ages from the fall,

He brought His ransomed through;
In types and shadows might be seen
Himself, and favoured few.

In a long track His steps are seen
Through Israel's history,
Unfolding covenant purposes,
In blessed mystery.

Yea, on and on, till time at length
Witnessed the temple reared,
Symbolic, glorious, manifold

Of truths, to saints endeared.

But now the prayer we dwell upon
Of Solomon the great,

In which each member of the Lord,
In measure, can partake.
Leamington.

What ground have I to dare
To tread that Temple, or to hope
I've any portion there ?"

That one who says, “I'm not a child,
I'm nothing but a stranger;
My former home, now far away,

And in the hand of danger.
"I've left it for a better home,

A better father too,
If haply I may some day find
A dwelling among you.

"A far-off country,' for Thy sake,'
I've left its every charm,

6

To trust beneath Thy mighty wings
And Thy outstretchèd arm.
This was the prayer Thy servant knew
Was in the stranger's heart;
And so Thou gav'st Thy servant grace
"To act the kinsman's part."
Oh, stranger, see how kind thy God!
"He dealeth wondrously;"

Before thou breathst a word to Him,
He intercedes for thee.

Stranger, where art thou, read thou
this!

Be comforted, and come,
Tread in the "footsteps of the flock,"
And thou shalt share their home.

CAUGHT IN A TRAP.

THE following fact was communicated by a personal friend of the individual whose brief history has been often repeated in the mournful life and cloudy death of those who have similarly erred.

A newly-married couple left England for India to join a regiment, stationed at P— The lady prior to her marriage was well known as a high professor of religion. United to much knowledge of the way of salvation, she had been foremost in every good word and work, in and beyond her own locality. Her husband wooed and won her, approving of all she said and did. This was the amount of his religion; but she fell into the snare that thousands have been caught by, whose religion has thereby been manifested only as a dead profession; and thousands also of God's living children who have gone mourning all their days by reason of this one fatal step-an unsanctified marriage.

No sooner had the lady been introduced into the society which is peculiar to life in India, than she dropped her profession of religion altogether, and, instead of proving the wonderful blessing to her husband which her friends predicted and she promised herself before marriage, she became his zealous partner in all the frivolities of a worldly life.

Towards the close of the second year she suddenly fell into deep dejection of mind. The prospect of becoming a mother afforded her no interest. She frequented various scenes of amusement without pleasure. Friends in vain rallied round her, and the affection of her husband was unheeded. Her new-born babe was beheld without emotion, and her only remark was, "I shall die on the ninth day." There was not the slightest ground for this prediction, every day gavo fresh proof of a rapid recovery; but her gloomy and continued cry was, "I shall die on the ninth day." She occasionally alluded to the future, and declared there was neither hope nor mercy for her. On the ninth day, a friend who had tenderly nursed her, sat by her couch as she slept. Awaking after the clock had struck twelve, the friend said, "We may congratulate ourselves now that the dreaded day is over. "Ah," she replied, "you cannot deceive me; I shall die on the ninth day," and, falling back on her pillow, she was a corpse. God's saints have many snares spread for them by Satan, and no wrong step in life is productive of greater misery than an unsanctified marriage. The disunion that necessarily arises when conversion takes place on one side after marriage is a sore trial to a child of God, but nothing like so bitter as the self-accusation and condemnation felt when the veil falls, and discovers to the wilful and wandering child the life-long results of an ungodly marriage. The hope encouraged through natural affection, that spiritual power would be communicated, and that God by the union would bestow spiritual blessing, has deluded many to form ties that they have bitterly repented. Who in their own circle, however small, but has witnessed the countless sorrows of an ill-assorted union, the strife, reserve, mistrust on one or both sides; the deceit, worldliness, and ungodliness reproduced in the children? It is a sore never healed, unless grace lays hold of the heart; and too often it is the imitation, but not the reality, when a profession of godliness is taken up. This, though a pleasant change from persecution and opposition, has still its snares. We recognize the devil dressed in black, but, when dressed in white, he deceives the elect; and, when knowledge fills the head, but there is no life in the soul, such an one proves a dangerous companion for a child of God.

E

In the book of the prophet Haggai we read these words: "If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy? and the Priest answered and said, No. Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? and the Priests answered and said, It shall be unclean." From these words we may gather this Gospel lesson, that contact with holiness is unavailing for spiritual profit, but contact with evil has a pernicious, and in some cases a fatal, influence. "It shall be unclean."

The apostle counsels the children of God in these words, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers;" and, in the case of second marriages, the apostle declares liberty, with this restriction, "Only in the Lord."

In Num. xxxvi. 6, we have these words, "Concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, let them marry to whom they think best; only to the family of the tribe of their fathers shall they marry." The special purpose in this law was to keep the tribes distinct till Christ should come, according to prophecy, out of the tribe of Judah, and from the family of David. But in the literal, we trace the spiritual, and in this limitation with regard to marriage, we can view by the light of the Gospel, God's mind with regard to unsanctified unions. The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting towards His elect, and kinder counsel cannot be found from Genesis to Revelation, than that spoken to the Church of God by the Spirit through the apostle Paul, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you" (2 Cor. vi. 14, 15, 17).

Multitudes of God's children have fallen into error on this point. Some through lack of spiritual discernment, others wilfully blinded by Satan and natural affection. But none of Christ's sheep shall perish, and covenant love secures "that all things work together for good to them who love God, and are the called according to His purpose." Disciplined and scourged they must be, and brought low through affliction, oppression, and sorrow; life-long trouble may be their portion; but, however wilful and wayward they may have been, and however far they may have wandered from God, they must be preserved, restored, and finally saved; and their testimony concerning the way, when they reach the end, shall be, "They cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distresses."

Man, fallen and depraved by the act of our first parents, has ever since been under the power and dominion of Satan, till through the atonement of Jesus Christ, he has been rescued.

Satan will be sure to straiten or hinder us in our opportunites if he can, and then to plead necessity for a dispensation. He also puts tricks upon men, by putting us upon a service presently needful, with the prospect of another, in which at that time we are not so concerned.

Satan aims to perplex and disquiet the spirit of a believer, in order to bring him into a spirit of discontent. He aims at the molesting of the mind to disturb its motion towards God.

THE CHURCH'S CRY.

MAKE haste, my Beloved, why tarry so long?
Oh, when shall mine eyes Thee behold?
My ears would fain catch the sweet jubilee song
Of the saints with their bright harps of gold.

Make haste, my Beloved, my heart beats for Thee,
The darkness is thickening around;

Oh, let the day dawn, then the shadows will flee,
And praise shall for ever resound.

Make haste, my Beloved, oh, speed Thee Thy way,
O'er the mountains of Bether appear;

Those hills that divide this dark night from the day,
Which shall shine through Thy presence so clear.

Make haste, my Beloved, the bride now awaits
Thy glorious appearing on high;

We lift up our heads to heaven's pearly gates,
For the day of redemption draws nigh.

Make haste, my Beloved, mute creation still groans
And travails in pain until now;

In earnest expectance earth languishing moans,
The land in affliction doth bow.

Make haste, my Beloved, the captive yet sighs
For deliverance from sin's galling chain,
While louder and louder the sufferer cries
For relief from his anguish and pain.

Make haste, my Beloved, the time draweth near,
When, from sin and from sorrow set free,
Thy ransomed ones, who to Thy heart are so dear,
Will reign over all things with Thee.

Make haste, my Beloved, until that blest hour
Keep us nearer and nearer to Thee;

For tempests arise, and clouds darkly lour,
While failing hearts round us we see.

Make haste, my Beloved, though Thy advent to some
May be through the angel of death,

And ere yet foretold tribulation shall come
They will have to resign their frail breath.

Make haste, my Beloved, the way matters not
That conveys us to Canaan's glad shore,

Since Thy blest example has marked out our lot
Through the path Thou didst travel before.

Make haste, my Beloved, Thou hast fought the good fight,
Brought into subjection all powers;

Hast vanquished the foe by the strength of Thy might:
The battle was Thine, the victory ours.

Make haste, my Beloved, we are longing to sing
The new song of "Worthy the Lamb,"

To strike up our harps to Immanuel our King,
And praise and adore His dear name.

Manchester.

A LITTLE ONE.