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settling down in a carnal ease and satisfaction, in any merely light and superficial profession of truth, on the other. The Lord will carry on His work; yea, He will maintain it in depth and power; and to this end the faith He gives must be a tried faith-not nominally, not simply in word, but in reality, in depth, in power. And be assured, dear reader, much is involved in this. Much-very much-is comprehended in the saying of the apostle Peter, "If need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." But oh, what a mercy, beloved, with respect to the trial of faith, that the Lord has not only the appointment, but the regulation and control of all the circumstances in regard to the trial. He sits as the Refiner, and He watches with ever-vigilant eye and ever-gracious interest the fiery process; nor will He allow the application of the veriest particle of fuel above that which He sees to be necessary. And, if Satan be permitted to assault, as in Job's case, so in the every instance of the every tempted one, the arch enemy has his expressed limits, over or beyond which he cannot possibly intrude. If allowed to touch the property of Job, his person must be sacred; and, if further permission be granted, in regard to his person, his life must be held in eternal security; and why? Because that life was "hid with Christ in God," and "whoso toucheth the believer toucheth the apple of His eye."

We cannot, dear reader, better express what we mean about the Lord thus maintaining His work in the hearts of His dear people, and testing and trying their faith, than in the language of blessed Hart, as given in his 56th hymn, part i. :

"Let us ask th' important question
(Brethren, be not too secure)
What it is to be a Christian;
How we may our hearts assure.
Vain is all our best devotion,
If on false foundations built:
True religion's more than notion;
Something must be known and felt.
""Tis to trust our Well-beloved
If His blood has wash'd us clean.
'Tis to hope our guilt's removed,
Tho' we feel it rise within.
To believe that all is finish'd,
Tho' so much remains t' endure.
Find the dangers undiminish'd;
Yet to hold deliv'rance sure.

""Tis to credit contradictions,
Talk with Him one never sees.
Cry and groan beneath afflictions;
Yet to dread the thoughts of ease.

"Tis to feel the fight against us; Yet the vict'ry hope to gain.

To believe that Christ has cleans'd

us;

Tho' the leprosy remain.
""Tis to hear the Holy Spirit,
Prompting us to secret pray'r.
To rejoice in Jesus' merit;
Yet continual sorrow bear.
To receive a full remission
Of our sins for evermore;
Yet to sigh with sore contrition,
Begging mercy ev'ry hour.
"To be stedfast in believing;
Yet to tremble, fear, and quake.
Ev'ry moment be receiving
Strength; and yet be always weak.
To be fighting, fleeing, turning;
Ever sinking; yet to swim.
To converse with Jesus mourning
For ourselves or else for Him."

Reader, can you personally adopt the foregoing? Remember it is in perfect keeping with what the apostle testifies in his second epistle

to the Corinthians, where he says: "We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of

us.

We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh" (2 Cor. iv. 7—11). And again, in the 6th chapter, "But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings; by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things" (2 Cor. vi. 4-10).

But now, further, with regard to those of whom the Lord speaks, in the words before us, as "My people." They are His (1) By eternal choice; and with respect to that choice there is no assignable reason whatever, except, "Even so, Father, because it seemeth good in Thy sight." There was nothing in them to attract Jehovah's love any more than in the reprobate. All by nature and practice were involved in one common ruin; all in due time "sinned, and came short of the glory of God;" and the only distinction between His people and the world still lying in the wicked one, was that which rich and free and sovereign grace makes. It is "by the grace of God they are what they are." (2) They are "His people" by gift-that is, the gift of the Father to Christ, for the purposes of redemption. Hence, in addressing His Father, He says, "Thine they were, and Thou gavest them me;" and again, "Behold I, and the children which God hath given me." (3) They are His people by purchase. "I lay down my life for the sheep." "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Pet. i. 18, 19). (4) They are His people by conquest. "But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so, making peace; and that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: and came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to

them that were nigh. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief Corner-stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit" (Eph. ii. 13—22). "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light: which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy" (1 Pet. ii. 9, 10).

Having thus, beloved, sought to show that God's dear people are His by sovereign choice, gift, purchase, and conquest, we proceed to the contemplation of the great and glorious promise respecting them, namely, that "they shall never be ashamed." Twice is this precious truth proclaimed within the compass of two or three verses, "My people shall never be ashamed."

Now, in this world of change, with all its diversified trials and sorrows and afflictions, what can be more precious than such a gracious assurance, coming as it does from the Lord's own mouth-from Him who was never known to lie? Nor is He dependent on another for the fulfilment of His own glorious promises. He lives in His own immutability, power, and authority. "What He purposes that He doth;" "None dare stay His hand, nor say, What doest Thou?" Then observe, dear reader, 1. That the times and the circumstances under which these words were first spoken were critical and troublous. This is satisfactory, indeed, as we compare our own times with them. 2. We have an additional mercy, in that the Lord has so richly fulfilled His word. In the generations that have passed away since this most gracious promise was made, how sweet is the consideration that there has not, even in one solitary instance, been the very semblance of a failure; but that Jehovah hath in very deed strictly fulfilled His word. Thus performance is added to the promise; and in this sense, in these latter days, the Church of God is more highly privileged than in any previous age. 3. The promise still stands in the future; "My people shall never be ashamed." And the mercy is, that Jehovah took into His eternal mind all that appertains to the future, as much as He comprehended all that was connected with the past. This, beloved, is likewise a distinguishing mercy; and, as all the facts identified with the past were little by little developed, and the promise was, in all the vast details of passing circumstances, as it were in waiting for fulfilment by the great Covenanters, so shall it be in the future. As nothing has ever arisen, in the past ages of the world, to take Jehovah by surprise, to frustrate His purposes, or cause Him to forego His promises; so likewise shall the same covenant verity attach itself to all that yet remains to be revealed respecting the

future of the Church, in the comparatively little (in point of time) that has to be accomplished before Jehovah brings the present state of things to an end. Furthermore, as man is usually anxious to put a good finish to his work, so God, in the bringing off the top-stone of His spiritual temple " with shoutings of, Grace, grace unto it," will take care that nought shall arise to tarnish the glory or mar the beauty or completeness of His kingdom. As in His first creation He pronounced everything that He had made to be "very good," very good," so in the new creation shall a greater and a more abiding glory redound to His name, in the developments of His wisdom, love, and power.

Dear reader, with these considerations, based as they are upon the precious word of God, may we not, with simplicity, godly fear, and childlike dependence, step over the threshold of a new year, with all its unseen realities, pleading, as we do so, His own covenant word, “Thou hast said, 'My people shall never be ashamed!"" Yea, and may we not sing, with the immortal Toplady,

"The work which His goodness began,

The arm of His strength will complete;
His promise is, 'Yea and amen,'

And never was forfeited yet:

Nor things future, nor things that are now,
Nor things here below, nor above.
Can make Him His purpose forego,

Or sever my soul from His love.

"My name from the palms of His hands,
Eternity will not erase;
Impress'd on His heart it remains
In marks of indelible grace.
Yes, I to the end shall endure,

As sure as the earnest is given;
More happy, but not more secure,
The glorified spirits in heaven."

Beloved, we would just add, that some of us know what it is, in connexion with the varied changes and trying circumstances of this poor ever-varying life, to experience such fainting and fearing-such failing of heart and flesh-as to have absolutely nothing else but the word of the Lord to fall back upon: "My people shall never be ashamed." Personally, we have of late witnessed such sorrowing heart-rending scenes that for the time being, we have really felt them overpowering. Some three or four cases, in particular, have positively been crushing in the contemplation. And Satan (ever on the alert, and ready to take advantage of a poor sensitive mind) suggests, at such seasons and under such scenes, Ah, this will be your case; this your trial, this your affliction, this your temptation; thus and thus will matters work, and at length terminate with you.' Thus, in addition to all one's own personal sorrows and personal anxieties and personal frailties, infirmities, and fears, the enemy will seek to add others' cares and others' crosses to one's own; and thus he will try to extinguish the seemingly little last germ of life left. Oh, how hard it is under these circumstances-and especially under a cloud and the

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hidings of a Father's countenance-to "hope against hope." Oh, dear reader, have not some of us, under these circumstances, abundant reason to bless God for such experiences as those left upon record in regard to Job, and Jeremiah, and Jonah, and David, and Daniel? Look, for example, at Psalms vi., xiii., xxii., xl., lvi., lxiii., lxix., lxxi., lxxiii., lxxvii., cii., ciii., cvii., cxvi.; Jer. iii.; Dan. ix. and x. Oh, what mercy there is in such disclosures of the former exercises of the Lord's living ones being thus handed down from generation to generation; and how marvellous the contemplation that all that the psalmist expressed in the psalms referred to, was prophetically and emphatically the language of Christ Himself! How able He, therefore, personally and practically to sympathize with His poor tried and tempted followers. Such does indeed constitute Him to be what the apostle expresses, "We have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Heb. iv. 15). And when we think of Him as being "brought into the dust of death," and of His saying, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death;" “I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened until it be accomplished;" may we not feel assured that He can and He does sympathize with the sinkings of heart and shrinkings of soul of which His poor frail and feeble followers are the subjects? Yea, we believe He can feel for and sympathize with their very aches and pains and weaknesses and woes. We believe that their very prostration and faintings and fears He can personally and practically understand. Depend on it, dear reader, there is much more included in that saying than we are wont to imagine, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." In that word "precious," as thus applied, we believe there is a holy solicitude, a divine watchfulness, a peculiar care, a special interest, as though the Lord's heart and the Lord's eye were brought signally to bear upon that great crisis in His children's history. Moreover, under a clouded soul, and when a loving and tender Father's face seems veiled, how suitable is the cry, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me ?" When this is remembered as the agonizing cry of Christ Himself, how wondrous does the whole scheme of redemption become in the believer's view, involving as it did such service and such sufferings at the hand of the Church's great and glorious Surety. And, seeing that it is recorded of our gracious Lord, that "in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared; though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered; and being made perfect, He became the Author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him" (Heb. v. 7-9), how precious comes forth the declaration from One who so personally and painfully bore the cross, in order to wear the crown, My people shall never be ashamed.”

66

St. Luke's, Bedminster, Dec. 17, 1868.

THE EDITOR.

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