never made any profession at all, then you would have had a little pleasure in the world, at all events; and now you have neither."

These, reader, are all the devil's lies; and these his fallacious arguments. Instead of answering him in the language of thy blessed Lord, with a "Get thee behind me, Satan!" thy soul is so astounded and his arguments appear so just, that it seems were it not for a secret something, which thou canst not express, keeping thee back, thou wouldst surely take his advice, and give it all up. Thou never wilt, poor soul; nor will thy Lord ever give up thee. Why, there is one blessed evidence of the reality of the work, if thou hadst no other, and that is this, thou art concerned about it. If thine were a mere fleshly religion-the religion of the present day, we mean—which so much puzzles thee, and which Satan sometimes uses as another argument against thee, saying that thou art different from everybody else-from those who are performing such mighty acts apparently for the cause of God and truthwe say, if thy religion were of this cast, the devil would not dispute with nor worry and annoy thee; he would let thee go on peacefully enough, till death and judgment opened thine eyes to the awful deception of which he had made thee the victim. It is true thou mayst never have been led so deeply into the mystery of iniquity as others have been who were destined for more active service; but canst thou not say, thou hast seen enough of thine own heart to make thee acknowledge the truth of that word which says, "It is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked?" And art thou not convinced that if thou wert given up to its influence, and left to follow out in practice the filthy and abominable desires which at times it presents unto thee, thou canst not tell to what extent of evil thou wouldst not run? And when thou feelest these things, canst thou say, that there is not a secret mourning over them? Does not thy bosom heave a sigh, thine eye glance upward, and the petition burst forth from thine heart, if not from thy lips, "Lord, help me! Lord, keep me! Lord, preserve me, for thou alone art able?" This, this is as much the work of God as if thou couldst talk more largely, and perhaps causes thee to walk with more timidity and caution than many who appear to stand so very high in the doctrines of grace. But perhaps thou canst not tell the time when, nor the manner how, the Lord first began his work in thy soul. Satan knows this, and is aware likewise how frequent a source of grief it is unto thee, and how it agitates thy poor bewildered mind, and casts down thy sorrowing soul; this is why he so often throws it in thy face. But thou art not alone here. Thousands have travelled the same road. We tell thee for thy comfort, that though thy parents might convey knowledge to thy understanding, they could not communicate feeling to thy heart. When Satan next attacks thee, may God the Holy Ghost enable thee to meet him upon his own ground, and so fill thy mouth with arguments, and strengthen and fortify thy soul, that thou mayst vaunt off his arrows with the shield of faith, and weaken his future attacks upon the same footing. When Satan again reminds thee that thou wast born of religious parents, and that thine is a sort of hereditary religion, and descends from father to son, from mother to daughter, as a mere matter of course, without any

substantial reality or special operation, tell him it is true that thou art the offspring of godly parents, and that the name of thy gracious God and Father is worthy of all praise for it, and if they are gone home to glory, bless God that their course is run-their warfare at an end—and they beyond the reach of a tempting devil, death, hell, and sin. But as an evidence that thy religion is not hereditary or communicative, point him to thy poor brother or sister, who, it may be, is still in nature's darkness, in the broad road to destruction; and yet, perhaps, was the favourite, the darling of the family. Or, if thou art a parent, refer him to thy son or daughter, or probably both, for whose salvation thou art daily pouring out thy soul apparently in vain, as the bent of their inclination seems to be after the follies and pleasures of this vain world. But, above all, canst thou not remember a time when the concerns of thy soul were no trouble to thee; when the society of godly people was irksome to thee; when family prayer, or thy own repetition of a form of prayer, was a task; when the services of God's house were only so far gratifying to thee as they were attended with novelty, and thou couldst see and be seen? If a change had not taken place in thee and thy views, why shouldst thou now look back with so much gratitude upon the advice of thy parents and the example they set thee? Why shouldst thou seek the company of those thou once avoided, and venerate the memory of those whom once thou despised? How is it that in prayer the people of God express thy very exercises? And why dost thou so often resort to thy closet, or to some secluded spot, there to pour out thy complaints, when none but God can behold thee? How is it that sin is hateful to thee-that thou feelest no pleasure in what thou once didst so much enjoy and that the recollection of past pursuits causes thee so much grief? Why is it? It is because there is life in thy soul; and by and by the Lord will reveal himself unto thee in all his richness, fulness, and suitability. As thy case becomes more desperate in thine own eyes-as thou art made more sick of thyself, and led to discover thine own entire helplessness, poverty, and wretchedness, thou wilt fall before the throne with the cry of poor Peter, "Lord, save, or I perish!" And in his own good time, the dear Redeemer will reveal himself unto thee as thine. He will show himself as thy law-fulfiller, advocate, and friend; thou shalt "look upon him whom thou hast pierced, and weep and mourn;" and with sweet brokenness of spirit, yet with holy rapture and amazement, exclaim with Thomas, "My Lord and my God!"

Many other points-which are as so many stumbling-blocks in the way of the real believer-we wished to have dwelt upon, but in these matters we can seldom adopt our own plans. A text of Scripture sometimes occurs to us, and a train of thought is suggested to our minds, by which, under the blessed leadings of God the Holy Ghost, we are comforted and blessed. At such seasons our hearts are warmed, our souls enlarged, and we long to testify of the goodness of our God. The only channel which presents itself, and in which we dare to venture, is our pen opportunities for this exercise seldom present themselves; and when they do, if our subject is not removed altogether, we are led into quite a different course from that which we had proposed to ourselves

when we sat down to write. Our readers must therefore take our poor services just as they are; they must receive our unstudied epistles as the effusions of the heart rather than the labours of the brain. We cannot study-we never could. Unless we can write with freedom and liberty, and under the sweet inward anointings of the Holy Spirit, we would rather not write at all.

To that self-same blessed Spirit we commend both our readers and ourselves, beseeching him that what is ours he would graciously overlook and suffer not the reader's mind to be burdened with; and that what may be his own, he would be pleased to carry home with divine power to the comfort and establishment of the souls of some of his poor doubting ones. To his name shall be the glory. Amen.

CHRIST THE MIGHTY GOD.

Thoughts on Isaiah, ix., 6.—His name shall be called the Mighty God.

WHO that for a moment looks at this sublime sentence of Holy writ, can doubt the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is here expressly called "The Mighty God?" Though he was being anticipated by the prophet as coming into our world in the character of a Mediator, had he not been God, and the Mighty God, too, how could even the demands of the law, which was holy, just, and good-which we had broken-have been satisfied, but which he magnified and made honourable? or the justice of God, which demanded satisfaction at our hands— and which we could not give, and would have doomed us to endless pains, blackness, and darkness for ever-have been satisfied? And how could such awful consequences justly merited by us have been averted, had not he been God manifest in the flesh? What mere man could have satisfied such claims as these? Offended Deity would not have been pleased with "thousands of rams, or ten thousands of rivers of oil or though man should give the fruit of his body for the sin of his soul;" it would not, could not have sufficed.

:

It was also impossible that the blood of bulls, and of goats, or the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, could take away sins

"But Christ the heavenly Lamb,
Took all our sins away,

A sacrifice of nobler name,
And richer blood than they."

Oh, no! Socinians' Christ, as mere man, will not do for us as sinners; "for if one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him; but if a man sin against God, who shall entreat for him?" Not the purest man that ever lived; not saints, however holy, that are dead or living; nor the

Virgin Mary, nor other saints worshipped, or adored, or held in veneration by the Romish Church; nor any other systems invented by man; nor do we want them

"Jesus alone shall bear our cries

Up to his Father's throne;

He, dearest Lord, perfumes our sighs,

And sweetens every groan."

Neither is there salvation in any other, for "there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we can be saved." And every real Christian taught aright by the Holy Spirit, may and will of him say, "My soul shall magnify the Lord, and my spirit shall rejoice in him as God my Saviour."

"Without beginning or decline,

Object of faith and not of sense,
Eternal ages saw him shine;

He shines eternal ages thence.

As much when in the manger laid,
Almighty ruler of the sky,

As when the six days' work he made,
Fill'd all the morning stars with joy.

Of all the crowns Jehovah wears,
Salvation is the dearest claim;

That gracious sound well pleas'd he hears,
And owns Immanuel for his name."

Then, without controversy, great is this mystery of godliness-his manifestation into our world-becoming "bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh;" who, "though he was rich, for our sakes became poor, that we, through his poverty, might be made rich." And the Christian may farther proceed with the poet, and say,

"A cheerful confidence I feel,

My well-plac'd hopes with joy I see;
My bosom glows with holy zeal,

To worship him who died for me.

As man he pities my complaints-
His power and truth are all divine;
He will not fail-he cannot faint,

Salvation's sure and must be mine."

Nor are they in any fear of being deemed idolators in worshipping him, for "he has a name given him which is above every name-that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that he is Lord, to the glory of God the Father, and let all the angels of God worship him."

And who but one possessed of all the attributes of God could guide, govern, and controul all the passions of the human mind-create anew the human heart—make men willing in the day of his power, and bring them to build all their hopes upon him for time and eternity? None but him who has all power in heaven and earth-who "openeth and no man shutteth, and who shutteth and no man openeth." It is not, then,

the apostle Peter, but Christ alone that has the keys of hell and of death-He, "the chief corner stone laid in Zion, elect, precious, on whom the Church is built, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, and in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord; and he shall bring forth the top stone with shoutings of Grace, grace unto it.'" And who did, when on earth, show his divinity as God (and humanity as man-as the true Messiah) by the mighty works, signs, and miracles which he did, and many infallible proofs, which none have been ever able successfully to gainsay or resist; and in accomplishing the work he undertook for his people, in becoming God and man in one person, as their surety and representative. Away, then, all ye refuges of lies and false foundations on which men rely and build their hopes for eternity; none will stand the test of trial or a judgment day but those that build on this Rock of Ages, and that believe and rest their implicit faith and confidence in him, as God and man in one person, and as the second person in the glorious Trinity; depending entirely on his finished work, which he has wrought and done for them alone: this applied to their hearts by the Holy Spirit, makes him their all in all, and they of themselves nothing. Here alone is solid rock for a sinner's hope, and all is sand beside.

Oh! what inexhaustible sources of comfort and consolation does this open to the Christian thus taught in travelling

"This straight and thorny road,

Where mortal spirits tire and faint;
Their Jesus is the mighty God,
Who feeds the strength of every saint.

From him, the overflowing spring,

Their souls shall drink a fresh supply;
While such as trust their native strength

Shall pine away, and droop, and die."

Or who can describe the happiness of those who can truly say, "He is mine, and all he did he did for me and I am interested in all;' or who can tell the vast spiritual treasures they possess, both in this world and that which is to come, "heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ?" Oh, for nearer access to him! oh, for increasing conformity to him who is "the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person;" who, upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high, thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, being made subject to him, who is here called by the Prophet-The Mighty God!

June 9th, 1840.

W. T.