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THE GIFT OF GOD.

"THE gift of God" is said by Paul,
In the divinely written word,
To be "eternal life" to all

The saints," through Jesus Christ
their Lord."

This is a voluntary grant

To all the Father gave the Son In that eternal covenant

In council made ere time began.

"The gift of God" THEY must receive; For THEM the Saviour lived and bled; THEY are his members, and must live, And be made like their living Head. And all these will this "gift" receive

In the appointed time; and then When God the Spirit in them breathes This life, they're truly "born again." "The gift of God" at first appears

Little or nought to human eyes; But who shall (see the sinner's tears!) The day of such small things despise? Tears by a corpse were never shed;

If but a groan, it shows there's life; The upheaving chest, the aching head

From sin within, tell there's a strife.

"The gift of God" produces this!

And where the " water once shall

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No tribulation shall o'erwhelm,

Nor hellish foe, nor treach'rous friend; The bark, with Jesus at the helm,

Must reach heaven's haven at the end. "The gift of God "—a little leaven

It may at first appear, but nought Shall mar "the proof;" for it for heaven Was destined, where it must be brought.

Rough chilling winds, fiends, pleasures, lusts,

And ill propensities, combine To spoil, destroy-but rise it must; "They're mine," saith God,

shall be mine."

"and

"The gift of God"-how rich! it flows Spontaneous from the source of love; Its limits no archangel knows ;

No depths beneath, no heights above. It's vast as God! it's infinite!

"He gave himself; the Father, Son, And Spirit in the work unite

To finish what they have begun. "The gift of God's" a precious gift,

Embracing, for our sojourn here, All we can need, or when in death,

Or when we at the throne appear. A precious Saviour-precious life, The fruits of which are "precious faith,"

And precious love, hope, every grace, Spring from this root, as Jesus saith.†

"The gift of God" also includes, Complete acquittal from all sin; A precious robe of righteousness, Which God, his Father, clothes him in;

And precious blood to cleanse his soul,
Though e'er so lep'rous and diseased;
And (time would fail to tell the whole)
With the recipient God's well pleased.

A NATIONAL SCHOOLMASTER.
↑ John, xv. 5.

D. A. DOUDNEY, CITY PRESS, 1, LONG LANE.

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"ENDEAVOURING TO KEEP THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT IN THE BOND OF PEACE." "JESUS CHRIST, THE SAME YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, AND FOR EVER. WHOM TO KNOW

IS LIFE ETERNAL."

VOL. II.]

AUGUST, 1842.

BUT I AM SO TEMPTED.

[No. 20.

HE KNOWETH HOW TO DELIVER THE GODLY OUT OF TEMPTATIONS.-2 PETER, II. 9.

You

BELOVED, see you not a mercy in the text exactly suited to your condition? You are dark-under temptations, perhaps, of various kinds, and your path, to your own view, darker, more mysterious, and, apparently, less likely to be attended with deliverance than ever. look around, but the more you look, the more are you filled with anxiety and fear, wondering what the issue will be, and contemplating a thousand ills; but the language before us exactly suits your present trying state. Though you are tempted, sorely tried, and, at present, see not the way of relief; yet "the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations." Now this presupposes that you would not know how to deliver yourself, nor how the Lord would deliver you, until he was pleased most graciously to reveal his own way of deliverance.

Whatever, therefore, the peculiar nature of your temptation may be -however you may be cast down and deeply exercised on account of it -whatever may be your fears as to the ultimate issue; unto Jesus, and to him alone, can we direct you. Men can do you no good; you may flee to them, and unbosom your heart, and thereby render yourself liable for them to "turn again and rend you;" but all will fall No. 20, VOL. II.-New Series.

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short, until, out of dire necessity, you are brought to fall down before the Lord, a poor, ignorant, utterly helpless worm.

Beloved, we have so much miserably-deceptive creature-strength cleaving unto us, that proves a stumbling-block in the way to Jesus. We talk of being helpless-we acknowledge before the throne that we are so-but our general conduct gives our confession the lie. Could we be so sensibly weak as to distrust ourselves for everything, and rest wholly upon Jesus, we should then know a great deal more of peace and inward satisfaction than we now know.

'But you will say, "Ah! but you don't know my case." Very true : nor you ours. But if we did, the result would be the same, and our advice the same. It is to bring us down to a deep feeling sense that we are nothing, and less than nothing, that we are thus exercised from day to day.

What is your temptation or trial? Is it soul desertion? After a bright manifestation, ye younger ones—after a sweet assurance that the Lord loved you, and gave himself for you; fulfilled the law for you; took your yoke upon himself; died in your stead; and cancelled your huge debt-has he withdrawn himself, and left you in a state of doubt and fear as to the reality of your deliverance? Well, he knows how to deliver you. In some unexpected way, and at some most seasonable moment, he will assuredly appear again; break in afresh; ratify his former visit; and again whisper, "All is well."

Are vile lustings-the fresh exhibition of old propensities, and ardent striving for the mastery of former corruptions-your temptations? God knows how to deliver you from the power of the Canaanite, though he may still dwell in the land. It is true you may be cast down, affrighted above measure; you cry and sigh under a feeling of your inward abominations; you think it impossible that ever God can dwell where so much depravity is pent up, and threatens every moment to burst forth; but He does; and though for months, and even years, you may feel, more or less, the secret movements of this vile enemy— though you may be under an almost perpetual fear of falling into open sin, and find a sort of heart acquiescence in some daring temptation, that you could not disclose to mortals for worlds, and under which

your head is bowed down in agony, and you on the verge of despair; yet the Lord knoweth how to deliver you. He has his own peculiar method in reserve; and if ten thousand devils intercept your course, we still say, go to Jesus-tell Jesus-cry and sigh to Jesus, though he seem to give no heed. Oh! it is such a sweet word, "He knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations." Poor soul, most heartily would we condole with you; earnestly would we converse with you, and strive to comfort you; but this would be the sum and substance of all we could say, to Jesus, poor soul, to Jesus! We should only stand as a finger-post, pointing () to Jesus! the city of refuge, so sweetly set forth in the thirty-fifth chapter of Numbers. He must subdue the love of sin; he must control your evil nature; he must embitter iniquity; he must cause the new man of the heart to be going out after himself, in contradistinction to an evil heart going out

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