cumstance, the Lord will be with her, and grant if it be his blessed will, lucid moments, and that it may please him to bless the means for her recovery, and that in mercy he will look upon her, and restore her to her disconsolate family in his own time, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed in her right mind. That she knew the Lord, and rejoiced in the God of her salvation, I am well satisfied; that the Lord has owned and blest the word of life to her soul, and loves her with an everlasting love, are matters to my mind quite certain, and that the present heavy affliction is for her ultimate good; of this I feel assured, and I am constrained to say with Job "The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord," and also with the poet

"They may on the main of temptation be toss'd,

Their sorrows may swell as the sea,

But none of the ransom'd shall ever be lost,

The righteous shall hold on his way."

Thus at present my path is in deep water, the Lord hides his face from me, I am shut up and cannot come forth, I cry unto the Lord, but he shutteth out my prayer, clouds and darkness are round about him. Under this painful dispensation, my earnest desire is to look to the Lord, to trust in the Lord, to pray to the Lord, to cry unto God, who heareth the groaning of the prisoner-"Teach me thy way, O Lord; I will walk in thy truth; unite my heart to fear thy name." Psalm lxxxvi, v. 11.

"Is anything too hard for the Lord." No, he hath all worlds at his immediate command, and can turn the hearts of kings and rulers whithersoever he will, and all the glory shall redound to his blessed name.

Since the absence of my dear partner, my mind has been most deeply exercised, and I am apt to reason thus :-Lord I feel certain that I am one of thy dear family, that Christ died for me, I feel a secret assurance I have the witness of the Holy Spirit bearing witness with my spirit, that I am included in the one hundred and forty four thousand, and shall ultimately sing the song of Moses and the Lamb, that my name is recorded in the Lamb's Book of Life, yea more, that my name was placed in the book of life before the foundation of the world. The enemy comes in and says, yes, your name may be in the book of life, but do you not fear that it may be blotted out; not the least fear about it whatever. God the Father will not erase it, nor will God the Son, nor will the Holy Spirit the blessed testifier of, and witness to my soul; these are blessed truths, blessed realities; precious, precious, is the name of Jesus; I try to love him more and more every day, but I know this, I shall never be able to love him as he does me. Christ loves his children with an infinite love, my love is finite, yet notwithstanding this

great Scripture, there are men who come forward and assert and who call themselves ministers of God; but I am fully satisfied they are the devil's ministers after all; these men assert that God the Father needeth not the praises of his Saints, but that he is infinitely happy without them; that the Lord Jesus Christ does not require the praises of his saints to increase his happiness. But Solomon by the Holy Ghost speaks very differently, "Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men." Prov. viii. 31. The dear redeemer comes to us with infinite delight, leaping and skipping upon the hills, God the Father loves his children with an Almighty love, the Holy and blessed Spirit loves them with the same love. When God created the world and all the planetary orbs with all their vast and numerous host of celestial bodies, he created them by himself; when Christ effected the work of redemption by fulfilling the law, putting an end to the curse, putting sin everlastingly away-he did it by himself; but God will not enjoy heaven by himself, he must have his children with him; mark the language "Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me; for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world." John xvii, v. 24. Thus you see the assertion of these men-made parsons falls to the ground, and that what they assert is from their own empty heads and destitute hearts; no real love to the truth, no food for the sheep, no pitcher of water for the flock to drink out of by the way; some of them seem to have a pitcher, but then there is no water in it, and the poor sheep wait and pant a long time after for a draught of water, but get none, and thus you see these men-made ministers are entirely out of the secret; they have no desire to feed the flock, their chief aim is to feed themselves. I lately met with three of this class; having occasion to go into Buckinghamshire, I went to hear one of this kind, a Baptist he called himself, but poor man he was as dark as night, the chapel was not half filled, nor did I wonder at it, every thing looked cold and dismal, he spoke about half an hour and heartily glad was I when he finished, for I was very hungry (spiritually), but he gave me not meat, his pitcher was either dry or had holes in the bottom; he said a good deal about human piety and doings of the creature, but not a word about the finished work of Christ; in the afternoon, I went to an Independent Chapel, I think it is called, and independent enough sure it was, the sermon was all about human goodness and human doings, from first to last, and glad enough was I when the long winded preacher sat down and closed the scene; the poor clerk was awful. Well, in the evening a very clever man was going to preach at the same chapel, a Mr. Watson, I think, who is

tutor of Newport Pagnell College, for educating young men for the ministry, theological tutor to this said college. He was certainly a man of considerable literary attainments, but as it regards real religion, as dark as night, quite out of the secret altogether; if possible, worse than the two former I have described. I asked if the Gospel was preached any where in the town; there is a Wesleyan chapel in the place, there I felt satisfied it was not preached. I was then informed that the Gospel is preached at the Church, but not having an opportunity of hearing the parson, could not, ascertain, but I fear there is not a living minister in the whole town, nor could I hear of one any where near the place. But I met with one who did know the Lord, the dear man whose conversation did my heart good ; yes, we talked over the goodness and mercies of the Lord, and his life has been extended to 80 years, and he feels a full assurance that the Lord will not forsake him, even down to grey hairs. I read some precious portions of Scripture, and he commented on some parts, and it really did my heart good to hear him, the Lord was with us indeed, and although there was only three of us, yet blessed be the God of Jacob, we came within the promise "where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them, and that to bless them." I felt glad to return to town, after having been thus starved out in the country; my heart was lifted up in gratitude to God for having thus made me to differ, for having thus taught me his blessed truth, for having implanted in my soul a desire, a real living desire and hunger after eternal things; oh what a mercy, thus to be brought out of the kingdom of Satan, and translated into the kingdom of his dear Son-" what shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me;" "I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord."

"" Among his children I shall stand,

When quick and dead his throne surround;

Blest with a place at his right hand,

And with immortal glory crown'd."

Yours in the bond of the everlasting covenant,

Newington Causeway,

December 2nd, 1846.

I. P. G.

ENQUIRY.

MESSRS. EDITORS,-A word of explanation on Exodus iv. 24, 25, would much oblige a friend to the Gospel Ambassador. "And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the Lord met him, and sought to kill him." "Then Zipporah took a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me."

ANSWER TO THE ABOVE.

We are not sure that we know the meaning of the above two verses; all we can do therefore is to give merely our opinion, which opinion may be right or it may be wrong; our correspondent must therefore take our remarks as we intend them, expressive only of our opinion.

Many are the opinions of men upon these Scriptures. Some think the Lord was wrath with Moses and threatened his life, because he had not circumcised the child, but we see no authority for this opinion. Circumcision was neglected in the wilderness, and was not renewed until the Israelites entered Canaan, as may be seen, Joshua v. We do not therefore think that the Lord was so far wrath with Moses, on this occasion, as to seek to kill him.

Then again some have thought that the words of Zipporah to Moses, simply mean that he was unto her a husband by blood, and that she herein had reference to Christ and the church; but we think the words of Zipporah are expressive of passion and anger, and of any feeling but that of a spiritual kind.

We are aware (Gen. xvii. 14) that excommunication was to be inflicted where circumcision was neglected; but still this law was not always enforced, as we see in the case of (Josh. v. 5.) the children born in the wilderness.

We do not, therefore, think that the Lord was on this occasion so wrath with Moses as to seek to kill either him or the child; nor do we think the words of Zipporah have any reference to Christ and the church.

Our opinion is, that it was only in appearance, or in the apprehension of Moses, that the Lord sought to kill him our reasons for this opinion are,

First, Because the notion was then prevalent, that any special manifestation of God was death to those included in that revelation. Gen. xxxii. 30; Judges, xxiii; Judges, xiii. 22. May not this sentiment have prevailed at this time with Moses, and that he spoke not as things were in reality, but as they were in appearance

Secondly,-This view of this matter agrees with many of the Lord's dealings with his people. Witness Job, Jonah, Jeremiah, and many more; wherein the Lord has so dealt with them, as though he intended to destroy them. At this destruction they have trembled, until they have seen the end of the Lord; how that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.

Thirdly, Are not such experience, apprehension, and conclusions, common among the people of God in the present day. Will not soul distresses, powerful temptations, and strong inclinations thereto, together with adverse winds in temporal matters-will not these things often produce hard thoughts of God, and lead a believer to write bitter things against himself.

Fourthly,-If the Lord seek in a way of chastisement, the life of any one of his children, how easily can he establish his counsel, as in the case of Eli; as the man of God, slain by a lion, as also the Corinthians.

Fifthly,-He had a great work for Moses to do, and is it likely therefore that he in reality sought to kill him. We think not, but only in appearance. How common is it with us to judge from the appearance of things, and how often has the Lord exceeded all our expectations in being gracious unto us. So whenever we 66 'Judge the Lord by feeble sense,"

Instead of

"Trusting him for his grace,"

We are pretty sure to be wrong. Our opinion, then, we repeat, is, that the Lord sought to kill Moses only in appearance, but not in reality.

The words of Zipporah, we think, arose from a twofold feeling, First, From affection to the child. She was a hardy woman of the desert, and the affection of such to their children is generally very strong, almost, and sometimes quite outrageous. Such was the affection of good old Sarah to her little Isaac; they are not quite so easy over it as our soft, formal, almost moveless mortals of the drawing room, called ladies; no, their affection is full of life and power.

Zipporah being alive in all this determined love to the little one, this naturally brought another feeling, namely, that of hatred to a rite which inflicted pain, and, in her view, endangered the child's life; and so offended was she with Moses, that she would not trust him to circumcise the child, but did it herself.

We think Zipporah's life and feelings were too much bound up in the lad's life to think of any thing spiritual; yet, rather than the Lord should kill Moses, she will circumcise the child, for it is likely she participated in the apprehension that the Lord sought to kill Moses, but still it very much lowered Moses in her view at the time; but when it was found that the little one was not injured, and that circumcision was a rite of honour and belonged to a holy covenant-that Abraham and his household of men servants were circumcised, and that we ought to obey God rather than men; and that God is good, and that he intended by the command, not evil to the child, but good; and that Moses was not a cruel husband, but a meek and holy man of God-when these things came to be understood, no doubt Moses was again received into favour, and treated very kindly and properly. What thousands of unpleasantnesses take place only for want of a little more clearness of understanding.

We think the circumstances upon which we have thus given our opinion, when looked into, very instructive.