THE

FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN UNITY.

There is "one Lord, one faith, one baptism."-EPH. iv. 5. "For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit."-1 COR. xi. 13.

"Ye are all one in Christ Jesus.-GAL. iii. 28.

VOLUME XIV.

JANUARY, 1882.

No. 157

OUR NEW YEAR'S ADDRESS TO OUR READERS. DEAR FRIENDS,

O those of you whose faith and hope blend with theirs who have crossed the stormy seas of Time and entered the peaceful haven of Eternal Life (and with only such we can expect our Magazine to find acceptance), we heartily desire in the prospect of this opening year the sweetest and richest manifestation and enjoyment of the tender mercies of our God, in the frequent visitations of the Dayspring from on high.

It seems almost incredible that thirteen years should have passed away, bearing on the flood-tide of each month, week, day, and minute, those countless changes which have transpired since first this periodical was started. How many known and loved in the Lord have during this space of time been removed from our circle! Brethren in the ministry, and brethren and sisters in Christ, have disappeared from the scene of their toils, conflicts, and cares to unite in the everlasting anthems of the glorified. We could almost envy them their sacred repose in the bosom of everlasting love. For we truly feel that we have not " as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance" (in glory) which, saith Moses, "the Lord your God giveth you," Deut. xii. 9. In the beloved Saviour we have indeed often by faith had a sweet antepast of it. We have known experimentally the preciousness of Hart's description of the believer's blessedness, when he

"Reclines his head on Jesus' breast,

Glides softly into promised rest,

And proves the Sabbath true."

And we are fully persuaded, whatever may be the sufferings and sorrows of the people of God, and however potent and prevalent unbelief may be in its workings within them, that there remains a rest to them in the Redeemer's FINISHED WORK—a rest into which they shall by the Spirit enter, and which shall surely be supplemented by the unbroken felicity of heaven.

But such creatures of sensation are we that, the circumstances into which we are brought too much influence our frames and feelings in seasons of adversity and darkness. As "the soul of the people (of Israel) was much discouraged because of the way (Num. xxi. 4), and in their dejection lost sight of all their past and present delivering and supplying benefits-their escape from Egypt, the Heaven-dropping manna, the rock-flowing stream, the neverfailing guidance of the pillar of fire and cloud-so is every child of God prone to make too much of his tribulations, and infinitely too little of the love, grace, compassion, faithfulness, and power of the Hope and Saviour of Israel in the time of trouble. Deeply have we suffered from this, and sometimes cried

"How shall a heart that doubts like mine,

Dismayed at every breath,
Pretend to live the life divine,

Or fight the fight of faith!"

And doubtless our readers have often felt so too.

How cheering,

then, to perceive it written of the man after God's own heart, amid one of the most painful of his bitter and frequent trials—

"BUT DAVID ENCOURAGED HIMSELF IN THE LORD HIS GOD!"

"The Lord his God!" Sweet relationship! Here the Infinite I AM and a poor worm of the earth are seen in holy and indissoluble union. The Omnipotent Jehovah is looked up to and trusted in by a feeble speck of His creation, into which His Spirit has breathed the breath of spiritual life, and made, in a Gospel sense, "a living soul." With David it was a matter of life or death. Creatures failed him at this trying moment. But the God Who had separated him to the saving knowledge of Himself was unchanged. The promises He had spoken with power to His heart were, in this furnace to which he was subjected, to be equally tried and tested; and they were to be proved "pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times" (Ps. xii. 6). Consoling thought! The Lord in trying His children tries HIMSELF. And what is the

result?

All the dross is proved to be theirs-all the pure metal His. His faithfulness endures the hottest fires and the strongest floods.

"No change of mind our Jesus knows

A true and constant Friend;

Where once the Lord His love bestows

He loves unto the end."

Though most of the Lord's people, it would seem, have to wait long ere they can say, "The Lord is my God," there is none who can speak confidently of his state, and assume a rich blessedness of experience, without this sacred confidence. The lack of this casts the dark shadow over their pathway, crooks, crosses, and temptations. And it is too apparent, from the many desponding cries of David, that he was not always in the banqueting house with the banner of love waving in full view over him. But this did not affect the relationship betwixt him and the God of Salvation and this truth equally holds good of all the doubting members of the one family in earth and heaven named. He Who has said, “I will be their God, and they shall be My people" will never revoke His word, but all His acts shall prove His unaltered purpose to abide by it. The two grand outward demonstrations of this are, the mission of Christ and the work of the Spirit, while Divine providence accomplishes all things in furtherance of the decrees of grace. But not to enlarge on this great topic, it should be observed that, as His people's God, He has said they SHALL KNOW HIS NAME (Isaiah lii. 6). And what says David of the effect of this knowledge? "THEY THAT KNOW THY NAME will put their trust in Thee: for Thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek Thee" (Ps. ix. 10).

See how beautifully this shows that the Lord draws all His children by the work of the Spirit to Himself, their Salvation. Their convictions, exercises, castings-down are all thus overruled to bring them to His feet, while the knowledge of His saving and gracious "NAME" becomes His "SECRET" with them, by which they are attracted to plead, trust, and wait for all the help and final deliverance they need, even as "David encouraged himself in the Lord. his God." Never could he have done so had not the Lord revealed His "NAME" to him, and favoured him with those distinguishing marks of His favour which often led him to cry in times of necessity, "Show me a token for good."

And when, beloved, we review the manifest kindness which has thus far brought us through the appointed number of our trials, and added another year to those years whose sorrows we shall know no more,may we not well "encourage ourselves" in humble hope, if not in triumphant confidence, "in the Lord our God." Personally, we long to attain to a fuller acquaintance with that "love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that we may be filled with all the fulness of God." For who that fears the Lord can question the words of the poet

How sweet to be allowed to call

The God Whom heaven adores my Friend!
To tell my griefs, to tell Him all,

And then to know my prayers ascend."

This only can beget a "confidence toward God" in times when the enemy assails heart and mind, in those peculiar and innumerable ways which his profound knowledge of human nature leads Him to adopt, and which no creature power can withstand or creature skill counteract. For "when he," as the Leviathan, "raiseth up himself the mighty are afraid ;" and only "by reason of breakings"the "breakings" of the force of temptation effected by the Omnipotence of Grace-they, that is, the assailed ones, "purify themselves"-by resorting to the "Fountain opened for sin and uncleanness." And this fresh enjoyment of the unchangeable purifying efficacy of the precious blood of Christ, in connection with the everlasting love of the Father, adds to that "experience" which "worketh hope" for all the future, and it is the confirming in us of "the testimony of Christ" (1 Cor. i. 8). It enables us to realise what He is to His believing people, even that which He hath Himself declared, namely, Him who "speaks in righteousness, mighty to save." And with such a holy combination of merit, compassion, and faithfulness to depend upon, all sincere seekers after the Saviour have, on every hand, the most Scriptural reasons to encourage themselves in the Lord their God, and to appeal with David for further displays of His confirming loving-kindness and tender mercy, saying

"SHOW ME A TOKEN FOR GOOD."

Divine tokens vouchsafed become pledges on the Lord's part, and evidences on the part of His people. His tokens of grace proclaim Him to be their God, and them to be His people. The bow in the