their respective measure. They all therefore feel they need salvation. Each one is concerned to possess the enjoyment of pardoning mercy ;

The greater the pressure on the heart and conscience, the greater the anxiety to "taste that the Lord is gracious.” When convictions are very gentle; when temptations are not distressing; when the providential pathway is not rough, grace may be in the heart, but its inward working is seldom strong, and its outward manifestations seldom very distinctive. Through fire and through water, the wealthy place the fulness of Christ-is reached. In trouble the Lord is visited as at no other time, and the prayer is poured out, with importunity unknown at other times, when His chastening is upon the soul, Isa. xxvi. 16, 17. Hence it follows that, the deliverance of the most heavily-burdened is usually the clearest and most complete, so far as the realization of an interest in the atonement of the Lord Jesus and the electing love of the Father; while the remembrance of the past often serves to abase the soul in admiration at the unmerited goodness of God. And so it is written: "That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God," Ezek. xvi. 63. But however deep the sensations of conviction, and knowledge of the broken-up fountains of the great deep within may be, "who can understand his errors ?" Psa. xix. 12.

Though each one partakes in heart and nature equally in the original transgression of Adam, great is the difference in practical guilt. And though heart-sins, set in the light of the Lord's countenance, are quite sufficient to sink into the depths of despair, yet, it is evident from innumerable instances that, gross outward sins leave the deepest impression on the guilt-stricken conscience, and appear to call loudest on the justice of God for the execution of vengeance. And when evil thoughts are brought into the dire account, and accumulated days and years stored with these seeds of iniquity are pondered by the Lord's people, how can they keep a reckoning? How can they know the sums. Admitting the words in their highest sense to be

those of the sinless Surety, in a subordinate and truly personal sense they become the language of all quickened souls: “Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of my head: therefore my heart faileth me,” Psa. xl. 12. Whether it be fifty or five hundred pieces, if the debtor has no assets to set against the debt, he is equally helpless and hopeless. So with all God's children. They are reduced to bankruptcy in every case. They can tace neither law nor justice on natural grounds. Their only hope must rest upon the sovereign clemency of the Heavenly Creditor. If His bowels of compassion fail them, they must sink in despair, and perish.

It is now the riches of the glory of the Father's grace, in His kindness towards His chosen in Christ Jesus, begins to be exhibited in the gospel. The Holy Spirit reveals Him Who was Surety for the stranger, and Who smarted for it. The beloved Redeemer swore to His own hurt to discharge the obligation incurred by His members, and changed not. He paid the price in precious blood, and perfect righteousness, and holds the cancelled bonds in readiness to display before the wondering eyes of His redeemed, when the set time to favour them as prisoners of hope arrives. That set time is when they give up all for lost; when it is with them, like as it was with the Egyptians before Joseph, in the days of famine, who said, "We will not hide it from my lord, how that our money is spent ; my lord also hath our herds of cattle; there is not ought left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies and our lands." Aye: but the lands must go too; and then they shall have seed for their food. Then comes the acknowledgment: "Thou hast saved our lives; let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants," Gen. xlvii. 18-25. In accordance with this, and the sweet tenor of our Lord's parable of the two debtors, Mr. Hart beautifully writes:

"But be our debts whate'er they may,

However great or small,

As soon as we have nought to pay,
Our Lord forgives us all.

'Tis perfect poverty alone

That sets the soul at large;

While we can call one mite our own

We have no full discharge." Vers. 5-6.

Most important is the instruction conveyed in the commentary on our Lord's words, as found in the last verse. The "perfect poverty"

associated with the soul's enlargement; the possession of "one mite" forming an insuperable barrier to its " full discharge." Let all seekers of Jesus crucified, note this well. Those painfully trying sensations which are inseparable from this "perfect poverty are absolutely necessary, that Christ may be exalted in the free gift of pardon and justification. Even as the man was born blind, "that the works of God might be made manifest in him," John ix. 3; and as Lazarus must sicken and die "for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby," chap. xi. 4; so in the reducing of the souls of His people to that extreme penury that they have "nothing to pay" to their God for anything, spiritual or temporal, there is this great end in view,-to bring them to feel the bliss arising from the declaration, “I WILL LOVE THEM FREELY, Hosea xiv. 4. Then the prison doors fly open, and the gracious Redeemer appears in all His loveliness as the Deliverer of the poor when he crieth; of the needy also, and of him that hath no helper. Then is the prayer answered: "Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise Thy name," Psa. cxlii. 7: for all the praise is now ascribed to sovereign mercy and tender compassion.

But "one mite" held in reserve; any duty, frame, feeling, consistent act, or legal spirit, indulged and depended on as necessary to the obtaining a smile or token for good from the Lord, will bar the way to the fulness of the blessing. The Lord, in condescension to His children's infirmities, will not, it is true, deal with them wholly as bond-slaves. The bowels of mercies which ever sound within Him toward them, will not suffer Him to turn away from doing them good. But He will bring down their heart with labour; He will weaken their strength in the way; He will cause them, like the poor woman with the issue of blood, to spend all they have upon "physicians of no value;" He will make them totally insolvent, so that the cry shall no more come forth from their lips, "Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all;" but, "God be merciful to me a sinner." And then He will appear to their joy, and in the total remission of all sin, by the application of the atoning blood of Jesus, will command their release; knock off their fetters, and bid them with broken hearts to "go in peace."

This is the "full discharge" to which the apostle so beautifully and boldly refers to: "If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His Own Son, but delivered Him up for us all,

how shall He not with Him also freely given us all things. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen. again, Who is even at the right hand of God, Who also maketh intercession for us." Rom. viii. 31-34. Thus out of prison the soul comes to reign with its Eternal Lover and Ransomer. In Christ it realizes itself beloved, chosen, complete, and accepted, and all the return it can ever make is, to love Him with His Own love, and place the crown upon His head, saying, "Thou art worthy, for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood." MERCY now reigns triumphant.

THE POWER OF GRACE.

THE EDITOR.

[The following letter is one of the series written by the young man whose conversion and death were recorded in our last under the above title.]

December 25th, 1842.

Dear Caroline,—According as my brother has before told me your request, and again reminding me, I have now set down to write to one, as I am informed, who was "a stranger and foreigner," but now "a fellow citizen with the saints and of the household of God." I have been looking, as it were, for somebody out of our circle, that they might write to me, so that I could answer their letter. So if you are fond of your pen, please to return. But what have I to write about? I suppose you say, "of things touching the King." Well, my heart is inditing a good matter, and out of the abundance of my heart my pen writes. First, then, I must take the liberty to inform you it is Christmas day, my spiritual birthday,-a day much to be observed to the Lord, for bringing me out of Egyptian darkness into the marvellous light of the Son of God-my dear Jesus, and to follow after His reapers; and truly I can say, that goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life; and shall I trust in God and be confounded? No, but hope still in God, Who hath brought me to the fold that the Lord hath blessed. You know what I mean; and do you know my God is such a bountiful God too, that He orders His reapers to let fall a few handfuls of corn for the purpose, so that the poor gleaner is become like Naphtali, "satisfied with favour, and full with the blessing of the Lord." And as to the possessions, I am told they are so immense that eye hath not seen, ears have not heard, neither hath it entered into the heart to conceive it; and, to tell the truth, in my own mind I often think that instead of these beautiful possessions, hell is my portion, and

my lot. For like the Israelites, I sing the praises to my God for His manifold blessings, but yet I so soon forget His wonderful works. Truly I can say, "O, the long suffering of my God!" but though many are the temptations, troubles, darkness, and all the horrible thoughts and workings of this wicked heart, yet the Lord in His own time delivereth me, and giveth me a hope still to cleave to Him. I thank God, I can say that the grace of God is above all these things; and I have at times come off a conqueror through Him that was made perfect through sufferings.

Dear Caroline, I have cause to bless God to all eternity, and to marvel greatly at the goodness of God in the glorious and wonderful way He brings His people to His blessed fold. God will work; and who dares to hinder? "I will do all My pleasure," saith the Lord. O sing unto the Lord, for He is my rock and fortress, and my deliverer. I will sing of salvation entirely free and complete, through the blood of the Lamb :

66

Dearly we're bought, highly esteemed;
Redeemed, with Jesus' blood redeemed."

What wonderful condescension of our blessed Christ, to highly esteem such poor helpless, needy, self-emptied, sin-perplexed, lawcondemned sinners! but it is only such that need the good Physician's care. But why, dear Lord, dost Thou manifest Thyself to us and not unto the world at large? The Holy Ghost answers the question : I have loved you because I would love you; and "I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy." Whom I will I harden, that the purpose of God according to election might stand. So you see, dear Caroline, that it was all for love. Have you a real interest in this matchless and eternal love? If you have, I can congratulate you, as one who is led to see yourself a sinner saved in the purpose of Jehovah from all eternity; and it was everlasting love that decreed thy salvation. Chosen by God, "elect according to the fore-knowledge of God," preserved by our precious Christ, Who is all in all in our salvation; and quickened by the Holy Spirit. Thus a threefold cord cannot easily be broken. O what a blessed thing it is for a poor guilty, hell-deserving sinner, that a precious Christ should undertake the work of our redemption, become our surety,and so finished transgression, made an end of sin, brought in everlasting righteousness, and sealed our pardon with His blood. There is comfort for the comfortless, hope for the hopeless, salvation for the lost, and they that know it and feel it too, will sing a blessed song of praise when they are melted down at the goodness of the Lord; and their song will be "Worthy is the Lamb Who was slain, Who hath redeemed us unto God by His blood; to Him be glory and dominion, both now and for ever."