"COMMAND DELIVERANCES FOR JACOB." Psm. xliv. 4. How often do we read time after time the same passage of Divine truth and see nothing in it; nothing to suit our case, nothing to excite our admiration, nor even our attention. We little think how much beauty, what a wealth of comfort, or what a suitability to our own particular necessities, lies buried under the external covering of words. We remember this beautiful passage, "Thou art my King, O God, command deliverances for Jacob," was pointed out to us by a dear friend. It came home with power at that time, and often since it has proved a precious morsel, coming in when the soul was bowed down under a wearying sense of the captivity of this world. Deliverances for Jacob! Why should deliverances be commanded for Jacob? Poor Jacob! Surely there was nothing to love in him. What a weak, mercenary creature he was; how all his actions displayed his poor, fallen nature. But God had chosen him; ere the eyes of the twin-brothers had opened on the light of day, God had chosen one-rejected the other. "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." God chose him to typify His Church, His chosen ones, who should be scattered throughout the world. Jacob was nothing, less than nothing in himself, yet he was favoured to wrestle with God. What a condescension that he Great Eternal should wrestle and be vrestled with by one of His own finite, i significant creatures! But more than this was granted to Jacob; not only did he: wrestle, but he prevailed! What a glorious assimilation between the Church and her type. Jacob prevailed in olden times-God's favoured ones wrestle and prevail now and always with Him. Jacob's name was changed to Israel, a Prince of God. His chosen vessels are denominated kings and priests. As there was nothing in Jacob to recommend him, so was there nothing in any one of the sons and daughters of Zion, that God should invest them with such honours, or exalt them to such dignities beyond those who have no part nor lot in the heavenly inheritance? But with Jacob they were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. In the Psalm before us the Church recounts mercies received at a previous time, and tells how formerly by the hand of God the heathen were driven out, and the people of the Lord planted; how they had gotten the land in possession, not by their own sword or by their own strength, but by the right-hand of God, His arm, and the light of His countenance. And why? Because they were so much better than the heathen, that they deserved to become the inheritors of the good land? Because they hearkened to the voice of the Lord to obey Him in all things, to love Him with undivided soul, and to serve Him with constant and unwavering devotion? Because they were a great and noble nation, justly meriting the honour and love of the God of Heaven? No. For none of these things did the Lord set His love upon them, for they were the fewest of all people-a rebellious and stiff-necked generation, easily turned from the service of the true God to the idolatry of even a golden calf, ready were their evil hearts of unbelief on the first opportunity to substitute the worship of the similitude of an "Ox that eateth grass," for that of "God their Saviour." But because the Lord "had a favour unto them," because He loved them, and because He would keep the oath which He had sworn unto their fathers, because He had bought them, and, as a faithful Redeemer, loved them from first to last. Israel once redeemed, was redeemed forever. Although oftentimes rebellious and backsliding, no power of earth or of hell could again throw around them the chain of bondage, for Jehovah, the Lord of all, was their Omnipotent Redeemer. "I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour. I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King." But although Israel's redemption was glorious and permanent, there were yet many enemies to fight against, many storms to encounter, many floods of tribulation to pass through, which, though not able utterly to overthrow them, still caused great sorrow and fearfulness, and required more than their own feeble strength to deliver them. These trials were purposely sent upon them for the glory of God and for the manifestation of His power among the nations of the earth. Where would poor Israel have been many a time without the arm of the Lord for a defence? How often would their enemies have cast them down and destroyed them, but for the Lord who fought for them? How often was the name of the Lord a strong tower whereunto they could run and be safe? And blessed be His name now, for the Church ever findeth therein a safe retreat from the persecutions and slanders of the world, the fiery darts of Satan, and the many afflictions of life. How precious is the thought that the Church is not trusting to an arm of flesh for deliverance. No earthly monarch is the trusted Saviour of the little flock, but One who, as Maker and Sovereign of all, possesses a power before which every earthly monarch must bow. "Where the word of a king is, there is power" is true, in a limited sense, of earthly dignitaries; and if of them, how much more of our King and God, who by a word called the universe into existence, and by a breath of His mouth could sweep into eternal destruction the whole creation? As Israel of old often needed the help of the Lord, so now, how many are the circumstances in which the children of God are placed from which there can be no escape, no deliverance, by any earthly power. These waters of affliction, how deep they get, deeper every hour, surely, the next wave will utterly overwhelm us. Surely, this heavy load of trouble will weigh us down and crush us to the very earth. This overhanging storm-cloud, when it bursts upon our head, will dash us to a fearfuldestruction. This wearying disease, that, when night comes, makes us sigh for the morning, and when the day dawns, causes us to cry out, "would that it were night;" surely, we shall soon faint, and fail beneath it. This painful season of poverty, and forsaking of friends, and struggling, and disappointments, and dis quietude of mind, will certainly ere long sink us into despair. Is there no one to aid? no friend in all this wide world to lend a helping-hand? no sympathizing ear to listen to the tale of woe? no generous heart to feel for us and to share the burden with? No, no; there is not one on the earth who can help us; indeed, at times, even our friends appear to be conspiring against us; all things seem to combine to work our ruin. And yet the Church, whatever her trials may be, and however dark the prospect, is assured that "All things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called, according to His purpose.' And it is a blessed position for us, when trials and afflictions are our portion, to be cut off from all earthly sources of comfort. This is just the point to which the Lord brings all His favourites at some period in their lives. He separates us from everything whereupon we might place our hopes, or to which we might look for deliverance; and it is then, when we are shut out from everything else, the Lord mercifully shuts us up to himself, and we cry out, "Thou art my King, O God, command deliverances for Jacob!" Blow on, then, ye storm-winds of trouble, and let the waves roll, and the thunders roar, and the lightnings flash! Work on, Satan, and weave thy most potent and most subtle web of snares and of temptations. Go on, gay, giddy world, with thy phantom joys and transient fascinations! The greater the storm and higher the waves, so far greater the praise and the glory which shall be ascribed to the Prince of Peace, who, as He once with a word calmed the storm of the natural elements, shall speak into peacefulness the storms of trouble and afflictions which rage against His elect. He who suffered temptation is able to succour them that are tempted. Our great High Priest can be touched with a feeling of our infirmities, and Satan's web, perverse and powerful though it be, resisting every effort of the creature to unravel it, shall be dispelled by the breath of the Creator, as the morning mist vanishes before the rising sun; for thus saith the Lord, "Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered, for I will contend with him that con tendeth with thee, and I will save thy things is at hand, when, after many minor children." Our King and our God is deliverances, the one great and finaleman"He that sitteth upon the circle of the cipation shall take place which shall set earth, and the inhabitants thereof are the feet of the saints of God securely as grasshoppers-that bringeth the and everlastingly upon Mount Zion, princes to nothing, He maketh the within the pearly gates where "there judges of the earth as vanity." All shall be no more death, neither sorrow, these fleeting and transitory things may nor crying, neither shall there be any hold us within their power for a time, more pain:" but that time is limited; the end of all Stratford. H. E. W. SUMMER MUSINGS. Oн Summer, glorious Summer, my heart leaps at thy sound, The tender flowers that shrank from Winter's cold and storm, The ruddy fruit upon the bough its sweetness owes to thee; The silver moon that bathes in light, the mountain, vale, and sea, Whene'er my soaring mind would form some faint idea of heaven, And half forget how quickly thy glory melts away. I cannot think it sinful to raise my fancy high, And deck with charms material the world above the sky; For fair is thy creation, O Fountain of all joy, And man's transgression only its beauty can alloy. And when on Sinai thou stoodst, thy statutes to proclaim, An awful robe begirt Thee, 'twas darkness, smoke, and flame; But yet beneath thy feet a glorious pavement shone, Clear as the heaven in its light-blue as the sapphire stone. When in the isle of Patmos the loved disciple lay, And, by thy Spirit favoured, beheld a future day, The heavenly world was opened-the throne of light was seen, He saw the saints victorious that awful throne surround; He heard the music of their song, like the water's rushing sound; He saw the tree upon its banks with healing virtues rife. E. D. In a world like the present, it is often extremely difficult to connect integrity with prudence. The man who will be honest, must run some risk.-Topludy. ON THE NEW BIRTH. Eye THERE are some Christians who have places for the whole of mankind-heaven not been exercised with the doubts and and hell-hopes to spend eternity in fears, and deep distress of mind, which heaven. And what is heaven? and what others have been exercised with on their will be the employment of those of the being brought to Christ. They have human race who through grace arrive not been so sorely burdened, yea, crushed within its happy gates and what the down with the weight of sin, as to fear society walking its golden streets? It there could be no hope for them-they is not possible for our finite capacities to have not drunk so deeply of the worm-comprehend, on this side the grave, the wood and the gall as many have, but happiness of heaven; for though have been led to see themselves guilty, hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither condemned, lost sinners; and at the have entered into the heart of man the same time, through mercy, have been things that God hath prepared for them enabled to see their sin laid on Jesus, that love him, but God hath revealed and to trust in Him for salvation; they them unto us by His Spirit" (1 Cor. ii. see no hope in themselves-see them- 9, 10), yet such is the limited state of selves to be nothing but sin, and trust our understanding, that we can form no to be saved by Christ alone. As they adequate idea of heavenly realities-we had not the deep mental suffering that can only see through a glass darkly;" some others have had, neither have they we can only "know in part" (1 Cor. xiii. now the great depth of joy that many 12). And that which we learn from the have, but only a comfortable hope in Word of God is only made known to us Christ. This want of depth of feeling by comparison with earth's greatest and of one or other kind, or of both, causes best things (according to our time state), them to be exercised with perplexing as the way most suitable to the present doubts and fears of another kind. They state of our understanding. Enough, think, that, because they have not felt | however, is shown to us to enable us to as others have, that they may not be amongst Christ's people-that they may be deceiving themselves even while trusting in Christ. May such have grace to come to Jesus just as they are. Rivers of tears will not make them more fit for His salvation. The language of un- everlasting life"-to be "in paradise' erring truth is, "Whosoever will, let -an entrance into the "kingdom prehim take of the water of life freely" pared for the righteous from the foun(Rev. xxii. 17). If the following re-dation of the world"-" an inheritance marks, the result of an examination of incorruptible, and that fadeth not away.' the Bible, through Divine grace, lead There are also glorious descriptions of any such to a more settled state of mind, this blissful state in various parts of by encouraging them to cease writing Scripture, particularly in the 7th, 21st, bitter things against themselves, without and 22nd chapters of the Revelation. crying, Peace, peace, when there is no The very essence of the happiness of peace," they will not have been written the redeemed will no doubt be their in vain. May the Holy Spirit use what seeing Jesus, and being like Him, and has been written in accordance with His their consequent freedom from all sufferWord, to the honour and glory of the ing and sin. Oh, to be free from sin! Triune God, and pardon every error, for What happiness! Of this happy Church Jesus Christ's sake. it is said, "God shall wipe away all Change and death are stamped on tears from their eyes; and there shall be everything below, and man has not to no more death, neither sorrow, nor crylook far for proofs that he cannot long ing, neither shall there be any more pain: remain here. What, then, are his hopes for the former things are passed away." for the future? The believer in reve-The employment in heaven will be the lation, knowing that there are only two I serving God day and night, by ascribing 66 see that the "remaining rest of the people of God" is a state of supreme bliss, and that lasting for ever. We are told of a place preparing for us if we are Christ's, and of many mansions in our Father's house. We are promised tr 66 selves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast." But how is sinful man to be made fit for the presence of God, when the unerring Word declares that "without holiness no man shall see the Lord;" and "the soul that sinneth it shall die?" The same Word also tells us that "God hath made Jesus sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. v. 21); that "by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified" (Heb. x. 14); that " we are complete in Him (Col. ii. 10). So that, not to multiply texts, God can look upon us as if we had never sinned, because Jesus died for us. He can look upon us as perfectly holy, because He sees us united to Jesus, and as partakers of His holiness. We are "accepted in the Beloved" (Eph. i. 6). These texts This is, indeed, glad tidings of great joy; this is good news, "that when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son; much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." to Him endless praise, crying, "Salvation to our God that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb;" and in fulfilling all His will. And how glorious the society in which we shall be numbered! We shall be with God-the Triune God-Father, Son, and Spirit. We shall be with the elect angels, and a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues;" who, stripped of their "vile raiment," their "filthy garments," shall be clothed with "white robes," and stand "before the throne." Such, then, is something of the state of the redeemed beyond this earthly life. But what a vague and uncertain notion of heaven have some who hope for it, without being able to give a reason of their hope; to them it is nothing more than an escape from punishment -an escape from hell. They forget that heaven is a "prepared place" for a pre-apply to all those who are Christ's people. pared, for "a peculiar people ". -a sanctified people; and that the unregenerate man could not be happy in heaven, were it possible for him to find admittance there. How could he delight in serving God, whom he hates? For "the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is But before we can know that we have not subject to the law of God, neither any share in the joys above-before we indeed can be" (Rom. viii. 7). The can be assured that we are "partakers whole human race lost all title to heaven of the glory that shall be revealed," we in the fall of Adanı, and became the must become regenerate; we must be children of wrath, subject to death spi- made God's children by adoption and ritual, temporal, and eternal. Who, grace (I speak now of the work carried then, are the people for whom this bliss-on in the soul); for our Lord Jesus ful abode is prepared? and may we know Christ emphatically declares, Except whether we ourselves are in the num- a man be born again, he cannot see the ber? This is an all-important question. kingdom of God" (John iii. 3). They are sinners-for Jesus Christ " came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance;" they are the lost-for "the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost." Do we, then, feel ourselves to be such? This is a most urgent reason for our coming to Jesus. He will turn away none that come to Him, however black and vile they may be for publicans and harlots I. Regeneration is that work which is shall enter into the kingdom of God. effected in nian (i.e., in redeemed man) Salvation is all of grace; not one particle when he is said to be "born, not of of it is of works. We shall have heaven blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor without any merit of our own-" It is of the will of man, but of God" (John not of him that willeth nor of him that i. 13); to be "born of water and of the runneth, but of God that showeth Spirit" (John iii. 5); and "of the mercy. By grace are ye saved Spirit" (John iii. 8). The same thing through faith; and that not of your-is intended by St. Peter, when he says, دو The necessity of regeneration is, therefore, a great fact, one of vital importance, and one which ought to engage our earnest consideration. Let us briefly endeavour to find out what regeneration is by an examination of the written Word of God; and then show how it may be known that we are regenerate, from the same Word. |