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ried and yet equal emphasis, with which this song is sung by spirits, each of whom considers its own salvation, as the most undeserved of all the wonderful salvations of others.

Whatever encouragement there is in this view of Christian experience, will be increased, by tracing our resemblance to the spirits of just men made perfect. For we "are come" still nearer "to the general assembly and church of the first- Do you feel that you could take up the New born," than to angels, in our love and gratitude, if Song in this way? Is this-just what your "heart we have really come by faith "to Jesus the medi-inditeth" and designs, and quivers with, when you ator of the new covenant, and to the blood of venture to realize your own entrance into heaven sprinkling." Our first prayerful and penitential-your own first appearance before the throneapproach to him for salvation, made us one with your own first sight of the Saviour-your own all the redeemed in heaven, exactly in proportion first burst of as it made him "all in all" in our hopes; and every subsequent attempt to "wash our robes in the blood of the Lamb," has brought us nearer to the forms and spirit of their grateful worship.

Be not afraid to look at this fact! It is the fact in your own case,-if you have come to Christ himself. Besides, you expect to come, at last, into the society of all the saved, and to come up to all the height of their love and gratitude. You cannot relinquish this hope. Indeed, one great reason why you cling to this hope is, because you feel quite sure that, should you reach heaven, there is nothing you would not do, willingly and warmly, in order to express, before the throne,

your

"Wonder, love, and praise!"

And then, you do not leave these altogether unexpressed, until you are in heaven. You could not keep up any hope of joining in the new song there if you did not try to sing it here. You could not postpone all your gratitude to the Saviour, until you see him as he is. The shortness of time, as well as the length of eternity, is a reason, with you, for trying to do and feel now, something of what you intend then.

"Wonder, love, and praise ?"

In anticipating this, does your spirit feel how it must, alternately and eternally, break away from all spirits, into the melody, "Slain for me;" and fall with them all, into the harmony, "Slain for us?" This is not accident, nor from the excitement of the moment. You must have gone through this train of thought, and risen to this tone of feeling, before now. The chord of both must have been in your heart for some time, seeing my touch can make it vibrate thus! Again I say, I am not complimenting you. I am only congratulating you; and that only in order to endear the Holy Spirit, who led your spirit thus far into meetness "for the inheritance of the saints in light."

But why should your resemblance to them stop here? This is, indeed, a fine and essential portion of their spirit; but just because it is so, the more need, and the more reason, and the more encouragement you have, to catch other portions of it. This love to the Saviour, should be associated with love to all who love him and bear his image. And as he does not count you unworthy of HIS love, what Christian can be unworthy of your love? This question is not wanted in heaven. There, all love and live as brethren. No distinction of honor or office, of rank or reward, divides the general assembly of the church triumphant. "One star differeth from another star, in glory;" but, like the morning stars, they all sing together, and shine together, and move in harmony. There is no star" wORMWOOD" in all the galaxy of glory.

You are right! Well; nothing will help you more in this good habit, than marking how near you have already come to the spirit of the general assembly of the Redeemed. The resemblance will gratify, without at all flattering you; and confirm your hope of final safety, without relaxing your present diligence. Do not doubt this. Do not even shrink from it. Consider: you would be very uneasy, and very much alarmed too, if you True; it is easy to love all, where all are so had no fellow-feeling with the saints in heaven. lovely. You could, of course, wear the smile of Did your heart loathe, or your spirit spurn, their cordial good will, and wave the hand of complasentiments and emotions, you would suspect that cent satisfaction, towards any spirit around the a seared conscience, if not a reprobate mind, was throne. You may have partialities but you have setting in upon you. No wonder! Well; if you no prejudices, when you look within the veil. deem it thus essential, to hold all their creed, and Nature, you feel, will draw you first and chiefly, to cherish something of their spirit, why not mark, to your own family and personal friends, even in exactly, how far you accord with them? This is heaven; but grace, you feel also, will draw you not so slight a matter, that it can be safely taken with equal sincerity, if not with equal delight, into for granted without any examination; or settled any circle, and into all the circles, of the redeemby a passing glance. Come!-rise to the impor-ed from amongst men. You cannot conceive of a tance, and solemnity, and sublimity of having fel-spirit you would not like to know, or that you lowship of spirit with the spirits, amongst whom would be ashamed to acknowlege there. you desire and hope to spend your eternity! Look Well; the will of God ought to be done on at them-listen to them-place yourself in their earth, as it is in heaven. The difficulty of doing room, whilst they identify themselves as one church, it, here, does not lessen the obligation to do it. redeemed by the same sacrifice, and thus sing, Nay; brotherly and sisterly love is more wanted "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain for us" here, than it is in heaven. I mean that, if you and yet vie with each other in singing, "Who loved me, and gave himself for me, and washed me from my sins in his own blood." You can imagine the holy rivalry-the humble emulation-the va

could easily love any one there, every one there could be happy without your love: for no one needs it, in order to enjoy heaven, nor in order to bear the eternal weight of glory well. But this

is not true of all your fellow-Christians on earth. Some of them need both sympathy and help, in order to be faithful unto death; and all of them deserve affectionate notice, in order to be useful in life. And, what am I-or who are you that we should care nothing about our brethren? If those we stand aloof from have faults,-so have we and if God were to treat us for our offences against himself, as we treat them for their offences against us, how should we like it-what would be the consequence?

Besides; are there none in your neighborhood, very low in life-very straitened in circumstances -very much exposed to temptation, just because of heavy trials; but who really have "the root of the matter" in them, notwithstanding all these things? And, are you ashamed or afraid to notice and own them, as Christians? True; they may not do much credit to Christianity, whilst they hardly know how to "make the ends meet" in life. But if you look down on them-if you withhold from them all countenance and counsel,-if they may sink or swim for any thing you care,-who risks the credit of Christianity most?

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Do, ask yourself often, how you could meet in heaven, without shame, some whom, notwithstanding all their faults, you expect and wish to meet there! True; they will not upbraid you when they meet you before the throne. The neglected will not say-You used to pass me even at the sacrament, without condescending to speak or look to me. Those who came out of great tribulation," will not say,-"I was sick, and ye visited me not; hungry, and ye gave me no meat; thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; naked, and ye clothed me not." This will never be repeated, after Christ has said it from the Judgment-seat: but, should it even be pardoned by him in your case, how could you ever forgive yourself, when you see the poor of the flock at his right hand? Why, their very silence and cordiality will then be more humiliating to you (although not at all intended to be so) than the most cutting reproofs. Sympathy with poor and afflicted Christians is, remember, as much a leading as it is a lovely feature of heavenly character. It is the very brightest feature of the social character of the angels of God. We know more about their sympathy with the penitent, the suffering, and the dying, than of their nature or their history. I have sometimes come, in thought, to "the innumerable company of angels," saying to myself, without any difficulty, until I saw them in the vision of John, "Are they not all ministering spirits to the heirs of salvation ?" Whilst I thought of them only as a whole, I was not much humbled by their ministry. But when I began to observe them, one by one, in the glass of the Apocalypse, I have been compelled to exclaim,-What, all ministering spirits to the heirs of salvation? That angel "having the Seal of the living God?" Yes; he has it to seal his servants on earth. What, those four angels "having the four winds of the earth?" Yes; "that the winds should not blow to hurt" the trees in the garden of God! But that angel," clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow around his head, and his face as it were the sun," is he too a ministering spirit to men? Yes; and well pleased to hold in his hand "a little book!"

But that angel, "having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand," is he too a ministering spirit to man? Yes; he shall bind Satan, and shut him up for a thousand years, that he may "not deceive the nations."

Truly, they are all ministering spirits! Yes; and any of them would have gloried to carry Lazarus to heaven. All of them rejoiced when you repented: and is there any heir of salvation, you are ashamed to own, or unwilling to aid? Woman! "know thyself;" thy duty; thy destiny.

No. VII.

VARIETIES, FROM FRETFULNESS.

ANY one can expose or reprove that feverish and fretful care, which is always foreboding the worst, or embittering life by complaints, and suspicions, and clamor.

It is peculiar to the Saviour, to treat undue care with equal tenderness and fidelity. He makes the fretful and the foreboding feel, that he knows thoroughly "what is in them," and yet that he feels for them. Whilst he measures and weighs their unbelief so minutely, that we lay our account with hearing him say, "They have no faith at all in Providence," to our surprise, he only says to them, " O, ye of little faith." Thus, just when he seems about to disown them entirely, for their distrust of Providence, he lays his hand upon them as gently as upon sinking Peter, asking, "Wherefore didst thou doubt ?"

Did you ever mark the inimitable skill with which the Saviour met the over-anxiety of his first disciples, when they began to dwell too much, and too peevishly, upon the questions, "What shall we eat, and what shall we drink, and wherewithal shall we be clothed?"

For a moment he almost identified their "carking care" about life and the means of life, with the clamorous solicitude of the heathen, for temporal things: "after all these things do the Gentiles seek:" but he did not leave them to suspect, from this reproof, that they stood in no nearer relation to God, than the heathen. No; he immediately added, “Your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things." Matt. vi. 32. Thus, in the same breath, he rebuked their wrong spirit, and yet upheld their adoption. "This is not the manner of man, O Lord God!"

Did you ever observe, that he never calls upon us to compare our lot with that of those who are above us, or with that of those who are below us, upon the ladder of providence? Except in the single case of persecution or reproach for his own name's sake, he does not even remind us of the greater trials of some others. "So persecuted they the prophets which were before you," is the only instance in which he teaches patience or contentment, by comparisons. This is another remarkable peculiarity in the ministry of the Saviour. He taught providence from nature, not from society. He made the lilies of the fields, or the birds of the air, his texts, in preference to all the facts which the varieties of life furnished,

whether his object was to reprove or to soothe, the fears of his disciples.

There was consummate wisdom in this, whether you see it or not. It would do you good, to "consider the lilies of the field and the birds of the air," when you feel the burden of your cares overwhelming. This may seem very unlikely at first sight, to you. Like myself, you may be ready to say, my cares are too heavy to be alleviated by such considerations: it seems almost mockery, or mere sentimentality, to send me to learn of birds or lilies. What could the growth of flowers, or the preservation of birds, teach me? What light could such common things throw upon my

uncommon anxieties?

In this flippant way, and in this wrong spirit, are we inclined to meet the Saviour's advice: for there is no sense in such objections. They are mere sound. Accordingly, we should be condemned out of our own lips, were he to press us with the single question,-What benefit do you derive from brooding over your cares? You think and say, that you could derive neither light nor good from considering the things I commend to your notice. You cannot, however, say that the consideration of them would do you any harm: whereas I know, and you must acknowledge, that the views you take of your cares rather aggravate than alleviate them. You contrast your lot with those above you; and that mortifies you; you compare it with those below you: and that discourages you, because you are thus compelled to see how you may sink still lower in the world. Thus when you look up the ladder of life, you are dissatisfied; and when you look down it, you are ready to despair. Now, to say the least, feelings of this kind would not be produced by considering how the lilies grow, and how the birds are provided for! I readily grant, that such little things do not appear capable of teaching much wisdom: but still, what they do teach gives no offence which is, you know, more than can be said with truth, of some of the graver lessons you get, occasionally, from certain persons.

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they distract your mind, and thus prevent you from serving God so well as you wish to do. It is, therefore, you think, both ungenerous and unjust, to be suspected of, much more to be charged with, any such impious design as that of wanting to be independent of Providence. You never dreamt of such a thing-did you?

Do not answer this question, until you have considered another peculiarity in the Saviour's lessons on providence. He does not teach confidence in, nor resignation to Providence, either as abstract duties, or for their own sake, as Christian virtues; but chiefly for the sake of keeping up the spirit and habit of prayer, and a proper regard to the eternal welfare of the soul. Now the fact is, we really pray no more, either for spiritual or temporal blessings, than just to the extent of our sense of entire dependence on God. Our words may go beyond this; but our praying stops where our sense of dependence on the divine good-will and power ends. There may be some worship and some devotion in what we say to God, when we no longer feel utterly helpless, nor absolutely at his disposal; but there is no prayer. Nothing is ceeds from a full conviction, that God alone can prayer, but that asking, or seeking, which prohelp or uphold us.

utter helplessness, in regard to every thing we Now we are unable to bear this deep sense of need for life and godliness. Our spirit would sink entirely, if it always felt all its needs, as it feels some of them. Our Heavenly Father does not bereth that we are but dust." He teacheth us forget this. "He knoweth our frame, and rememdependence, as well as other things, only as we it is only at a few points in the circle of our able to bear" the discovery. Accordingly, wants, or of our weaknesses, that we are compelled to cry out," Lord save, or I perish." It is only now and then that the full truth of the oracle, "vain is the help of man," is forced deeply

are

home upon us. We are not left, however, to forget this oracle, nor to give up that prayer. God will have us-by some means-sensible of our absolute dependence on his will.

Besides there is a great deal of pride in our reluctance to be "shut up” to an exclusive dependence upon God, and to a complete deference to Now, what if the hardship, the cross, or the his will. For, why should we be less dependent burden, which you and I so want to get rid of, than irrational things? We are not so pure as and which we bear so ill, be the very best thing, the lily, nor so innocent as the bird. We can, indeed the only thing, that could keep us at the indeed, do more for ourselves, and we can think feet of God? Remember; we must be kept much; but if both our doing and thinking have there by something. It is also but too true, that for their real object, to try how far we can take those things in our lot which please us most, do our affairs out of the hands of God, into our own not send us oftenest into our closets, even for hands, we need not wonder that God should cross thanksgiving-to say nothing of supplication for us at times, and always leave us to feel that we their continuance. Might not, therefore, the recannot remove nor lighten our burdens by impa-moval of the cross which we fret under, remove us from the closet altogether?

tience.

You do not believe, perhaps, that you want to take your affairs out of the hands of God, into your own hands. There may be only two or three things in your lot, which you wish to alter: and as there are many good things in the lot of others, which you are content to be without, you think it rather unfair to be charged with pride or perverseness, merely because you want to have your own way in a few points. Besides, you may even be conscious that one great reason, why you are so dissatisfied with some things, is, because (15)

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Now this is just the secret of our case. That one thing in our lot, which we are so anxious to get rid of, is the very thing which makes us feel that we cannot control providence, nor do without help from God. Were, therefore, that "cup to pass away," this feeling would pass away with it.

It is all fallacy or fancy, to reckon otherwise. We may mean well, but we judge ill, when we take for wranted that we should serve God better, if our chief anxiety were taken away. I do

not, of course, intend by this remark, to convey the idea, that no other cross could keep us aware of, or awake to, our entire dependence on God. He could make any cross or crook in our lot, answer the same purpose. But, why should he

change the rod which check us; or, why whould we wish it changed for another?! Another must be sent in its place; and must be heavy enough to produce in us, as in Paul, the settled conviction that God is Master.

THE END.

THE

LOVE OF THE SPIRIT;

TRACED IN HIS WORK.

A COMPANION TO THE

"EXPERIMENTAL GUIDES."

BY ROBERT PHILIP,

OF MABERLY CHAPEL.

"Why do those who speak much of the love of God and of Christ, say so little about the love of the SPIRIT ?"—Dr. Henderson.

"He comes to us with the love, and upon the condescension, of all the blessed TRINITY."—Dr. Qwen.

NEW-YORK:

THOMAS GEORGE, JR. spruce strEET.

1836,

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