but he has gone back like the sow, spoken of by the apostle, he has gone back to the mire.

We are told that if the people be educated it will save them from many sins. So it may, but those who have been well educated, sin hath overcome and plunged them into its horrible depths, and ruined them body, soul and spirit. How mighty, how powerful a thing is sin, "But thanks," &c.

Blessed be the Lord that while sin is so mighty He hath sent forth his Son, more mighty still. Now if sin be so strong, and if Christ be stronger than sin, how strong must Christ be! If sin hath slain its thousands and Christ hath slain his tens of thousands, how superior a prince is Christ to the prince of sin! Brethren and sisters in Jesus Christ, while we lament that sin is so mighty, that sin is such a potent enemy against every man, woman, and child, yet we rejoice to-day to be able to say that Jesus Christ is mightier still, stronger still, "Thanks be unto God," &c.

Just as when some dreadful plague visits the city from centre to suburb, from one end to another, going through all its streets and courts and alleys, how thankful is the man, and the family,-how thankful are all the people,-who are spared. If on your right hand and on your left, death sweeps them down, mows them down, cuts them down, how thankful you feel that you are spared. So while we see sin's gigantic nature, how it hath ruined eternally countless numbers of immortal souls; how thankful should we be who have been designated by heaven's authority, the sons of God, the saints, the followers of the Lamb. I ask you here this morning who profess to love Jesus Christ, whether this thought does not move you, whether this fact does not stir your very soul; that while sin hath damned many souls, you have the possession of pardon, the signature of forgiveness? That you have the unmistakeable evidence that it hath not ruined you, but that God for you hath found a ransom? If gratitude is not found in your hearts, while you think of other men's lost condition, then indeed your hearts must be hard as stone, and like stone for quality.

LETTERS FROM THE HEART.

MY DEAR BROTHER WHEELER,-After long silence, I again take up my pen to write a few lines to you. We have been privileged to enjoy much of the Divine presence when we have gone up to the house of the Lord in company; and although in the Providence of God I am removed to a considerable distance from you, I feel that I cannot cease to pray for you, and I am persuaded that I am remembered by you at the Throne of Grace. What a mercy that the Throne of Grace is in all places, at all times, and under all circumstances accessible. There we have something in common, there we confess our sins, unbosom our wants, relate our difficulties, complain of our enemies, and ask supplies of grace. There we have embraced our glorious and glorified Christ, there we have leaned upon His bosom, and have been constrained to exclaim, "Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth: for Thy love is better than wine." In times of trouble we have called upon His name;

He has communed with us from off the mercy-seat, and we have left our burdens with Him. Being conscious, however, of having done many many things that are evil in His sight, we go not hastily into His presence, but desiring to pay Him reverence we meekly bow our heads in adoration before Him.

We are unworthy-Jesus is worthy, and oh! sweet thought, He pleads our cause in heaven, while we plead the merits of His life and death on earth. Oh! what a display of infinite wisdom, love, and mercy, in the preparation of the Throne of Grace.

66

"The

Nowhere else can God and sinners meet in peace. God and holy angels may meet in peace, wherever He is pleased to manifest His glory to them, though they be sensible of their meanness as creatures, and deeply humbled before His Majesty. Once God walked with Adam in the garden in the cool of the day, but sin caused a separation which would have been eternal, had not the God-man, Christ Jesus, engaged to break down the barrier, to remove the mountain. In the fulness of time "He, His own self, bare our sins in His own body on the tree." Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all." "He was made sin for us, and we are made the righteousness of God in Him." Oh! glorious transfer. We had contracted an enormous debt, but He discharged it, by which gracious act we are released, liberated, and freed, from all obligation. The law stood forth with its demand, Pay me what thou owest," and Christ, our precious, our glorious Christ, "went to the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth;" and when stern justice demanded blood of infinite value for infinite transgressions, He freely gave His own. Hence it is written "We are not redeemed with corruptible things, such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot," &c. Christ, as the representative of the entire number of the elect, after having suffered without the camp entered into the heaven of heavens, and 66 ever liveth to make intercession for us." Let us, therefore, come boldly unto the Throne of Grace, knowing as we do that Jesus lives, loves, pleads, and prevails, always. "We must come to the blood of sprinkling," Heb. xii. 24. We must see the "precious blood of Christ," by precious faith, or we dare not venture into the awful presence of the heart-searching, rein-trying God.

But oh my dear brother, and fellow-traveller through this vail of tears to heaven, what a mercy that the way to the Throne is consecrated and sprinkled with the Mediator's blood. God is holy, we are sinners, but are "accepted in the Beloved." Lose not sight of the fact that He pleads our cause in heaven.

He sweetens every humble groan,

He recommends each broken prayer;
Recline thy hope on Him alone,

Whose power and love forbid despair.

Now, to Israel's Triune God I commend you, praying Him to vouchsafe to bless you greatly, richly, and incessantly, for the sake of Him whom having not seen, you love so dearly, and whom you do unceasingly adore.

When it goes well with you remember your faithful and loving friend, GEORGE COOK.

Irthlingborough.

Four Sons Dead in One Day.

A SHORT PAPER ON

THE PRIVILEGES, TRIALS, AND TRIUMPHS OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH.

CHAPTER VI.

Before He'll suffer pride that swells,
He'll drag thee through the mire
Of sins, temptations, little hells;-
Thy Husband saves by fire."

ALL my previous chapters have been teazing introductions; and some have almost angrily asked, "What is it you mean by 'Four Sons Dead in One Day?" I will try and tie myself down to a definite answer at once; then, perhaps, my readers will bear a little more patiently with the details and the confirmations.

I have spoken of the Saturday evening when the message reached me, I have hinted at a thought or two which that message gave rise unto. Twice on the Sunday I was favoured to speak from the words, "Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears, for thy work shall be rewarded, and thy children shall come again from the land of the enemy." It was in the afternoon, that Old Testament scene opened up to my view wherein Ephraim stood forth so clearly as a kind of type of that living faith which is wrought in the souls of the saved, which bringeth forth fruit unto the glory of God, which is often tried as by fire; and which

Lives and labours under load:

Is damped, but never dies.

How this faith of the operation of the Holy Spirit is to be distinguished from the faith of angels, the believing of devils, the nominal assent and consent of outward-court worshippers, is a matter I have reflected much upon, and searched diligently into; but I will not allow myself to run into that line of thought just now. I invite attention to one thing here only. It is the loss which Ephraim sustained, of which we read, under the significant title of, "the calamity of Ephraim by the men of Gath," in first book of Chronicles, and in the seventh chapter. In several sections of the word of the Lord, as written in that early part of the first of Chronicles, "the lines of the different tribes" are described; and some events connected with the progress of those tribes are recorded, all of which contain, as in so many bundles of myrrh, the mysterious and the merciful dealings of the Lord with His people.

The history of these several tribes, like long flowing rivers, take their rise in some apparently obscure Biblical locality, and wind round and round, turning hither and thither so circuitously, hiding themselves, (as rivers sometimes do) under rocks, in glens, valleys, and low places, then throwing themselves open again in rich and splendid

scenes,

With bosom wide, and flowing tide,
So clear and neat, with air so sweet,
That all around rejoice.

Yet to follow them in their course, to ascertain all the mind and the meaning of our Heavenly Father concerning them, is a work of no hasty or unimportant character. Nay, nay, it makes one think there was something great and wondrously comprehensive in that injunction delivered by the Master, "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me."

Now let me ask five simple questions.

I. Did not the Lord give to the heads of these tribes, most significant and characteristic names?

II. Did not Jacob and Moses, in their last moments, deliver prophetic predictions and faithful anticipatory histories of them all?

III. Do not the subsequent portions of the Word of God fully confirm the fact that Jacob and Moses were divinely inspired in giving those prophetic enunciations?

IV. Do not the prophetic indications of Jacob and Moses, and the subsequent fulfilment of those patriarchal forethoughts substantiate and, boldly declare that the doctrine of predestination is a teaching as true as it is true that "GOD IS LOVE?"

V. As the Holy Spirit has been pleased to record the root and the running forth of these tribes; as He has been pleased to inspire men and to employ men to write out the different circumstances of the lives of these ancient men and as they were typical of the history and varied character of the professing Church of Christ in all ages, should it not be the great concern of all godly men who are sent forth to "feed the sheep" so to labour by study, by prayer, by meditation, by thoughtful and by careful reading and comparing of the Old and New Testament, as to bring forth things new and old? Certainly these should toil, to dig down deep, and to bring to light with eager and earnest pursuit the jewels, the precious stones, the mines of wealth, the hidden stores of all the caverns, and all the curious parts, places, and possessions, which in God's great library, which in heaven's literary tabernacle, are so carefully laid up. In some sense, brethren, these antediluvian and patriarchal histories, these lives of the judges and of the kings, these labours of the prophets; yea, all these books, and chapters, and verses, are the sublime entrances into truth, of which it was once said, "At our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved." Oh, the enjoyments, the delights, the soul-ravishing peeps into the glory of Christ's person and kingdom which I have sometimes had while wrestling at the throne, and waiting in the word, no tongue can tell. True, it is, I am nobody. True it is, I have neglected home, business, family, purse, person, and everything else, to go hunting in the fields of truth, on the mountains of prophecy, down the lanes of "dark sayings," and in all the typical wilderness wherein Israel sojourned. True it is, I may have been too willing to run east, west, north, and south, to

"Tell of His wondrous faithfulness

And sound His praise abroad."

True it is, I have had many a blow, made many a stumble, and have done nothing well, yet, withal, I must confess the word of the Lord has been my delight, to feed His sheep has been my glory, to help any poor thing over a stile, has been to me a pleasure; and I only regret I have done so much to dishonour, so little to exalt, that glorious

Christ of God, whose image, and history is hidden in every part of that rich old fountain, the revelation of the Lord our God.

But what about the "Four Sons Dead in One Day?" say you. I beg your pardon, I had almost lost myself again. But now to it.

Ephraim was an Old Testament type of a living faith. I will prove that another day, if life and health be continued.

Ephraim had several sons. Their names are all written down. There were four of them promising, pleasing, powerful men. They are expressive of the character, nature, fruitfulness, and glorious end of a Divine faith. Let us only glance at them now :—

are

First one is called Zabad: that means 66 a dowry." Such is Faith. The English interpretations of the word "dowry or "dower" beautifully expressive of the rich connections of a living faith. The word " "dowry is from dower. Dower, in common law, means that which the wife hath with her husband after marriage, or after his decease. Christ is the church's husband: in a three-fold sense- -(1.) Before time, He was her covenant-head. "It pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell." (2.) In time, He became her redeeming kins"Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for it." As a glorious suitor, He came down into the world to find His bride-the spouse the Father had given Him. He found her under the law; He was made

man.

under the law for her.

Its curse He bore,

So dark and sore,

As none e'er felt or knew before.

He found her dead in sins; and for her He died. How grand Paul's exposition of this!" For in that He died, He died unto sin once; but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God." (3.) He will put on His royal kingly robes of majesty and glory when He comes to the marriage supper. Then shall the church's dowry be complete. The English Lexicon also gives the word dowry in another form. It reads thus :-"Dowry, the marriage portion brought by a wife to her husband." What portion can the church give unto her Lord? By faith the believer gives himself unto the Lord; and in the last great day, Paul says, Christ will present the church unto Himself without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing. All this doth a living faith most heartily believe. I must not expound now.

Ephraim's second son was called Shuthelah,—that is, "a plantation of greenness." This evergreen plantation is the Gospel of the grace of God, where the blessed Spirit, by faith divine, planteth the whole election of grace. And to them, in that plantation, the words spoke by the Lord through Moses, are blessedly realized (as in Deut. vii. 13):—

"And He will love thee,

And bless thee,

And multiply thee."

Albeit, you remember every branch of this faith has to be terribly tried, as I have yet to testify.

Ephraim's third son was Ezer, that is, "help,”—and to write out the great helper faith is unto the regenerated soul is not possible now. Give me your prayers, and give me help, and with God's blessing I will bring forth this strong son of Ephraim another day.

Ephraim's fourth son is Elead, that is, "the adornings of God;" shewing that faith hath a marvellous power of bringing home that which the poets correctly ascribe unto the Lord.