word in season to him that is weary, he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned." To all such ministers, and people who are so indiscriminate in their views and preaching I would present the following fact.

ONE SUNDAY MORNING

very lately-I was walking to my chapel, thinking upon those words of Peter, "giving diligence to make your calling and election sure," when a whisper in my soul said, "There are, in the words of Christ, four distinguishing marks of that call which is connected with salvation."

The first mark which Jesus Christ Himself puts upon an effectual and saving call by God's grace is EXCLUSIVENESS. Upon this feature of a Divine call our Lord is emphatic and reiterative. Please take your Bible in your hand, good Mr. Preacher of universal offers and invitations, and do mark the variety with which the Saviour expresses this feature of exclusiveness in describing a sinner's real coming to God. In John vi. 44, Jesus answered the murmurers, "Murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him." The Holy Spirit, by the Word of Truth, is the Great Power, wherewith the Father draweth His chosen unto Jesus Christ, the Great Covenanted Head and Husband of the whole redeemed family. Next, look at John vi. 65. It appears that the truth was as unpleasant to the people in the day of Christ's Personal Ministry, as it is to the teeming thousands of professors in this day. Hence, Jesus said, "There some of are you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me except it were given unto him of my Father."

What a word of immensity is that little word, "IT," "except IT were given him of my Father." I am tempted to discourse upon that little word "IT;" but I must not stop upon it here. This feature of EXCLUSIVENESS is still more emphatic and concise in the fourteenth chapter of John and the sixth verse, Jesus saith unto Thomas, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me." Here, every rag of our own righteousness, every act of our own working, every device of man's devising, every thing of every kind and degree is excluded: it is by Jesus Christ alone, by faith in His power, work and pleading, a sinner comes unto a holy, just, and righteous God; and coming thus, that coming sinner will say, in the Lord's good time, "and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son, Jesus Christ." This is a blessed coming indeed.

The second mark the Saviour puts upon an effectual call is, THE EXPERIENCE OF DIVINE TEACHING. In the forty-fifth verse of the sixth verse of John, the Great Prophet from heaven expounds and confirms one of the testimonies of the ancient seers, "It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath heard and learned of the Father, cometh unto me!" If any man would wish for light upon this deep saying of the Saviour, let him turn to the ninety-fourth Psalm, and in the twelfth verse, he will find this exclamation, "Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law, that thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked. For the Lord will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance."

These are days of Adversity. In these days the pit is preparing for the wicked; but of these days it is said, "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every man whom he receiveth;" the end of all God's chastenings are, to give us a final and an eternal rest. Ministers, do pray consider the second feature of a Divine and saving call.

The third mark the Saviour places upon the call, is that of SAFETY. "Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out." Christ is the desired haven. Thither the Spirit carrieth all the redeemed; and there for ever and for ever, they shall in safety dwell.

The last mark of a gracious call which attends it in this time state, is that of PERPETUITY and ENDURANCE. "If any man will be my disciple," said our Lord, "let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.'

If these four marks of an effectual call are considered, they will not allow any minister to mislead his people. And I have evidence in store that the Lord doth bless his truth, although by weak and feeble instruments proclaimed.

Only one case now : A lady met with a poor burdened conscience in the person of a respectable domestic. Finding her trouble great, the lady said:

Betsy, if you would have your soul saved, go and hear Mr.

Banks."

Betsy came: she came, unknown to anyone; and the Lord met her; and a more grateful, honest creature you will but rarely meet.

My limited space compels, me to adjourn. I have to travel and labour in some of the Provinces; but the scene, "Four sons dead in one day," haunts me daily, and until I have discovered it fully, there will be no rest for your servant in Christ, CHARLES WATERS BANKS,

1, Portland Terrace, Victoria-Park Road.

Grace and Glory:

What are They?

A BRIEF CONSIDERATION OF

THE SEVEN HELPS OF HEAVEN, WHEREWITH A WANDERING ISRAELITE RETURNED UNTO GOD.

CHAPTER III.

"The time, the place, the when and where,

God manifests His grace,

Is fixed in His eternal mind,

And this may be the place.

Come, Lord, and prove it to be so-
Come! let thine unction fall;

O, let us prove a present God;

And Christ be all in all !

Oh! come-thou precious Jesus, come!

And conquer every sin;

Come! drive those deadly vipers off,

That plague us so within."

THE Seven Helps of which I have to write, are all recorded in the fourteenth chapter of the Book of the Prophet Hosea; and a richer cluster

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of free-grace mercies can scarcely anywhere be found. I have said in previous chapters of this series of papers, that my motto-text was that word in Hosea xiii. 9., “O, Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thy help;" and when I came to the consideration of the latter part, In me is thy help," I was led very sweetly through the whole of that fourteenth chapter; and was favoured to enjoy the distinct steps which Divine grace there takes in the recovery of poor Israel from captivity and a terrible chastening; and being led to view this cluster of mercies as belonging to all the true Israel: but more especially to that class, or portion of the Lord's people, who have been made more terribly to realize the consequences of the fall, than what others may have done, I have desired to write a few words upon the unfolding of the grace of God, as revealed in the closing chapter of this singular prophecy.

One precious thought, at the beginning of my meditations, I cannot let pass. It came out of this prophet's name, "HOSEA !" There is salvation in that word; the same as there is in Joshua; and the thought which was so sweet to me, was this, That whenever the Lord's people, in ancient times, were found in real trouble, the Lord, in his own time, raised up and sent forth to them a deliverer, or a consoler, and in his very name, in the name of the deliverer or consoler, there was sure to be found some strong indication of the grand design Jehovah ever had in view, that is, that "Israel should be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation!"

Of the Prophet Hosea we said, "His name is the same with Joshua or Jesus, and signifies a Saviour! Hosea was not only, as all the true prophets of the Lord are, as all the faithful ministers of the word are, the means in the hand of God of saving sinners; but Hosea was a type of Christ the Saviour, as well as a real Prophet who prophesied of him and of his salvation.

The very word "Salvation" is to me so sublime, so solemn, so full of meaning, so awful in some of its aspects, and so full of grandeur and of glory, in others of its features and phases, that I cannot help bursting out, with one of the best of all our poets :

"Salvation! O, that joyful sound!
"Tis pleasure to our ears;

A sovereign balm for every wound,
A cordial for our fears!"

That one verse comprehends the greatness and the completeness of this darling scheme of Divine mercy. The next sinks down into that dreadful pit where sin had hurled us; and which rendered such a salvation necessary, unless Satan was to triumph over the choicest of God's works for This, the Great Author and Creator of all Good, would never permit. Still, the fall is dreadful.

ever.

"Buried in sorrow and in sin,
At hell's dark door we lay;
But we arise, by grace divine,
To see a heav'nly day!"

And being raised up by grace divine, having obtained mercy ourselves, having seen something of the eternal beauties and perfections of the Son of God; and being by him delivered, and justified, and saved, our

inmost souls, in their leaping desires after the salvation of others, burst out, as the Doctor expresses it :

"Salvation! let the echo fly

The spacious earth around,
While all the armies of the sky,
Conspire to raise the sound."

After all, what is this salvation? What is grace? From whence is it? To what doth it lead? Simply to answer these questions from the Word of God, from the testimony of all the divinely-instructed witnesses to the truth, and from the inward experience of the living saints of God is the present desire of my heart.

The fourteenth chapter of Hosea's prophecy opens upon the scene of Israel's ruin and destruction. The valley of death, the fields of the slain, are all open before the eye of the great Restorer. He comes down into the valley himself; and as

"His heart is made of tenderness;'

SO

"His bowels melt with love,"

and from the deep fountains of his everlasting affection for his people, he comes

FIRST WITH AN INVITATION TO RETURN.

“O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity."

This is the first step in the exercise, and in the manifestation, of grace divine. It is God Almighty, in the Person of his Son, and by the power of his Spirit, calling the sinner to come home to himself. Israel, return unto the Lord thy God."

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It

Now, having reached the door-step of mercy, let us pause here. is of this "Calling of God" so many make mistakes, at least, I believe so. This, then, shall be the subject of my next little paper, if in this low land I am longer spared.-C. W. B.

EXPOSITION OF PSALM
LXXXIV.

BY MR JAMES WELLS,
Of the Surrey Tabernacle, Walworth Road.
"How amiable are thy tabernacles, O
Lord of hosts! My soul longeth, yea
even fainteth for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh crieth out for
the living God."

WHO but the Holy Spirit can bring the soul into such a state as this? But if we are born of God, we shall not be happy in a state that does not accord with this. For when we can see a blessedness in the ways of the Lord, in the Lord Himself, and in the house of the Lord, such as can be found nowhere else, then it is his ways are pleasant unto us. And why should not his ways be pleasant unto us? What is there in his ways

It is

to make them unpleasant?
true the world opposeth us, professors
oppose us, and worse than all, our own
hearts oppose us; but nevertheless,
unto the soul, unto the conscience,
unto the new man, how exceedingly
pleasant are the ways of the Lord
and his presence! It is then we can
say, "How fair and how pleasant art
thou, O love, for delights." Why, I
sometimes think that while we shrink
at death, yet in our right minds if
we were asked the question, if the
thing were possible, would you like
to go heaven just as you are, without
undergoing an essential change in
the body; why, I myself should say,
painful as death might be, I would
rather die in order to have that
change, that my body may be raised
in a state of fitness for glory, as well