Daily Bread. FRIDAY. "Grace to help."-HEB. iv. 16. None of thy mercy need despair : And, freely saved, thy grace declare. There is a throne of grace erected for us to come to; a Mediator of grace appointed, in whose name to come-the Spirit of grace given to help our infirmities, and an answer of peace promised to every prayer of faith and all this that we might fetch in not only sanctifying, but comforting grace, "in every time of need."-Heb. iv. 16.-Henry. SATURDAY. all, when he works contrary to means. It is a great work to open the eyes of the blind-a greater still, by applying clay and spittle, things more likely, as some think, to take away than to restore sight." He sent dreadful darkness on Abraham, when he was preparing to give him the best light. He fearfully shook Jacob, when he was going to bless him. He smote Paul with blindness, when he was intending to open his mind. He refused the request of the woman of Canaan for a time; but afterwards she obtained her desire.-Rowlands. TUESDAY. "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted."- My trespass was grown up to heaven; In Christ abundantly forgiven, I see thy mercies rise. Those who are accustomed to play ball, know, that "In all these things we are more than conquerors, through according to the force with which they strike it on Him that loved us."-ROM. viii. 37. Now before my face ye fly; In Jesus' powerful name. Are you called to exercise self-denial? Abraham looks down from heaven upon you, and tells you that he was ready to sacrifice his beloved Isaac. Are you afraid of the scoffs and jeers of a fleering world? Noah builded an ark; Moses relinquished the honours of Pharaoh's court, and met with as many persecutions and afflictions, and underwent as many taunts and flouts, as you are like to do. Are you called to lay down your lives for the testimony of Jesus and a good conscience? Stephen tells you a storm of stones fell upon him, and brake open the prison, and set the prisoner free: his soul escaped; it broke out of the cage, and as a bird, took wing, and flew to heaven. Are you assaulted with temptations? St Paul looks down, and tells you that he had much stronger temptations than you have, and yet he got safe to heaven.-Hopkins. SABBATH. "Who hath believed our report?"-ISA. liii. 1. But still how weak their faith is found, the ground, will be its rebounding upwards. So it is with men; those commonly who are struck down with the greatest force, and the lowest, as to the view of their own misery, rise the highest in glory. They to whom much is forgiven, will love much; but they who see and feel but little of their own sin and misery, will not see nor feel but little of God's mercy and goodness. He who slowly goes down into a right view of his own wretchedness, will rise but slowly to a clear view of God's glory; and he who will not thus go down at all, will never rise.—Ibid. WEDNESDAY. "Happy is the people whose God is the Lord."— Happy the man whose hopes rely And earth, and seas, with all their train: He saves the opprest, he feeds the poor, How happy, O Lord, is the man that hath thee for his God! He can want nothing that is good; he can be hurt by nothing that is evil: his sins are pardoned; his crosses are sanctified; his prayers are heard: all that he hath are blessings; all that he suffers are advantages: his life is holy; his death comfortable; his estate after death glorious!-Hall. THURSDAY. "Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."—2 PET. i, 11. Thee, my soul, his own to make. Christ executes the office of a prophet in our call Where is the preacher, the close of whose Sabbaths is not imbittered by the review of unprofitableness? You invite us to your tables-you crowd us in our temples; but you compel us to retire from both, complaining: "Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed ? " We condemn your practice: you thank us for our good sermons, and proceed. Your approbation does not hinder your sinning, nor your sinning your approba-ing; of a priest in our justification; and of a king in tion. Where are the evidences of our success? Are they to be heard in the inquiry: "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" Are they to be seen in your deadness to the world-in your self-denial-in your taking up the cross-in your heavenly-mindedness-in serving your generation according to the will of God -in being examples to others?-Jay. MONDAY. "With great mercies will I gather thee."-Isa. liv. 7. To choose and to command; The Almighty may appear to be thine enemy for a time, that he may be thine everlasting friend. His glory is seen when he works by means; it is more seen when he works without means; it is seen, above our sanctification. Let us, then, hear him as our pro- Edinburgh: Printed by JOHN JOHNSTONE, residing at 2, Windsor Street, and Published by him at 2, Hunter Square. London: R. GROOMBRIDGE & SONS. Glasgow: J. R. M'NAIR & Co.; and to be had of any Bookseller throughout the Kingdom. THE CHRISTIAN TREASURY. 217 RESURRECTION-POWER. BY THE REV. HORATIUS BONAR, KELSO. "The exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who be. lieve, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead."-EPH. i. 19, 20. ALL God's doings upon a fallen earth are for the end of bringing the good out of the evil the good which he eternally purposed out of the evil which man has introduced. He allowed the evil to enter for the very purpose of educing a far greater amount of good than could otherwise have been done, and showing forth himself in a way which no mind could have conceived of before. He lets evil flow in, that he may show his power to meet it, overcome it, and deliver from it. He lets sin, in all its hideous forms, display itself, that he may show what infinite resources of grace, and power, and wisdom are in him to cleanse it away; nay, to bring up its objects, its victims, to a far higher level of holiness and honour than that from which they had sunk down; nay, still further, to fasten å redeemed creation so indissolubly to Godhead, that it can never fall again, nor crumble away into ruins. An unfallen creation could tell us only half of God. His power could only half exhibit itself; for to bring a world out of nothing is a lesser stretch of power than to bring it out of that which is lower still than nothing-sin. His love could play but half the compass of its music; for there would have been none but the holy to love; and it is on the unholy that he is pouring forth all "the exceeding riches of his grace." His wisdom would have remained half hidden; for whatever may have been the stores of wisdom lavished on the formation of the world at first, far greater stores have been brought out in the reconstruction of that fabric which sin had broken in pieces. "O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" The whole process of restoration now going on, may be called a process of resurrection. It is through resurrection out of corruption and decay that God is building up all things anew, and adorning them with a glory and a beauty which would not have belonged to them but for this strange process through which he is bringing them. It is through resurrection that this body is to be perfected and adorned; and it may be said to be through a species of resurrection that this material creation is to be beautified in the day when Christ is to make all things new" the times of the restitution of all things." Resurrection is always spoken of in Scripture as a far higher display of power than creation. It required vast power, indeed, to create No. 19. a world; but it requires vaster still to make it 66 to 1. What resources of power are in store for the recovery of this ruined creation. Its restoration requires infinite power-power of a -resurrection-power. But all peculiar kind. this is to be found in God. However deep it may be sunk, there is a power that can raise it up. However low the state in which any soul may be fallen, however deep the grave of sin in which it may be buried, still there is power enough in God to effect its resurrection from that hideous tomb. 2. It is by this resurrection-power that a soul is quickened and enabled to believe. The passage quoted does not mean that this "greatness of power" is put forth after, or in consequence of believing, but previously, and in order to believing; for believing is the act of a living soul. But how is this power put forth? through the Word? Certainly in inseparable connection with the Word, but still directly upon the dead soul. But is it not said, "Faith cometh by hearing?" Certainly; and hence, if we were illustrating that point, we would take up such a passage, and many others, dwelling at length upon it, in order to clear up the mysticism of some who seem to make faith a thing got up by some mighty effort of their own, and unconnected with the truth believed, While, however, maintaining that “faith cometh by hearing," let us remember that this is but a part of the question before us. The question is, How are the dead, diseased, disorganized faculties of our soul to be made to perform one spiritual function aright? There must be the direct touch of the divine hand-the quickening power of the Holy Spirit coming into immediate contact with the soul. With the one hand the Spirit quickens the soul, and with the other he applies the Word, and then the soul believes. For the bringing the soul into contact with the Word, he uses human instruments; but for the other, his own living hand, in which lies the resurrection-power, must be put forth with direct and divine energy. But is this not a hard saying? No, surely; it can be no hard saying to tell a helpless world of resurrection-power, when telling them of their utter helplessness. July 4, 1845. Deny that helplessness, and there is no need of resurrection-power, or of a Holy Spirit at all. Admit it, and nothing less than these will do for the restoration of the soul. But do we not get the Holy Spirit after or upon believing? Certainly; but before it, and in order to it also. If I need the Holy Spirit afterwards to carry on the work, much more do I need him to begin the work. If I need him to keep me alive, much more to make me alive. tender spirit, and could recollect that even in his early days he had been put upon "great searchings of heart," such as indicated the character of his future experience. He was sent to the grammar school at Gloucester, where he made some progress in classical learning; and his talents for elocution enabled him to appear to advantage in the speeches which he delivered before the corporation on their annual visitation. He was taken from school before he was fifteen; and as his mother's circumstances were by this time much reduced, he began to assist her in the business of the tavern. Even in this unfavourable situation, he composed several sermons; and the romances, in which he had formerly delighted, gave place to the study of Thomas a Kempis. At the age of eighteen he was entered as a servitor at Pembroke College, Oxford, where he formed an acquaintance with Charles Wesley, and several other young men under the influence of religious impressions, who "lived by rule and method," and were therefore called Methodists. But does not this supersede the Gospel altogether? No, by no means. We are not the less to proclaim the truth; for it is in connection with the truth that the Spirit works. We need not be afraid to tell men that faith cometh by hearing, or that the Gospel maketh wise unto salvation. We need not be afraid to press the Gospel upon sinners, or to say: "Hear, and your souls shall live." We need not shrink from calling on men to believe; nay, it is at our peril if we do not. The one part of this mighty question does not neutralize the other. "God commandeth all men everywhere to repent;" and yet we know that it is Christ who is exalted At this period religion was in a very low conto give repentance. We need not shrink from dition in England-a darkness that might be speaking of being sanctified through the truth. felt, which was the very shadow of death, Scripture abounds in such language: and no-brooded over its perishing millions. The higher thing can be more absurd than to suppose classes gloried in open infidelity and unblushthat, because we tell men that "faith comething vice. The mass of the people were imby hearing," we thereby deny the "exceeding greatness of that power which is put forth to us-ward who believe." It is no slight responsibility that is laid on ministers to preach the very truth of God "the word of the truth of the Gospel." There is a danger of imagining, that since it is the resurrection-power of God that alone can accomplish the soul's regeneration, it is of less consequence what is preached. Nothing can be more dishonouring to God or more grieving to the Spirit. While believing in the necessity of the Spirit's quickening power, we are at the same time called to state, illustrate, simplify, press home the truth, in every form and by every means, knowing that it is then that souls are saved, just as it is "through lack of knowledge that so many perish." "While believing in the bondage of man's will, and the corruption of his entire nature, we are not to shrink from taking up the free proclamation of the glorious Gospel, and saying: "Whosoever WILL, let him take the water of life freely." Biographical Sketch. mersed in gross ignorance and superstition. "In this we cannot be mistaken," says Archbishop Secker, in 1738, "that an open and professed disregard to religion is become, through a variety of unhappy causes, the distinguishing character of the present age; that this evil is grown to a great height in the metropolis of the nation-is daily spreading through every part of it; and bad in itself as any can be, must of necessity bring in all others after it. Indeed, it hath already brought in such dissoluteness and contempt of principle, in the higher part of the world, and such profligate intemperance and fearlessness of committing crimes in the lower, as must, if this torrent of impiety stop not, become absolutely fatal." The clergy themselves had not escaped the general contamination. Ignorance, negligence, and immorality, characterized no inconsiderable portion of them. "The Church," said the excellent Leighton, "was a fair carcass without a spirit." The preaching of the Gospel bad, in most of the pulpits, given place to a meagre system of feeble morality. Dissent, too, in its several sections, was not uninjured. Where the Gospel was, in the main, dispensed, the allowance was ofttimes short,' sufficing for life, but not for health and vigour; and, in not a few cases, it was mixed with poisonous ingredients of Antinomianism." At this gloomy period, the sovereign Head of the Church raised up Whitefield and Wesley, to give a new impulse to religion, and to awaken the dormant THE REV. GEORGE WHITEFIELD. About a year after Whitefield went to Ox BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH-REV. GEORGE WHITEFIELD. ford, he was introduced to the brothers, Charles and John Wesley, who, with other members of the university, had formed themselves into a little fellowship, for their spiritual improvement. He speedily adopted their pious views and manners; and so far did his enthusiastic disposition carry their method of life, that he describes himself as lying whole days and nights on the ground, in silent or vocal prayer -leaving off the fruits of the earth-choosing the worst sort of food-thinking it unbecoming a penitent to have his hair powdered; and wearing woollen gloves, a patched gown, and dirty shoes, to acquire a habit of humility. These excesses seriously injured his health; and after a severe illness, which brought him to the brink of the grave, he found it necessary to retire to Gloucester, for the benefit of his native air. His general character there-his demeanour at church-his visiting the poor, and praying with the prisoners-attracted the notice of Dr Benson, bishop of Gloucester, who informed him, that although he had resolved to ordain none under three-and-twenty (and Whitefield was only twenty-one), he should think it his duty to ordain him, whenever he should apply for holy orders. This offer Whitefield accepted, and was made deacon in 1736. It had been his intention, he says, to prepare one hundred and fifty sermons with which to commence his ministry; but at his ordination he With this serfound himself with only one. mon he appeared in the pulpit, in the Church of St Mary de Crypt, where he had been baptized. Curiosity had brought together a large congregation; and so powerful was the impression produced by the fervency of his manner, that complaint was made to the bishop that fifteen persons had been driven mad by the sermon; on which the worthy prelate calmly observed, that he hoped the madness would not be forgotten before the next Sabbath. 219 necessary to place constables at the doors, But Whitefield sailed from the Downs a few hours only before the ship which brought Wesley back from Georgia cast anchor there. When Wesley landed, he learned that his colleague was on board the vessel in the offing, and immediately sent him a letter containing these words: "When I saw that God by the wind which was carrying you out brought me in, I asked counsel of God: his answer you have enclosed." The enclosure was a slip of paper, with this sentence: "Let him return to London." Whitefield, who seems never to have fallen into this superstition, in which the stronger mind of Wesley was unhappily involved, refused to comply. He betook himself to prayer. The story of the prophet, in the Book of Kings, came forcibly to his recollection, how he turned back from his appointed course, because another prophet told him it was the will of the Lord He therefore that he should do so; and for that reason a lion met and slew him on the way. proceeded on his voyage. He endured much distress at first, from the profligate spirit and conduct of the crew; but in a short time his The week following Whitefield returned to presence and counsel produced a wonderful Oxford, took his degree, and diligently em-change in their behaviour. ployed himself in the instruction of the priDuring the two soners and of the poor. succeeding years, by his preaching in Bath, Bristol, and other places, his fame became widely diffused; immense multitudes everywhere attended upon him, and his discourses produced the most extraordinary impression on their minds. In the year 1736, he went to officiate at Dummeer, in Hampshire; but being invited to join the Wesleys, and other friends who had gone out as missionaries to a new colony in Georgia, he went to London to wait on General Oglethorpe and the Trustees for Georgia. During his residence in the metropolis he preached and administered the Lord's supper nine times a-week, to the most crowded assemblies. He was invited by the managers of the various charities to preach for them; and as his stay was to be so short, they obtained the It was use of the churches on week-days. He reached Georgia in May 1738; and after a residence of three months there, found it necessary to return to England, in order that he might receive priest's orders, and raise contributions for founding and supporting an orphan house in the colony. Accordingly, he sailed for Europe, and after a long and dangerous voyage, reached London in safety. He was favourably received by the bishop and the primate; the trustees highly approved of his conduct, and he was ordained priest by his venerable friend the Bishop of Gloucester. "God be praised," says he, "I was praying night and day, whilst on ship-board, if it might be the divine will, that good Bishop Benson, who laid hands on me as a deacon might make me a priest; and now my prayer is answered." The separation of the Methodists from the Church, and their organization as a distinct sect, was daily becoming more inevitable; for after his return the clergy received him with hear him. He had sometimes fourscore car- great coldness, and excluded him from most of the parochial pulpits. He was, therefore, compelled to adopt some new plan, to prevent his usefulness from being totally destroyed. He had often heard that the colliers, in the vicinity of Bristol, were a numerous race of lawless barbarians, who had no place of worship, and were, therefore, ignorant as heathens, and so savage, that no one durst venture among them. Whitefield had long felt his heart yearn towards these poor neglected people; and after fervent prayer, and many inward conflicts, he one day went to a mount, in a place called Rose Green, his "first field pulpit," and preached to about two hundred colliers, who came to hear, attracted by the novelty of such an address. "I thought," says he," it might be doing the service of my Creator, who had a mountain for his pulpit, and the heavens for a sounding board, and who, when his Gospel was refused by the Jews, sent his servants into the high-condition; and generally had to take careful notice ways and hedges." The second and third time of his preaching out of doors his audience greatly increased, till it amounted to twenty thousand persons. "The first discovery of their being affected," says Whitefield, was by seeing the white gutters made by their tears, which plentifully fell down their black cheeks-black as they came out of their coal pits. As the scene was quite new to me, and I had just begun to be an extempore preacher, it occasioned many inward conflicts. Sometimes, when twenty thousand people were before me, I had not, in my own apprehension, a word to say; but I was never totally deserted, and frequently (for to deny it would be lying against God) so assisted, that I knew by happy experience what our Lord meant by saying: 'He that believeth in me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters.' The open firmament above me the prospect of the adjacent fields, with the sight of thousands and thousands, some in coaches, some on horseback, and some in trees, and at times all affected, and drenched in tears together, to which sometimes was added the solemnity of the approaching evening-was almost too much for me, and quite overcame me." BLIND DIVINES. (From "The Lost Senses-Blindness," by Dr Kitto, in Knight's Weekly Volume.) UNDER the Law of Moses, blindness was a disqualification for the services of the altar. For this there were obvious reasons. The ministrations of a priest consisted of manual acts which needed the guidance of the eye. He inspected victims, to see that they were without blemish; he offered incense, oblations, and sacrifices; he inspected lepers, to ascertain their that all things were done correctly. It was therefore physically impossible that a blind man should discharge the duties which belong to such an office. No such grounds of disqualification from blindness oral. In those Churches which do not use written exist where the services of a minister are entirely formularies, there is no reason why a blind minister might not pray and preach as well as one who can see; and in those which use written formularies, the difficulty is not insuperable, as the clergyman might learn the services by heart. But difficulties would begin in the administration of sacraments; and blindness would be an obstacle of some consequence to those ministers who feel that the sick and afflicted require much of their care. But there have not been wanting instances of blind clergymen who have overcome all these difficulties, and have, in their sacred functions, served God worthily and well. But all or most of these are such as have become blind after they had taken the office of the ministry upon them; and it is doubtful whether one previously blind would be encouraged (if not formally forbidden) to take that office upon him. The case has so seldom arisen that a blind man has qualified himself for, and aspired to, the clerical office, that the question can scarcely be considered as candidate would have to encounter a feeling derived settled by precedent. At the outset, however, the from the practice of the Mosaical law, that a minister should be perfect in all his organs and faculties; and the vague sense of his general deficiency, from blindOn his return to London, the Vicar of Isling-ness, would, in the minds of men, be transferred to, ton lent him his pulpit; but the churchwarden forbade him to preach there, unless he could produce a license. He went out, therefore, after the communion service, and preached in the churchyard. On the following Sabbath he resolved to attack Satan in one of his strongholds, by preaching in Moorfields, at that time a great resort of the idle, the dissolute, and the reprobate. Many persons told him that if he attempted it, he would never come away from the place alive. But his impassioned eloquence was the means of enabling him to obtain such an ascendency over the mob, that they listened to him with the most respectful attention. On week-days he preached at Kennington Common, where prodigious multitudes assembled to and concentrated upon, the question of his fitness or unfitness for the clerical office, although it might not be in the exercise of that office so much as in other matters that his deficiency would really operate. There are notices of one or two blind theologians of considerable reputation in the patristic ages. But it does not appear whether they were in ordera, or whether, like most of the great doctors and professors of theology in modern Germany, they cultivated and taught theology without assuming any pastoral charge or clerical office. We incline to think, however, that blindness was not, in those early ages, considered a disqualification for orders; for we know that Origen was not precluded by a still greater privation from acting as presbyter. Of the names to which we refer, one is that of Didymus, who died at an advanced age in A.D. 395. He is said to have become blind at the age of five years. He early addicted himself to theological |