Daily Bread. FRIDAY. house, until he was humbled by adversity. Hagar while in Abraham's house was ready to domineer over her mistress; but in the wilderness she was meek and humble. Jonah slept while in the ship; but he watched and prayed in the whale's belly. "Thou gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger."- Manasseh lived at Jerusalem liked a libertine, and NEH. ix. 15. God reigns on high, but not confines His bounty to the skies; Through the whole earth his goodness shines, And every want supplies. If a friend give us our bread for a month or two, we think ourselves much bound to him; but how much more beholden are we to God, who keeps an open free table for us all the days of the year, and all the years of our life, and even to us when enemies to him! Behold, those who have their mouths opened wide against God, he mercifully puts bread in their mouths. How great is God's goodness to us! and how great is our ingratitude to him! I know not which of them we should most wonder at.- Willison. SATURDAY. "Call on the name of the Lord."-Ps. cxvi. 17. Behold the throne of grace! The promise calls me near; And waits to answer prayer. Consider what a mercy it is, O man, that God is yet calling thee to prayer, and continuing thee in the land of prayer, when so many thousands, as deserving, are beyond prayer, and lost for ever. Ó, then, pray now, while thou hast time to pray, health to pray, helps to pray, and encouragement to pray. Read the gracious promises of life and salvation to you if you do it.-Ps. lxix. 32; Rom. x. 13. Make this world a time for prayer, and the next shall be a season for praise. Dost thou think to be saved without prayer? Dost thou expect to have thy life without begging it at God's hands? O what oil will it add to thy flames in hell, when conscience will tell thee, If thou hadst prayed, thou hadst not been there! -Ibid. SABBATII. "My people shall dwell in resting-places.”—Isa. xxxii. 18. My feeble mind sustain, By worldly thoughts opprest; Upon this day of holy rest Christians should be often thinking and speaking of the everlasting rest above, and conferring together of the way to it, and their meeting there. Do you believe you are going to that rest, and yet never speak of it? If two or three of you had entered into an agreement to go to America, and seek the golden mines which are there, would ye never be speaking of that country, or desirous to hear of it before your going? O Christians! are ye shortly to be "caught up together in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so to be for ever with the Lord," and will you not comfort one another with these words?-Ibid. practised enormous evils; but when in bonds in Babylon, his heart was turned to seek the Lord his God.-Rowlands. TUESDAY. "The grave is my house."-Joв xvii. 13. My soul, this curious house of clay, Thy present frail abode, Must quickly fall to worms a prey, And thou return to God. The grave is a house, a narrow, dark, cold, ill-furnished house; but it will be our residence, where we shall rest and be safe. It is our long home, our own home; for it is our mother's lap, and in it we are gathered to our fathers. It is a house appointed to us by Him that has appointed us the bounds of our habitations. It is appointed for all living. It is the common receptacle where rich and poor meet; it is appointed for the general rendezvous; we must all be brought thither shortly. It is God that brings us; for the keys of death and the grave are in his hand, and we may all know that, sooner or later, he will bring us thither. It would be well for us, if we would duly consider it.-Henry. WEDNESDAY. "The goodness of God leadeth to repentance.”—Roм. ii. 4. What a friend we have above. Have thy near and dear mercies been a star to lead thee to Christ? Have they been a cloud by day, and a pillar of light by night to lead thee towards the heavenly Canaan? Have they been a Jacob's ladder to thy soul? Hast thou by them been provoked to give up thyself to God as a living sacrifice?-Rom. xii. 1.-Brooks. THURSDAY. "Your names are written in heaven."-LUKE X. 20. For all whom here he guides. O, then, let me not droop at present difficulties. Now we are tossed on an ocean of troubles, fears, and temptations; but these tossings will make heaven the sweeter. Cheer up, then, O my soul, yet a few days more, and then comes that blessed day thou hast so long waited and panted for. Oppose the glory of that day to thy present sufferings, as blessed Paul did. Oppose the inheritance thou shalt receive in that day, to thy losses for Christ now. Oppose : the honour that will be put upon thee in that day to thy present reproaches, and see how easy it will make them. Come, then, my soul, let us enter upon our inheritance by degrees, and begin the life of heaven upon earth.-Flavel. A Stamped Edition, for circulation by Post, is also published, price 2d. each Number. 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 265 ON THE NATURE, VALUE, AND EFFICACY OF FAITH : A Sermon. BY THE REV. ED. W. TH. KUNTZE, BERLIN. (Translated from the German for the CHRISTIAN TREASURY.) "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life."JOHN iii. 36. As pilgrims on the way to eternity, all men feel in them the movement of a deep inward desire after happiness. Even he who is most sunk in sin, and the very outcast of men, cannot be brought to forego the thought of this. But we know from the Word of the living God that it is only a few who find the right way, and enter into the door of the heavenly Zion; and all this because the great majority of men turn wilfully away from salvation. They suppose it possible to quiet the longings of their soul after happiness with earthly and outward things such as riches and pleasure, luxury and honour; as if external respectability and rectitude before their fellow-men sufficed, in their opinion, to make one truly happy. But fearful shall be our awakening on the other side the grave, if we surrender ourselves to these deceptions here, and take our departure hence with the false hope of the fool, and then in the place of torment and anguish, have our eyes opened to the sad reality of our condition-there, where no cry of mercy reaches, and no salvation is offered or found, there to become for the first time aware that we have been here wandering in the ways of error-there to be convinced that here we have deceived ourselves, and must now for ever irrevocably have our place with the worm that never dies, and the fire that is not quenched. This being so, we dare not treat our salvation as a thing of little account, heeding little whether the way we are treading shall lead to this end or not; nay, rather must we search about for a sure leader, and a sure way, in order that we may attain what the soul seeks for. Now the infallible knowledge of the one way of salvation we find in the Word of God; which declares, as well in the Old Testament as in the New, as well from the mouth of prophets as of apostles, that faith is the only sure way to salcation. Abel gave witness by his faith that he was righteous. Of Abraham it is said that he believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. By faith Moses was led to esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt: and of the saints in the Old Testament it is declared generally "These all died in faith ;" and thereby alone did they please God. In like manner, the Lord our Saviour announces to distressed souls: "Thy faith hath helped thee;" and the apostles proNo. 23. claim to all: "He who believeth on Jesus Christ shall not be confounded;""believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou and thy house shall be saved." It is true that this faith is still much reproached by the world; but we can confidently demand of those who are wise in the world's wisdom, to point out to us a surer way of salvation, and they must at once be silenced; for utterly vain is it to comfort any one who has attained to a knowledge of his misery as a sinner, by saying: You must not give way to saddening thoughts-God knows well what we are, and will not judge us too strictly; therefore be cheerful-go into society-enjoy the blessings of life-make right what was previously wrong, and all things will soon be better than your fears have indicated. As well might you go and say to the sick man, who, in his agony, cries out for the physician and relief: Divert yourself-think less of your conditionmake yourself happy-you will be presently well; and this at the time when Death has laid his cold hand on him, and is hurrying him away from the land of the living. Here is the balm of Gilead-the Physician and the cure: who believes on the Son hath life." Let us direct our thoughts to this faith on the Son of God. "He When the new life has begun in the soul which has been awakened by the grace of God in Christ, there commences a struggle of the understanding with doubt-a struggle of the heart with indwelling sin-a struggle of the inward man with the outward world, in which he often cries out: "Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" and nothing can bring this struggle of the awakened sinner to a happy end, but the faith which the Lord reveals in the text, and which we shall now consider in three particulars:-First, As to its nature; second, As to its calue; third, As to its efficacy. I. It is all the more necessary to have a clear conception of the nature of faith, as, in the present day, the most perverted ideas are frequently attached to the simplest statements of the Bible. Saving faith has been confounded with that easy belief which, apart from proof and conviction, may credulously receive as true what is most inconsistent and absurd. This sort of belief is as different from faith as night is from day; and as little can we look on Christian faith as the empty opinion, which wants a sure, firm ground to rest on, and is wavering and unAugust 1, 1845. the work of God by his Holy Spirit. Has then, faith become living in the heart of such an one?-if so, no mere knowledge of the doctrines of salvation can be entitled to the name. Moreover, living faith has this peculiarity, that it acknowledges and rests on, as its object, the Son of God as the Saviour of the soul. The Apostle James says, accordingly: "Thou believest that there is one God: thou doest well. But this is not the faith that leads to eternal life; for the devils also believe, and tremble." And many there are who allow themselves to be deceived in thinking that, if they only ac knowledge God, the Creator of all things, they are virtually believers and saints; and this, while they are utterly destitute of any true be lief on the salvation which a holy God has wrought out by Jesus Christ. Accordingly, in our text, peculiar emphasis is laid on the words: "He that believeth on the Son;" for he who be lieves not on the Son has not the Father who hath sent him; he who has not attained salvation in Christ, flatters himself in vain that he belongs to the number of believers. certain because, in reality, faith is the true ground for the building of our salvation-it is the root of the tree of life-the anchor of the soul. For faith is the assured confidence of that which one hopes for, and the realizing of that which is unseen. Accordingly, it is this true faith which represents the unseen as real, and the future as present and certain-which the Lord represents as the only means of our salvation, and not to be attained by any teaching of men, but directly by the working of the Holy Spirit. Among the Christians of the present day, there are a great number who suppose themselves good believers, inasmuch as they have learned from father and mother, in the teaching of the school and the church, the great truths of salvation as they are contained in the Bible, and made known by the Church; and it accordingly appears to them that the promise which has been attached to faith belongs peculiarly to them, as a reward for this faith, which obtains eternal life as a reward given to faith. This, indeed, were nothing else than the dispensation of the old covenant of works, with a slight alteration, in the room of the New TesBut if you are sensible of the state of misery tament dispensation of grace; seeing that in the and corruption into which sin has thrown you former, salvation was to be secured by the full if you really feel your just exposure to conobedience of the law--and, in this supposed case, demnation-if you are penetrated with the by the acceptance of certain truths. From such thought that neither you yourself, nor man, nor a faith, the faith which the Bible requires of all angel, can deliver you from the sad slavery of who will be saved is as far as possible at variance. sin, and the threatened execution of the curse, A man may have an orthodox creed, and yet be unless Jesus Christ, the God-man, does, even unconverted, unsanctified, and be going head- he who has entered into the holiest of all, long on the way to hell; because he is satisfying and has wrought out an everlasting righteoushimself with the mere appearance, and not the ness-if you look with true confidence to reality of faith. True, living faith can only take Christ crucified, as Israel in the wilderness root in the heart which has been awakened by looked to the brazen serpent, that they might the Holy Spirit. See that person who, like all be healed-if you are willing to be delivered men, has been begotten in sin, walking, in the by him, even as he who had fallen among the vanity of his mind, estranged from the life that robbers willingly suffered his wounds to be comes from God, in the ignorance and blindness dressed and his personal safety to be secured of his heart. A ray of divine light comes across by the good Samaritan-if Christ is to you the the darkness of his soul-the call of God, and pearl of great price-your one treasure-your the revelation of his glory, sounds not only in wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and rehis ear, but pierces his heart. Then scales fall demption—if you are from the heart persuaded from his eyes he thinks no longer of standing that Christ has not only died for your offences, before God on the ground of his own righte- but has been raised again for your justification ousness. He becomes conscious that he has no -if you have confidence and trust in everyclaim on the mercy of God; but justly merits thing which God reveals in his Word-then, in his anger and wrath, his punishment and ex-such a case, have you the true faith, and you ap clusion from his presence. He does not try to conceal from himself the greatness of his sin, or the justice of God in the event of his being condemned. He sees how impossible it is for him to save himself, and to make atonement for his sin; and so, with a deep feeling of abasement, he casts himself down before the throne of grace-supplicates nothing but mercy-and receives with joy salvation in Christ. He builds and rests on the word of God, that he wills not the death of the sinner; he rests on the promise of his grace in Christ-of the atonement by him who is the one mediator; he accepts with joy the assurance of the forgiveness of his sins in the blood of Jesus. Here is living faith propriate the means which the Lord, who alone II. It is this faith alone which has value in ON THE NATURE, VALUE, AND EFFICACY OF FAITH. 267 As long as we remain in unbelief, guilt rests upon us, and punishment follows our steps like our shadow. In unbelief we raise up the weapons of our rebellion against the Lord, and refuse to follow his holy will. On the other hand, in faith we are led to acknowledge our guilt, to feel our misery, to perceive our alienation, and to take hold of the offer of atonement which Christ makes us from his cross on Golgotha. It is by faith that we appropriate his perfect righteousness, and become clothed with the robe of his salvation, and throw ourselves into his arms, that are stretched out to receive us, like the father's to his lost son. It is by faith that we come, for the first time, into union with the spiritual world; for unbelief neither seeks heaven nor fears hell. They are virtually as if they were not realities. The believer, again, who sees not merely what is visible, but what is invisiblewho rests on the promises of God as to the heavenly glory which God has prepared for those who love him-sees already, with Stephen, the heavens opened, and tastes the joys of the future world, and views the crown after which he strives with fear and trembling, as he advances on the way which the Lord has appointed for him. the eyes of God; and without this faith it is impossible to please him. It is this faith which gives him the glory of which unbelief robs him; for by no other means than by this faith can we so clearly recognise and attest the truthfulness and justice, the holiness, and grace, and mercy of God; or so fully give proof of our entire subjection to the Lord-acknowledging his Word as the truth which governs us, his will as the one rule which we follow, and his promise as that in which we unconditionally rest. It is thereby that we openly declare that we confidently expect all from his hand-even all that we desire for the outward and inward life-for time and for eternity; and that we are fully satisfied with everything that he offers, even although it should not altogether tally with our wishes and desires. Thus it is that we prove that his will is the great rule of our actions. Now, how manifest is it, that it is unbelief which deprives us of all spiritual blessings, and of eternal salvation! For the unbeliever refuses to be pleased with the ways of the Lord; and, accordingly, walks in his own way. In the strength of his unbelief, he fears neither the holiness nor the stern justice of God; he refuses to know anything either of his own sins or of God's mercy; and in despite alike of his guilt, Let us, then, see to it in ourselves, and in the his daring opposition, and his disobedience to circles in which we move, whether we have God, and despising of God's scheme of grace, he this living faith, which consists in the entire yet hopes to be able to stand before the judg-surrender of the heart to that Lord who has ment-seat of the all holy and righteous God. It is truly marvellous that we, the children of men, cannot be made to see our relation to God in such a light as to feel that without faith it is impossible to please him; seeing, especially, that we have such a vivid picture of this in the relation that subsists between the child and his father. See the child that is accustomed to receive from his parent proofs of his love and good pleasure. On this account it is that he listens to his words. He is led by his hand, even ways that he is ignorant of; he receives as true what his father's mouth has declared; and most heartily acquiesces in it. Then see the child who heeds not his sayings-who regards his purposes with suspicion, and refuses to be guided by him, except in so far as is agreeable to himself. Tell me whether of these two children will the father honour. On which will his eye rest with delight?--So it is faith that leads to the honour of God, and makes us share in his favour. in Accordingly, faith has to us such a high value, inasmuch as it unites us to God. Unbelief separated the first of men from God; and in a state of sin this separation continues. There is nothing that can fill up the great gulf which lies between the sinful race of Adam and the holy God but the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which we appropriate by faith. The Scripture declares that our iniquities separate us and God from each other; and it is vain that we strive by our so-called good works to build up a tower whose top shall reach to heaven. loved and redeemed us-whether we have him in daily life, as if he stood at our side-whether we walk with him, as if we beheld him with our eyes-and whether we look upon all the things of time as only steps that lead to eternity. O that we, accused by our conscience, and covered with shame, longed for his redemption-for then would we have made a beginning in that true faith which leads to salvation! III. Now, the thing that should all the more influence us to this good work, is the thought that this faith proves its efficacy in such a remarkable way, seeing that it is thereby that we attain peace of soul, the power of holiness, and the certainty of an eternal life, to which the Lord alludes in the words of the text: "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." An everlasting life without this peace of soul is inconceivable. As sin and death, so also are life and peace, closely united together. Accordingly, the Apostle Paul declares, that, "being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Our guilt is atoned for our sin is cancelled-the handwriting that was against us is taken away and nailed to the cross; so that the believer can ask with joy, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died; yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." As long as you expect to be justified by your works before God, you never can attain to permanent peace; for your conscience must testify that your works are imperfect and corrupt, and you must always be conscious that you cannot satisfy the demands of God in his holy law. But here is what will drive away fear and uneasiness, and will secure this abiding peace to the soul. It is faith on the Lord Jesus Christ. He has fulfilled the law for you in his perfect obedience; and by faith his merit becomes yours. Behold, then, the Lamb of God, who takes away your sins, and, with the forgiveness of sin, gives peace to your poor distracted soul. Would you not, if anything arduous were demanded of you, willingly bear all trouble, and anxiety, and self-denial, if you could only attain peace with the God whom you have offended by your sins? Seek, then, nothing else than faith on the Son of God-in him we have peace--and then will he appear to you, as he once did to his disciples after his resurrection, and say, "Peace be with you." What is to you all that the world can offer as glorious and valuable, if you have not peace with God-if you are ever haunted with anxieties and alarms -if disquietude of spirit agonizes you, and the sad prospect of eternity makes you quail for fear? What though you had the most wished-for lot in everything else? Without peace you are wretched. If, however, you have found peace with God in Christ, then, in the midst of storms can you feel safe, and say: "The Lord is my rock, my fortress. I shall feel secure under the shadow of his wings." to Christ urges him to deny the world, and all sinful things and carnal lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly. Moreover, he who believes on the Son, has not only the spiritual life as manifested in personal holiness, but he has also a title to life eteriasing. Although here it is not yet revealed what we shall be, and although the full enjoyment of heavenly blessings-the complete participation in eternal happiness-the entire deliver ance from all evils, is first experienced when we put off the earthly veil, and are received by the Lord into his Father's house, and into the fellowship of the righteous, and holy, and happy; still we are, nevertheless, happy, and have already the foretaste and first-fruits of that glory which shall be revealed in the children of God in the communion of life and love with the Lord, seeing we have cast all our cares and sins upon him, and are filled with peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, and are made daily to taste and see how gracious he is. O assuredly, if the unbelievers of the present day, or those half believers who have not yet resolved to give themselves entirely to the Lord, could be made but once to taste the love of the Lord, and the happiness that is in his communion, then would they find it impossible to withdraw any more from him, to feed on the husks of the world, but would remain with him, and live in his grace from this time forth, even until they could enter upon the full happiness of heavea. Amen. MERLE D'AUBIGNE'. Further: faith influences the new life of the soul, and communicates the power which is unto holiness; for as soon as the soul becomes united to Christ by faith, the power of his life is conveyed to us, making us strong in our [THE following well drawn and apparently authenti: walking and acting in the ways of righteous- sketch of the life and labours of the illustrious ness, according to his will-like the woman who D'Aubigné will, we are sure, prove interesting to our had the issue of blood, and who, in faith, hav-readers. It is taken from the Relief Magizine for ing touched only the hem of his garment, had July:-] thereby her health and strength restored. The believer has passed from death to life-is made a living member of the body of Christ-a branch of him who is the true vine, from which he derives sap and growth; so that he is able to manifest his faith by his fruits; for faith without works is dead. This living faith becomes in him such a source and spring of life, that he feels himself compelled to do all to the glory of Him who has loved us, and given himself for us. The believer lives in Christ, and Christ in the believer. How, then, could he find pleasure in that sin which bowed Christ down to the dust, and made him sweat a bloody sweat-which brought him to the cross, and stretched him in death? It is true, that the believer has still many temptations to withstand-many battles to fight; but his faith is the victory that overcometh the world; for it is more powerful than the world, and on the efficacy of it he proceeds from strength to strength, from victory to victory, covered with the shield of faith, by which he is able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Love We have to go back many years, in tracing the history of D'Aubigné's eminence as a Protestant divine. He seems to have received by inheritance, ment to the doctrines of the Reformation. He is as well as from personal investigation, his attachdescended, we learn, from those famous confessors. the Huguenots of France; his great grandfather, by the father's side, Jean Louis Merle, having fled to Geneva from Nismes, to escape the persecutions which followed the revocation of the edict of Nantes, family seem to have maintained a high standing in A.D. 1685. In the city of their adoption, the exiled society; for, in 1743, we find Francis Merle, the son of the Huguenot refugee, marrying Elizabeth, daughter of George D'Aubigné, a Protestant nobleman then residing in Geneva. From this side of his lineage, the historian of the Reformation draws no small addition to his ancestral interest in the Protestant cause; the D'Aubigné family, like the Merles, having been compelled to flee from France on sccount of religious persecutions. Theodore D'Aubigne, who was chief of the house toward the commencement of the seventeenth century, has won some reputation as a poet and a historian; and the complexion of his history of the times speaks of him as un Calciaiste writings may be understood from the fact, that the zélé, si oneques il en ful-"a zealous Calvinist, if ever there was one;" while his Histoire Universelle di la |