66 FRAGMENTS. social prayer among themselves, before our family worship. And all give me much comfort. Thus I am encouraged in this part of my work, and I send them this news to encourage them to continue to help me in it." A COLLOQUY WITH GOD. The sun makes not the day, but Thee. Sleep is a death. O make me try, These are my drowsy days; in vain O come, sweet hour, when I shall never GOSSIPING. BROWN. SOME people seem to make it their employment to go about from house to house, to find out the calamities of their neighbours, only to have the pleasure of carrying the news to the next house they go to. Mr S- once reproved one of these gossips. She had nearly talked herself out of breath, withis dead, and 'Shocking news! I hear poor Mr has left a large family without a shilling to help has fallen down stairs, and them; and Mrs broken her leg-I saw the doctor ride by, as I came 's house has been burnt down; along; and farmer and Mrs's eldest daughter has lost her place, at a minute's warning. Dear! dear! what troubles there are in the world: it really makes one's heart ache to hear of them." "And pray," asked Mr S-, "what have you done to help all these people in their distress ? " "Oh, sir, it is not in my power to help them." "Indeed; I think you might find some way of being useful to them-if you only spent in rendering help the very time that you squander in idle gossip about their misfortunes, which, I can't help thinking, seems to afford you a sort of pleasure. I will tell you a story: A traveller passing over a miserable road, the wheel of his carriage stuck in a deep rut. He laboured with all his might to extricate it; but in vain. Presently some one passing said to him: 'You are in an awkward situation, sir: pray how did the accident happen? Another came up: 'Dear! dear! what is the matter? Well, what a good thing your neck was not broken! but this road ought to be indicted; there are continual accidents of one A third addressed him: 'I'm kind or another.' really sorry to see you so much heated and fatigued, sir; I fear, too, your horse and carriage are injured. I am very sorry.' 'Come, then,' replied the unfortunate traveller, if you really are sorry, be so good as to put a shoulder to the wheel; a grain of help is worth a bushel of pity.' The idle and impertinent curiosity of some people, in the time of a neighbour's distress, is ill concealed under professions of sympathy and pity; while, like the priest and the Levite in the parable, they only come to the place and look, and then pass by on the other side of the way. If sympathy and pity are really felt, let them lead to conduct like that of the good Samaritan; for our Lord says to each of us, Go thou, and do likewise."-New Monthly Maga zine. GOLDEN RULES. MAKE God the first and last of all thy actions; so begin that thou mayst have him in the end; otherwise I doubt whether it had not been better that thou hadst never begun. Wealth is not the way to heaven, but the contrary; let all your care be how to "live well," and you may be sure that you will never die poor. I know not which is the worse, the bearer of tales or the receiver; for the one makes the other. We should no less hate to tell, than to hear slanders. If we cannot stop others' mouths, let us stop our own ears. The receiver is as bad as the thief. So live with men as considering always that God sees thee; so pray to God as if every man heard thee. Do nothing which thou wouldst not have God see done. Desire nothing which may either wrong thy profession to ask, or God's honour to grant. Afflictions are the medicine of the mind; if they are not toothsome, let it suffice that they are wholesome. It is not required in physic that it should please, but heal. Sin and punishment are like the shadow and the Never sin went unpunished; body-never apart. and the end of all sin, if it be not repentance, is hell. Next to the not committing of a fault, is the being sorry for it.-Bishop Henshaw. Fragments. Live well, and die never; IRRELIGION AND IMMORALITY.-When once Infidelity can persuade men that they shall die like beasts, they will soon be brought to live like beasts also.South. THOUGHTS OF RECKONING.- When we think of death, a thousand sins we have trod as worms beneath our feet, rise up against us like flaming serpents.-Scott. THE PASSIONS, like heavy bodies down steep hills, once in motion, move themselves, and know no ground but the bottom.—Fuller. ADVICE, like snow, the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind. -Coleridge. WISDOM WITH LITTLE, BETTER THAN FOLLY WITH MUCH. It is no small commendation to manage a little well. He is a good waggoner that can turn in a little room. To live well in abundance, is the praise of the estate, not of the person. I will study more how to give a good account of my little, than how to make it more.-Bishop Hall. BE AT CHURCH IN TIME.-Mrs Chapone was asked cause," said she, "it is part of my religion never to why she always came so early to church ?—“ Bedisturb the religion of others." KNOWLEDGE, when Wisdom is too weak to guide her, Daily Bread. FRIDAY. "The blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin."-1 JOHN i. 7. Go to Calvary's mountain Where his blood was spilt; In that precious fountain Wash away thy guilt. Is it the numberless number of thy sins that affrights thee? Were they yet more, Christ can save thee from them. Dost thou complain, O soul, that thy sins are as many in number as the sand upon the sea-shore? yea, but dost thou not know, likewise, that the sea can cover the sands? so the overflowing blood of Christ can reach the uttermost borders and extent of all thy sins, and keep them from the sight of God, that they shall never more appear.-Hopkins. SATURDAY. "Prove your ownselves."-2 Cor. xiii. 5. Without a stock of oil. Be exhorted to deal impartially with your own souls. Look into your own state. Examine yourselves. Try whether Jesus Christ be formed in you. If your state be good, searching into it will give you the comfort of it. If your state be bad, searching into it cannot make it worse; nay, it is the only way to make it better; for conversion begins with conviction.-Ibid. SABBATH. "Enter into thy closet."-MATT. vi. 6. The busy world exclude': Secret prayer is what every carnal man hath an aversion to. The devil can allow men their church prayers, and their family prayers; but closet prayers he cannot away with, especially when they are frequent and constant, because they are too much an argument of sincerity. A hypocrite takes no delight in secret prayer, nor in any duty but what is seen of men, and will gain him a name. But, reader, if thou art sincere, thou wilt consider that God's eye is upon thee in private as well as in public; and therefore wilt seek to approve thyself to God in secret duties, as well as public. Nay, let us mind that this is not only a commanded duty, but our dignity and privilege. What an honour is it for dust and ashes to be allowed access to the great God!-for a worm to speak freely to its Creator!-for a poor beggar to converse familiarly with the King of heaven? O sinner, would not all thy neighbours envy thee, if thou wast so honoured by an earthly king? Be exhorted, then, to value and make use of this liberty.-Willison. MONDAY. "I will teach transgressors thy ways."-Ps. li. 13. O you who live by this Saviour, make him known. Recommend him. Begin with your own family. You are concerned to provide for your children; but how is your love operating? Is it not in laying up for them treasure on earth, or seeking great things for them in the world? It would be infinitely better to leave them in Christ, than to leave them with thousands of gold and silver; or to leave them with kings upon the throne. Forget not your friends and your neighbours. Hold forth the word of life impressively and invitingly to all around you.-Jay. TUESDAY. "A certain beggar, named Lazarus, was laid at the rich man's gate, full of sores; and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table..... And it came to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by angels into Abraham's bosom."-LUKE avi. 20-22. O what are all my suff'rings here, And worship at thy feet! fast and dine on bread of adversity and water of Though God's humble children may both breakaffliction, they will be sure to sup sweetly and plentifully. And the believing expectation of the latter might serve to qualify the former, and make them easy under it.-Boston. WEDNESDAY. "The mystery of godliness-God manifest in the flesh."1 TIM. iii. 16. Unsearchable the love That hath the Saviour brought; The grace is far above Or man or angel's thought; Suffice for us that God we know Our God is manifest below. It was a wonder to Solomon, that God would dwell in that stately and magnificent temple at Jerusalem; but it would have seemed a rude blasphemy, had not the Scriptures plainly revealed it, to have thought of the world's Creator as a creature-the Ancient of Days, an infant of days. For the sun to fall from its! sphere, and be degraded into a wandering atom; for an angel to be turned out of heaven, and be converted into a silly fly or worm, had been no such great abasement; for they were but creatures before, and so they would abide still, though in an inferior order or species of creatures. The distance betwixt the highest and lowest species of creatures, is but a finite distance the angel and the worm dwell not so far asunder; but for the infinite glorious Creator of all things to become a creature, is a mystery exceeding all human understanding.-Flavel. THURSDAY. "God is my strength."-HABAK. iii. 19 In our Jehovah dwell; He gives the conquest to the weak, Where but in Christ can I find strength? The journey I have to take, the race I have to run, the warfare I have to accomplish, the duties I have to perform, the trials I have to bear all these are not only above my natural powers, but even above the grace I possess, without fresh and constant supplies of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. But he cries, "My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness." Surely, therefore, shall one say: "In the Lord have I righteousness and strength.' -Jay. THE CHRISTIAN TREASURY. 301 1 THE GOOD SHEPHERD: BY JOHN BROWN, D.D., EDINBURGH. CONCLUDED. III. JESUS CHRIST is the good Shepherd, for there subsists the most intimate and endearing mutual acquaintance and intercourse between him and them. 'I am not like an hireling, who cares not for the sheep, and for whom the sheep do not care; but I am like the good proprietor shepherd-I have a deep interest in them.' "I know my sheep, and am known of mine; even as the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father." To perform the offices of a good shepherd, intimate knowledge of, and frequent kindly intercourse with, his flock, is necessary; and whenever these offices are performed the sheep readily recognise their shepherd, and show satisfaction in seeing his person-hearing his voice-following in his steps. This is remarkably the case in Oriental countries, and affords a beautiful figurative representation of the mutual regard which subsists between our Lord and his peculiar people. gives them his Spirit-the seal of their discipleship-the earnest of their inheritance. He sets an indelible mark on them, showing that they are his purchased possession. And this intimate knowledge and intercourse is mutual. As he knows his sheep, he is known of them. If the sheep do not know the shepherd, it is a proof that he is not a good shepherd. Our Lord does not want this mark of being a good shepherd; for all his peculiar people know him. They can distinguish him from all others. As the ground of hope-as the Lord of the conscience-as the one mediator between God and man-the language of their minds and hearts is, "None but Christ, none but Christ." They are intimately acquainted with him. They know him, and follow on to know him, and count all things loss for his excellent knowledge. They delight in studying the truth about him, as revealed in his Word. The divinity of his person-the perfection of his atonement-the prevalence of his intercession of his compassion-the faithfulness of his promises-" the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints-the exceeding greatness of his power towards them who believe"-these are among the things most firmly believed among them. He knows THEM-he distinguishes them from those who do not belong to his flock. "The Lord knoweth them that are his." No hypo--the omnipotence of his grace-the tenderness critical art, however exquisite, can impose on him; and no bashful retiredness of disposition can conceal genuine discipleship. The best of the under shepherds, however sagacious, may be often mistaken both ways; Eli may mistake Hannah for a drunkard, and Jehoiada may suppose Joash a pious youth; but the good Shepherd is never deceived. He knows them; i.e., he is intimately acquainted with them individually. He needs not that any one should testify of them-he knows what is in them. He knows all about them-all the peculiarities of their constitution. He knows their frameall the incidents of their history-all their excellences and all their faults-all the strong and all the weak parts of their character-all their fears, anxieties, and sorrows-so as to be able to suit the communications of his grace to the exigencies of each of them. And they know him experimentally. They have experienced his wise guidance and his condescending care-the depth of his wisdom and the tenderness of his heart-in his conduct to them individually. They have, as it were, not only heard of him, but they have heard his voice-they have seen his countenance. They have "looked on him, and their hands have handled the Word of Life." They have eaten his flesh, and drunk his blood, and know and are sure that "his flesh is meat indeed-his blood drink indeed." Still further: they acknowledge and recognise He knows them-i.e., he acknowledges them him as their Shepherd. He is "the Apostle, as his peculiar property-the objects of his pe- the High Priest," the Shepherd of " their proculiar love and care. This is not an uncommon fession." They hear his voice-they follow in use of the word know, in Scripture: "You only his steps. Where he goes, they go; where he have I known of all the families of the earth :" lodges, they lodge. His people is their people "Depart from me; I never knew you." He his God, their God. Their whole character recognises them as his. He manifests himself and conduct say: "I am Christ's." What is to them in another way than he does to the said in reference to the faithful under shepherd, world. He and his Father come to them, and is true in a higher sense of the great Shepherd: make their abode in them-dwell in them-"The sheep follow him, for they know his voice; walk in them. He shows them his glory. He and a stranger they will not follow, but will flee August 22, 1845. No. 26. 302 from him, for they know not the voice of a The illustration which our Lord gives of the The general principle now referred to is applicable to our Lord. He uses illustrations natural to him, which never would have occurred to any other, and which plainly tell us he was "not of this world"-he was "from above." He borrows his illustrations from the heavenly state, and from the very adytum of the celestial temple-the holy of holies-the holiest of all. Who but Christ-he who had been in the bosom of the Father-would have used such language as this to illustrate his love to his people: "As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you?" And who but he would have sought, in the ineffable intimacies of the Father and his only begotten, an illustration of the mutual, intimate knowledge, and complacential intercourse of him and his chosen ones? This is a subject dark through excessive brightness; yet we cannot choose but gaze a little on it. However incapable we may be of conceiving of the manner in which the Divine Persons apprehend truth, nothing can be more apparent than there must be the most perfect mutual knowledge and mutual complacency among the mysterious Three, who, having the same divine nature, must have one mind-one will; and that mind, the perfect light-that will, the absolute good. The Father knows the Son-thoroughly knows him; he regards him with most complacential delight; and he acknowledged him, no doubt, though in a way we can form no conception of from all eternity. We can, however, form a conception of the way in which he acknowledged him on earth, and is acknowledging him in heaven. He gave his Spirit to him without measure. He sustained him amid all his toils and sufferings. He bore witness to him by the mighty works which he enabled him to perform. He again, and again, and again, from the most excellent glory, proclaimed: raised him from the dust of death-he set him "This is my beloved Son; hear ye him." He at his own right hand. He proclaims: "Sit thy footstool." And while he brings him into on my right hand, till I make thine enemies the possession of the world, he proclaims: "Let all the angels of God worship him." is intimately acquainted with his perfections, In like manner," the Son knows the Father" and purposes, and works; and regards all these with infinite complacency. And he acknow ledges the Father. This he did when on earth, in everything doing his Father's will, and say ing, in reference to his human inclinations: he is doing in heaven; for there he is "declar"Not my will, but thine be done:" And this | midst of the congregation of his chosen is he ing his Father's name to his brethren; and in the the Father knoweth the Son, and the Sou singing his praise." When it is said that as knows the Father, so does the good Shepherd know his sheep, and is known of them, the meaning, so far as they are concerned at least, is merely that there is resemblance, not equality; Son, so no man knoweth the Son but the for as no man knoweth the Father but the Father." The idea is, that there is as really a peculiar, mutual knowledge and acknowledg ment between the good Shepherd and his sheep, as between the Father and the Son, and that it has the same character of complacential affectionateness. lation," the good Shepherd," as applied to our IV. The only other illustration of the appelLord, to which I mean to call attention, is that suggested in the 16th verse of the chapter. Jesus Christ is the good Shepherd; for he cares for all his sheep: "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, be one fold," or rather one flock (weyen, not and they shall hear my voice; and there shall avan)-one Shepherd. He is not a good shepherd who overlooks he is the good shepherd who protects, and any part of the flock committed to his care; guides, and feeds, and cares for all. When charge on earth was a very "little flock" (the our Lord uttered the words before us, his not exclusively, to be found within the fold of ποιμνη was indeed ποιμνιον); and was chiefy, if the Jewish economy. But our Lord well knew that it was not to be always so. bered the decree that had gone forth: “ Ask He rememof me, and I will give thee the heathen for the earth for thy possession." He remembered thine inheritance, and the uttermost ends of the exceeding great and precious promises "see of the travail of his soul-see his seed, which had been made to him-that he should and have the mighty for his portion-the strong for his spoil." He remembered that it dominion also from sea to sea, and from the had been said of old of him: "He shall have THE GOOD SHEPHERD. river to the end of the earth. They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him, and his enemies shall lick the dust. kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring The presents; the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts; yea, all kings shall fall down before him, all nations shall serve him." He knew Him who had said: "It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth. Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One; to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the Lord that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee. Thus saith the Lord, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; that thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places. They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them. And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted. hold, these shall come from far: and, lo, these Befrom the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim." In the full assured belief of these declarations, with a clear apprehension of the vast extent of official saving care committed to Him, we find Him saying: "They shall come from the east and the west, and from the north and the south, and sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of their Father." "And I, if I be lifted up, shall draw all men to me." His object was, to "gather together into one all the children of God scattered abroad in all" the countries of the world, throughout all the ages of time. This is the charge committed to him; and he will be "faithful to Him who has appointed him." "Of all whom the Father has given to him, not one of them-not anything-shall be lost.” shall all be "raised up at the last day." In They reference to them all, the Gospel shall be brought to them, or they brought to the Gospel. Every one of them shall be brought into the fold, and kept there. For it is his purpose that there shall be "one fold-one Shepherd." It is generally supposed, and justly, that these words have a direct reference to the termination of the exclusive preparatory economy, and the introduction of that better order of things, where there should be "neither circumuncircumcision, Jew nor Greek, bond cision nor 303 Jesus." In this view of the subject, the best nor free, male nor female, but all one in Christ words of the apostle: "Wherefore remember, commentary on the text is to be found in the that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: but now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ" [through the great Shepherd giving his life for the sheep]. peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition be"For he is our tween us; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby : and came and preached peace to you which For through him we both have access by one were afar off, and to them that were nigh. Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also through the Spirit."-Eph. ii. 11–22. are builded together for an habitation of God after he had been raised from the dead by the "The great Shepherd of the sheep," very soon God of peace, began, by his apostles, to bring those other sheep not of the Israelitish fold. He spoke to them, and they heard his voice. His Gospel was " preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven;" and Gentiles, in vast numbers, had granted to them that repentance is implied in the faith of the truth. Since unto life, that salutary change of mind, which that age, the collection of the sheep has gone forward; and though now on earth there is still a fearful preponderance of numbers of those who are not of Christ's sheep, yet even now there is on the earth a multitude which could not easily be numbered, out of many a sheep going astray, but have been brought kindred, people, and nation, who were back to the Shepherd and Bishop of souls.” as -se sheep, but where is "the one flock"-the one But it may be said, Here, indeed, are many fold? Even the genuine followers of Jesus that visibly separated and united body. Christ are far from forming anything like parated from the world "lying under the wicked one," united among themselves—that the image of a flock in a fold naturally brings before the mind. They are found in pens, studiously separated from one another; while, |