SAVOURY SAYINGS. A PERSON of spiritual discernment would rather be the author of one page written in the humble garb of Bunyan than to be able to rival the sprightliness and elegance of Lady W. M. Montague. -Newton. Many good people are distressed and alternately elated by frames and feelings which, perhaps, are more constitutional than properly religious feelings.-New ton. The papists first gave the name of Calvinists to the Reformers. In one of their notes on the Bible, published first in the reign of Queen Mary, they call the Reformers and the Church of Eng-. land"CALVIN'S BREED."-Rees. God has hung the sign of vanity at. the door of all created enjoyments, yet how do men throng into the house, calling and looking for something satisfying. -Rees. God suffered Job to be tried for His own glory, the honour of Job, the explanation of Providence, and the encouragement of His afflicted people in all ages, and to shew a case, which, being adjudged, might be an useful precedent. By nature we are all criminals. Death terminates our confinement in this vile body, and this evil world. At that important moment, the pardoned sinner goes to heaven, and the unpardoned sinner drops into hell. It is the misery of the wealthy that they cannot know their friends; whereas those that love the poor man, love him for himself.-Hall.. The soldier's spear pierced Christ's side, but the divisions of saints pierce his heart.-Watson. When a bird is flying high it is pretty safe, but when it sits on the bough, it is in danger of being shot. When a christian sits still, and is inactive, the devil shoots at him with his fiery darts.Watson. Have patience. Slanders are not long lived. Truth is the child of time, and ere long she shall appear to vindicate thee.-Fuller. It is an ordinance of heaven, that the exercise of faith in the atonement of Christ shall be the medium of imparting His merit to the believer. POETS' CORNER. LONGING FOR HOME. "Oh! when will the period appear, My God and My Saviour to see! I want to put on my attire, Washed white in the blood of the Lamb; Expence has not been spared in giving publicity to the existence and character of the publication: every advertising channel has been sought; but it now remains for the Editor to ask his readers to use their endeavours to procure additional subscribers. There is scarcely a reader, perhaps, but is able to obtain (with little inconvenience) the circulation of another copy; and if each subscriber succeeds to no greater extent, the pecuniary expenses of "The Pot of Manna" may be defrayed. How numerous are the new publications of a secular character! and can the church of God afford a periodical to become extinct which treats of "a kingdom which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." Letters (pre-paid) to be addressed to the Editor, at the Printer's. JAMES BOWIE, Printer, 7, Mark Lane, London LONDON.-HOULSTON AND STONEMAN, 65, PATERNOSTER ROW; THE TRACT DEPOSITORY, 14, BERMONDSEY NEW ROAD. Manchester.-W. Bremner, 15, Piccadilly. Plymouth.-F. Nicholson, 16, Bedford St. And may be ordered of any Bookseller in the Kingdom. By nature, the chosen people are "children of wrath, even as others;" and in their flesh there dwells nothing favorable to the reception of sovereign grace; on the contrary, they are every one of them hostile to being taken in hand by God, the Spirit. When quickened, and a new, unearthly life is given them, [ONE PENNY. the old nature is rendered imbecile or impotent for grace is a principle of war; and as long as the believer is in the body, this new nature will hold its antipathy and perpetual struggling with the old nature. And this war is not so much with exterior enemies, as with interior foes-that is, with the flesh, in which there dwells no good thing, but a perpetual lusting to evils which cannot be told out, either for the number of them, or their diversified method of action. The unrenewed man is a stranger to the two-fold nature which makes up the present bodily tabernacle of the believer. He may have a natural conviction that to do many things he does is contrary to the laws of propriety: the housebreaker admits the wickedness of his practices, and the conscience of domestic it does not follow, as a consequence, that animals, as the cat and dog, are alive to particular rules of propriety taught them by their masters, and are sensibly aware of the infringement of those rules. Thus, unrenewed men, in common with the beasts that perish, have a conscience awake to certain motions of evil; and although the natural heart of believers never differs in the nature of its wickedness from that of unbelievers, yet it is wrought upon and affected by the presence of the new nature in a manner unfelt by the carnal man. I have heard many professors seemingly content themselves by expressing their belief in the extraordinary wickedness of their hearts. I have met with these persons at distant periods, and their confessions have been restricted still to the acknowledgment of their native impurity; and I have marked the satisfaction they seem to feel with their expressions, as though they had made a full confession of christian faith. But not so the tradesman believes the depravity of the people, and is chary of giving credit; and men in general acknowledge the wickedness of our species. In what then does the believer differ from the rest of mankind? We answer, that in regeneration the Holy Ghost is communicated, which is not only the Spirit of life and liberty, but the Spirit of Light; by which the believer has a peculiar discovery of himself-a discovery marked by a disowning of the deeds of his own body-a sincere desire for the mortification, and even the eradication of everything within him contrary to the mind of the Spirit, and obnoxious to the purity of that light which has made, and will continue to make, discoveries of internal depravity; not, as I have said before, that the eradication of the actings of the old nature can ever be effected; but, I say, it is the desire of the believer, as expressed by Paul, in many parts of his writings, wherein his distress is so great, under the felt sense of the corruption of his Adam-system, that he sighs for the possession of a body "fashioned like unto His glorious body." Grace in the heart, then, gives the favored recipient a somewhat just estimation of himself; for, having the mind of Christ communicated to him in regeneration, he becomes obnoxious to himself, and entertains an opinion of his condition corresponding in a minor degree to the estimation Jehovah himself has of sin, and of the body of sin the believer carries about with him. The man born from above lives to learn what is the exceeding riches of Jehovah's grace towards him; and this grace is magnified, in his eyes, in proportion as he is conscious of the wickedness of sin, and that he is, by nature, one of its most wicked subjects-that he was so fully possessed with all manner of uncleanness, even at the very hour when it pleased God to reveal His Son in him. Fresh discoveries of its deep root and stronghold are being made daily by a believer in a healthy conditiondiscoveries which induce him "to pass the time of his sojourning here with fear"; that is to say, finding he has nothing valuable to him, but that mind and strength which is the gift of God, he has the blessed persuasion of his inability to guide himself, and of the wisdom of waiting upon that God for grace and wisdom, who is the strength and champion of His people. The believer, then, has a knowledge of sin, differing radically from the unbeliever; for this judgment is arrived at by the exercise of the mind of the new Iman Christ formed in the heart. feels the sin dwelling in him his greatest trouble, and says, "when I would do good, evil is present with me." He Such is the condition of the children of God; delighting in the law of God after the inward man, (Rom. vii. 22.) they desire to have respect unto all God's commandments; and although this desire can never be realised in this world, yet the time is at hand when, like the angels, they shall "do His pleasure." The strength of sins, crying out for dominion, assault his faith with treacherous art, and so he cries, "Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?" But it is the unfailing mercy of the believer, that by the perfect and consequently meritorious work of Christ, sin is not imputed to him; so that, though his infirmities and transgressions are known to himself, they are not known to Jehovah. He remembers them not. They were once reckoned to Christ, and He took them to Calvary as His own property. The church was, is, and ever will be His property; and He took her with respect to what befell her through the Eden triumph of the devil. He has ever had entire hold of her; and upon the cross absolved her from debt, for ever; 'having abolished in His flesh the enmity"; annihilating everything that could ever arise to produce enmity between Jehovah and the soul. Oh! the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! "Fear not, then, little flock," for it is evidently "your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." The struggle then must always be between two natures that can never be reconciled; but do not judge of yourself after the flesh, or after the feelings of the flesh; for this is not the judgment of Jesus. He considers you complete in Himself, and is well aware of the burden and unbelief of the flesh. He values you for that precious thing of which He has made you the partaker-THE INCORRUPTIBLE SEED. This is His own deposit; and He will "keep it night and day lest any hurt it." But, who can hurt "the trees of the Lord?" By His own right hand they are planted; and let the winds of the desert howl so fearfully, as they frequently do let the angry waves of the spiritual storm roll, yet they are controlled by Him who "sitteth upon the flood." Strange is the history of "The Mannagleaners." The world, looking upon them with the world's eye, says, "this is Zion, whom no man seeketh after;" but there is one man, by whom "the grace of God, and the gift by grace, hath abounded unto many"-in Him she had a purposed existence ere Adam lost his robes of innocence: yes, before Eve's crime, the workmanship of a better-of the best robe was arranged for. They are experimentally acquainted with good and evil; but, "the Lamb slain" has borne away the curse due to His people, and given them the good; so that, "they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them." A people performing spiritual wonders, are the people of the Lord. They have drank a deadly thing. They have all inherited the sap of the fatal tree; but a great champion has appeared-"the Lord of Hosts, mighty in battle." He has annihilated the eternal power of the deadly thing, and brought life so clearly to light, as that "whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved." Naturally, black; but supernaturally, comely; the heaven-bound wanderers shall, ere long, realise more than they have longed for here below. The body, with its impurity left in the grave, and the motions of sins, comes to a perpetual end. All the sheep within the paradise of God, and among the least A SHEPHERD BOY. London, June 10th, 1851. A SERMON, Preached by Mr. JAMES WELLS, on July 26th, 1843, at the Surry Tabernacle, London. (ABRIDGED.) "For His merciful kindness is great toward us, and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever. Praise ye the Lord."-Ps. cxvii, 20. I. The mercy of the Lord-in purpose. WE find, that all His purposes are purposed in himself; they are therefore absolute and eternal. He determined to show us all the mercy we needed. The Father purposed to give us His well-beloved Son: The Son determined to give himself; and the Holy Ghost purposed to reveal Father and Son to us. Nothing, therefore, could alter, nothing can alter these purposes. They were all according to his infinite knowledge of us, and His almighty love to us. From eternity He meant nothing towards us but that which is good; to the present time He has meant and still means nothing but that which is good and for good. His dealings are often dark ones; they have been in all ages truly mysterious; and the Lord's people are very different to what they wish to be, but all His ways are in judgment. The Fall, for instance, which is really dreadful to look at, apart from the election of grace, He permitted in merciful purpose. We should keep a distinction between what God merely governs and that which He is the immediate author of. He never was and never can be the author of anything wrong; we should, therefore, never mingle the truth of God with anything wrong. Truth will govern, master, and overcome it, but cannot produce it. Nevertheless, if we could believe that a sparrow might fall to the ground contrary to, or without His eternal purpose; if we could find any limits to the love of God, to the salvation of Christ, and to the perfect operations of the Holy Ghost, we could have no hope any longer; but when we look at Jehovah's love as eternal, the gift of Christ of infinite value, and the work of the Holy Ghost as perfect, we have cause to praise the Lord for the salvation of the very chief of sinners. God did not come to man in his creation state with illimitation; there was a bound set, and his life or death depended on his obedience. He did not come with illimitable mercy to the nation of the Jews, for their temporal deliverances were conditional; but the Lord's people see no limitation to their fallen nature. Can you say where your corruptions will stop? Where temptations and sins will stop? No. You are by nature children of wrath, with passions totally depraved. We are brought to see that salvation is a matter of infinite, almighty, and eternal mercy. We have no more to say for ourselves than for the evil one himself. Yet, because of the greatness of this mercy, we cleave to our God, we love our God, we value our God more than all besides. "Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth I desire besides thee." Oh, the infinite value of Christ's blood! Swallowing up all the curses of the Bible, swallowing up all our sins, swallowing up the judgments of the Almighty, swallowing up death in victory, clearing every cloud, and causing the saints of the living God to shine like suns in the firmament of the kingdom of our God. But there are times when we are as insensible to the promises of God, to the mercies of God, to the ways of God, as if they never did exist; and the few passing trifles seem of more consequence to us than anything else. It is a great matter in considering our salvation to realize the greatness of God in this matter. It is well for us that there are no limits to the Father's love; that there is no change in His purposes towards us, that there is none in the blood of Christ, or the determined engagement of the Holy Ghost. We see, when we look at ourselves, that there is not an object more suited to show forth the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and mercy of God. What! I loved eternally of Jehovah! I in the covenant of grace and in the book of life! I have part in the attonement of the Lord Jesus! I an object of the sovereign operations of the Holy Ghost! I shall never be able to give utterance to a millionth part of the praises due to such boundless, infinite, eternal grace! Again. The merciful kindness of the Lord is great in the gift of His dear Son, and in bringing us by grace to see all this; and here is the difference of the two religions, that of the flesh and that of the Spirit. Look at the Phariseestrip him of his alms-deeds, his prayersayings, his moral exertions, his good resolutions, and what has he left? own evil nature with no root; without God and without hope in the world. His But turn to the poor broken-hearted sinner, whose religion does not, cannot consist in these things; strip him of all outward things and what is he then? A child of God. Take from him his earthly property and what has he left? God and salvation. Take from him the ordinances of God's house and what has he left? God and salvation. Take from him his mortal life and what has he left? God and salvation; when he stands before the throne of God his possessions are He has God and eternal sal the same. vation. The difference is just this-the one is the transactions of the Eternal God, and the other the doings of the creature. These never do agree together; how can they? Here are creature doings, saying to the transactions of Jehovah,-"I do not want these," and the eternal purposes and mercies of God saying to creature doings-"I do not want these." So there is enmity between the two seeds, and ever will be. The truth is, that |