shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

"Here's pardon full for sins that's past,
It matters not how black their cast;
And O, my soul! with wonder view,
For sins to come here's pardon too."

O, then, what a sure foundation is Jesus for the sinner to build his hope upon for salvation from eternal death! When all other foundations give way, this shall remain immoveable. Zion's foundation is in the holy mountains of immutable unchanging love. Christ is a tried stone. God the Father tried Him, and declared Him to be His Beloved Son, in whom He is ever well pleased. He endured the fire of divine wrath; He drank the very dregs of the bitter cup; satisfied divine justice; and paid to the utmost farthing the debt His people owed.

"He toils through life, and pants through death,

And cries with His expiring breath,

"Tis finished and complete."

The Church He is also a

Satan hurled his fiery darts at Christ, but in vain. Thousands now in glory have tried Him, and proved Him a sure foundation. militant have tried Him, aud proved Him mighty to save. precious corner-stone. How precious He is in His blood, work, and salvation; yea, He is the chieftest among ten thousand and the altogether lovely. Dear old Jacob on his dying bed spake of Him as the Shepherd, the stone of Israel. What a precious stone hath He been to Ilis saints in the hour of dissolution. On this Stone, this Rock, hope hath cast anchor, outrode the storm and flood of death; and faith, in lively exercise, hath sung triumphantly, "O death! where is thy sting?" while the transported saint hath entered the haven of eternal rest with Hallalujah.

The Apostle Paul, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, speaking of the Church in the wilderness, says, they drank of that Spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. Moses in his last days said, "He is the Rock, His work is perfect." He is perfect in Himself, and consequently all that He wrought and accomplished on earth for His people must be perfect; hence the Church is perfect in Him, not in abstractedness from Him. It is impossible to find any perfection in the old Adam nature. God the Father chose the Church in Christ from eternity. Christ undertook to redeem them from all the consequences of the Adam-fall transgression. "For as by one man's disobedience many were made simmers, so, by the obedience of one, shall many be made righteous." Sinners, through the transgression of the first Adam; righteous, through or by the righteousness of the last Adam the Lord from heaven. O, what an unspeakable mercy, perfect in Christ Jesus!

Again, when the Lord talked with Moses, face to face, as a man talketh with his friend, He said, "Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live. And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock; and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by." Here, then, was the standing place of Moses, even upon the rock. What did this rock set forth, but the person of Jesus Christ? and what was the cleft of that rock but the wounded side of the dear Redeemer? It was in the cleft of the rock that Moses saw the glory of

Jehovah; and it is in Christ, the Rock of Ages, that every heaven-born soul is brought to see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. Christ speaking to His Church in the Songs, says, "O, my dove! that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely." O, what a place of safety is the wounded side of Jesus to the exercised believer! there he is out of the reach of all sin, death, hell, or law. There is something very significant in the act of Manoah, when the angel whose name is Secret, appeared to him and his wife, announcing the birth of Samson. Manoah," it is said, “took a kid with a meat offering, and offered upon a rock unto the Lord." Offering upon any altar but the rock, Christ Jesus, will be but a stench in the nostrils of Jehovah; but the offering of a broken heart upon Jesus, the New Testament altar, is an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God.

We now come to David the sweet singer of Israel. He "spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul; and he said, the Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; the God of my rock; in Him will I trust," and breaks forth in the ecstacy of his soul, The Lord liveth, and blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of the rock of my salvation." O, how sweet to sing of Him! When the heart is tuned by divine grace, we can sing with the Spirit and with the understanding also.

"Come all ye redeemed and unite

In high Hallelujahs to God,

And sing with increasing delight,

O sing of the Lamb and His blood!

..

Sing, sing His superlative worth,
Till we His full glory obtain ;
The chorus resound through the earth,
Of worthy the Lamb that was slain."

(To be continued.)

THE BRIDEGROOM AND THE BRIDE.

(Continued from page 31.)

"Do not con

To you who are young in the ways of the Lord, I would say, demn what you at present cannot see eye to eye with me in; but may grace be given you to implore the dear Lord graciously to teach you that the language of your heart may be, 'What I know not, teach thou me."" Convinced I am of one thing: my writing is vain, and your reading will be equally so, unless the Lord takes us both into His gentle hands, leading into all truth. There is but one Teacher for the family of God,-the Holy Spirit. May He then lovingly and condescendingly be a spirit of light and revelation, that both reader and writer may, by grace, glorify a triune God and receive mutual benefit. To those who are further advanced in the divine life, and have had a greater and deeper revelation of divine mysteries, I would say: Do not despise the pratling of a young one, but remember the words of the Lord: "Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise;" 66 SO that it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy ;"" the lame take the prey ;" and "let the weak say I am strong." If the elder brethren should say aught why the younger brother should shout for the battle? he would answer in his brother David's words:

"What have I now done? Is there not a cause ?" Truly there is, and then was, so great a cause that a mighty effect was produced on the head of Goliath, which neither Saul nor David's elder brethren were able to accomplish. I am such a believer in God's predestination, that I am certain there was no man under the canopy of the heavens could slay that Goliath; and further, there was no one stone but "the one" could have entered the fatal part of his head: and why? Because it was not the will of the Lord; therefore God was the cause, and the death of Goliath the effect. But to return to my subject: Christ and His Bride before the fall, even in eternity.-We will quote two portions to shew Christ was her Husband, and her Husband was the eternal God, the Maker of all things: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made" (John i. 1, 2, 3); “Thy Maker is thine Husband, the Lord of Hosts is His name; and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel (Luke i. 35); the God of the whole earth (Isaiah ix. 6, 7) shall He be called" (Isaiah liv. 5). What a Husband! What a favoured bride! "This union with rapture and wonder be seen,

Which nothing can sunder, without or within."

The bond being love, it is indissoluble, "for love is strong as death;" which many waters cannot quench, neither can the floods drown. It is eternal, therefore cannot be affected by all the ravages of time, inroads of sin, or stratagems of the devil. Bless the Lord, O our souls! and let us sing:

The bride is safe 'tis plain by God's decree,
In councils plann'd of old e'en by the Three;
Before the world began, the Church did stand
A multitude in numbers as the sand.

Christ and His Bride stood one in the bond of love in eternity; the consequence is, they stand one through time's span; not as we often say, from eternity to eternity, for there are not two eternities, but one. We being creatures of time, sense, and circumstances, are so constantly dividing eternity in our finite mind in this way :-Eternity past, time, then eternity to come; as though time's speck, hand-breadth or span, divided eternity's unbounded round. One right thought of eternity carries its own significance with it; for instance, when the Lord is pleased to lead our mind to contemplate eternal realities; that is, when the mind is really absorbed with the thought, time's vapour is forgotten, endless duration is more sensibly realized, we then have some faint idea of what eternity is. But here, when our knowledge is at its height, the following scripture is fulfilled: "Now we know but in part, and prophecy but in part." If our faith was to keep one uninterrupted view of eternity, what different creatures should we be in all holy conversation and godliness; but it is wisely ordered that eternity should not, in the time-state, perpetually occupy our thoughts, for if it did we should be so far taken out of the world as not to be able to fill that station of life which the Lord hath, in infinite wisdom, appointed for us. So that, after all, everything is in wisdom, therefore the very best; and as Christ well knew, when in prayer to His Father, what was His Father's will, and best for His children, said: I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil;" after which He declares

their high origin: "They are not of the world even as I am not of the world.” So that,

Whatever Jesus is, such is His bride,

So close the union, nothing can divide.

It was the will of the divine Father this union should be, and, as what God doeth, it shall be for ever, it must remain entire, notwithstanding all the aggravated forms in which sin appears, or all the underworking, plotting and cunning craft of Satan: all his stratagems will ultimately be seen, in the hand of infinite wisdom, to further the glory of a triune God, and the real benefit of Zion. Some may object, but they cannot substantiate their objections by the word of God, for that unerring word declares: We can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth;" "All things work together for the best (Beza's bible) to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose;" and only according to His purpose, "for He hath made all things for Himself, yea, the wicked for the day of evil." The children of God are "born not by the will of the flesh, or of man, but of God;" so that it is all according to His will, whether in the armies of Heaven or among the inhabitants of the earth.

(To be continued.)

ADVICE AND APPROVAL.

DEAR MR. EDITOR.—Great grace be with you from the inexhaustible fulness of our precious Lord Jesus Jehovah, the Son incarnate, over all God blessed for evermore, Amen. As sure I am you will need it to conduct and fill the pages of the Witness with good substantial and wholesome food, savoury meat, such as the household of faith can feed upon, and grow, flourish, and bear fruit,-suffer no husks to appear, and steer clear of the wretched Arminianism of the day. Contend earnestly for the faith once delivered unto the saints, without compromise or concealing any branch thereof. Let the truth appear in all its fulness, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; the everlasting electing love of God the Father, the most ancient betrothing and redeeming grace of God the Son; the invincible love, grace, and mercy of God the Holy Ghost, as manifested in the regeneration and effectual calling of all the predestinated of the Father, and the purchased by blood divine of the Son, and no more. Let the person-righteousness and blood of Christ appear very conspicuous, and the Church's perfection, purity, and completeness in the same; and no less insist upon a vital and heartfelt experience of the glorious truths of the gospel in which Christ is all and in all, producing a corresponding and consistent walk and conversation as fruits of the Spirit, demonstrating the heirs of salvation; but these not their salvation, but things accompanying. Forget not the lambs, and weak in Christ's fold; these must be fed with suited food: milk for babes, but strong meat for those of full age. Strengthen the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees, aud forget not to comfort the mourners, and labour to reclaim the wanderers, bringing them back to the fold. I like your first Number; and if you proceed as begun, I wish you God speed, together with all miscellanies publishing the truth of God.

November 5, 1858.

Yours in the truth,

W. BIDDER.

VOL. I.

ZION'S WITNESS.

JANUARY, 1859.

No. 4

A NEW YEAR'S MEDITATION.

"And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou would'st keep His commandments, or no (DEUT. viii. 2).

YES, beloved, thou shalt remember that there are no more peradventures; no ifs, buts, or may-be's about the matter, but a positive declaration. It is indeed sweet to be led by the blessed Spirit to remember all the way the Lord hath brought us, to consider in how many mysterious ways He hath supplied our every need, both temporal and spiritual;

"And though we have Him oft forgot,

His loving-kindness changeth not ;"

For, "He is of one mind, and who can turn Him?" This we prove, day by day; and though we are brought through trying circumstances, the why and wherefore is sweetly explained: it is "to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart." The Lord alone knoweth the depraved state of the human heart, so that we are dependant upon him for the insight; and how graciously, mercifully, and lovingly He makes us acquainted with just enough of self to hate the creature, and enough of Himself to love the Creator.

for is no yea

'Thou shalt remember;" not, you had better remember, or it would be well you to consider. No; our God deals in positives with His family. There and nay in the new covenant; but its language is : And I WILL make an everlasting covenant with them, that I WILL NOT turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they SHALL NOT depart from me. Yea, I WILL rejoice over them to do them good, and I WILL plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart, and with my whole soul." So that it is the will and pleasure of the Lord to do His family good ;" and what His soul desireth even that He doeth." The consequence is, "Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power."

We abominate that doctrine of devils which allows the creature to have any hand in the matter of salvation, knowing, "It is not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord." We also hate that fashionable duty-faith system of the day, which bears no more resemblance to the faith of God's elect than the assumed garment the devil and all his ministers appear in does to that robe called in Scripture, "the Righteousness of God," ""which is unto all and upon all them that believe." No, brethren, beloved, our covenant God and Father declares, "I WILL be their God, and THEY SHALL be my people;" that is, He will make Himself known to them as their God by the witnessing of the blessed Spirit, and the response in their one heart will be, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us this is