the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.'

"Thou shalt remember." The child of God is well aware, when brought to know the Lord, that he was watched over even while led by the prince of the power of the air; and some of us can testify of many very striking interpositions of the Lord in those days of thoughtlessness. The writer has it still in remembrance that many times he has been within (according to appearance) a hair's-breadth of death, yet he could not die, not as yet being called by grace; and several times, on the very threshold of a temptation, when there has been a merciful intervention by an unknown, unseen, uncaredfor, or unthought-of hand. How true the words of the poet :

"Preserved in Jesus, when

My feet made haste to hell;
And there should I have gone,
But Thou dost all things well:
Thy love was great, thy mercy free,
Which from the pit delivered me."

Satan could not seize his wished-for prey, for love watched me in all my wayward pursuits. Blood marked me in all my tracks of iniquity; a Saviour pitied me in all my sins of ignorance, and was waiting for the time when the spot should be reached-the "so far"-in order to pluck me as a brand from the burning; to demand me as a trophy of His own precious blood; to hold me up as an object of covenant love, a miracle of grace, a monument of sparing mercy, a temple of the Holy Spirit, and a living witness of what rich free grace can do. Ah, beloved, we sometimes stand astonished when brought to feelingly remember "all the way "He hath led us, and are constrained to say, "Truly the Lord is good to Israel."

It is intended, "if the Lord will," to publish, in this serial, my natural life, from the cradle to the present time, embodying the mysterious dealings of the Lord in His providence; the many escapes from temptation and death ; call by grace; conflict of soul; mountains levelled; valleys exalted; crooked things straightened; rough places made plain; darkness turned into light ; friends proved to be enemies; enemies made friends; call to the ministry; the feeling unfitness for it; struggle to get from it, with the will of the Lord prevailing; the anointing; the liberty experienced; the word blessed by calling sinners, freeing the captives, opening prison doors, unloosing the bound, healing the sick, cleansing the leper, feeding the hungry, and giving the thirsty drink; by comforting the mourner, raising the fallen, lifting up the bowed down, strengthening the weak, confirming the feeble, settling the wavering, and emboldening the timid; by dissolving doubts, removing fears, dispersing darkness, banishing clouds, and enabling the children to go on their way rejoicing: in a word—to which many can bear testimony-Christ made exceedingly precious. We therefore desire to grant the request of many of our old tried friends, and issue from the pages of ZION'S WITNESS a feeble testimony of the Lord's love and tender mercy to one who, had he his deserts would have long been in hell, suffering eternal vengeance. But our readers must wait a short time, and then, the Lord enabling us, there shall be a faithful statement given, so plain that the least in the family cannot mistake it, and so true that the greatest enemy we ever had shall not be able to contradict it, though some of their stings be exposed, and their honey words dissected and found to contain "the poison of asps."

What a mercy it is for the family that "the Lord liveth!" He knoweth them that are His, and He knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation. We often, when dark in mind, forget the way the Lord hath led us, and the many Ebenezers grace has enabled us to raise.

We have now entered upon another year, beloved, and what is your testimony concerning the leadings and dealings of your covenant God? Is it, "Not one thing hath failed of all He hath spoken ?". Surely a contrary statement would not only be dishonouring to the Lord, but altogether untrue. Has He not, many times during the past year, appeared on your behalf, when arms of flesh have failed, human wisdom has been thwarted, and the creature has quite given up the ghost, while the cry of the heart has been, 'We have no might against this great company that cometh against us, neither know we what to do; but our eyes are upon thee?" The extremity of the creature is invariably the opportunity of the Creator, as saith the apostle : "When I am weak, then am I strong."

‘And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee, these forty years, in the wilderness." The child of God is brought to prove this world to be a "wilderness" indeed. Does he in it seek grapes to refresh himself, he is pierced with a thorn; does he try to gather a fig, he is pricked with a thistle; is he seeking for water to quench his thirst, he finds it all too bitter to drink; is there an attempt made to settle down in it, a voice arrests his ear and vibrates through his heart: "this is not your rest, it is polluted;" is the friendship of the world courted, he opens the Bible and finds, “The friendship of the world is enmity with God;" have earthly props been supporting him, the Word declares, "Cursed is man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm;" has his own righteousness been looked to, and in any measure trusted in, he finds Paul's experience and his widely differ, for the former said, " And I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith;" is the law his rule of life, "As many as are of the works of the law, are under the curse;" has he been hoping, partly by works and partly by grace, to get to heaven, "Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt; but to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly (even the publican, Mary Magdalene, or the dying thief), his faith is counted for righteousness." So that there is no foundation for the hope of God's own children but in His free electing love in Christ Jesus, before the world began. This world, then, is proved to be a "wilderness indeed, for it can afford no real comfort to the soul. But how great is the mercy: the Master hath said, "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world;" "they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world."

The world and its pleasures may go,

Since Jesus is precious to me;
O, may I increasingly know

His love so amazingly free.

Dear reader, what is the language of thine heart, at this time, respecting the mercies of the past year? Canst thou not testify of the Lord's having been better to you than all your doubts and fears? Has He not brought you to remember all the way He hath led thee? And is not the effect self-abasing,

creature-humiliating, and, at the same time, love-constraining, to "crown Him Lord of all ?" If, then, the Lord hath been faithful to His own oath and promise on your behalf, up to the present time, is it not your privilege to "Praise Him for all that is past,

And trust Him for all that's to come?"

When the Lord hath, from time to time, shewn thee somewhat of thine own deceitful heart, has He not also made known to you His heart of love, which is full of that compassionate sympathy peculiar to the faithful High Priest of our profession? Surely, then, thou hast abundant cause to be joyful in thy God, making melody in your heart to the Lord. O beloved! we had never known "open rebuke" had it not been for "secret love;" we had died strangers to our lost condition, was it not for covenant love and sovereign grace; never would our hand have been placed on our mouth, and our mouth in the dust, had not grace been poured into the lips of our Elder Brother. He, therefore, cannot alter the thing that is gone out of His mouth. O wonderous mercy, that ever such words as, "It is finished," should have flamed from His heart, and dropped inspiringly from His mouth, like honey from the comb. "Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee, for I have finished transgression, made an end of sin, brought in everlasting righteousness, so that thou art comely through the comeliness I have placed upon thee, and, for all this, thy love to me is wonderful, passing the love of women, because you love me with mine own love, according to my prayer to my Father that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.' Precious Jesus! endear thyself unto us more and more,

"The

:

For when our heart is warmed by thee,

In all things else no good we see,

For thou art all in all :

The compass of our every thought,

Who hath for us a freedom bought,

By drinking up the gall.

graee of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen."

Yours to serve,

THE EDITOR.

ZION'S FOUNDATION.

(Continued from page 46.)

THE Psalmist never appears to have lost sight of Christ, for frequently we find him singing of the Rock; but in the 40th Psalm he goes back to the time when God first quickened his soul. O, how essential to have a starting place in our religion! David says, "He brought me up also out of an horrible pit (into which he had fallen through the fall), out of the miry clay (of actual transgression), and set my feet upon a Rock, and established my goings." The Psalmist was no free-willer, being persuaded his deliverance from the pit, and establishment upon the Rock, was solely a work of the Lord. Jehovah the Spirit brought him out of death into living oneness with Christ Jesus the Rock of his Salvation. What a beautiful illustration we have of this in the narrative of the man that went down to Jericho and fell among thieves. Fallen man has been stripped of that original righteousness

in which he was created, and by transgression is become full of wounds, bruises, and putrifying sores. This poor man was stripped, wounded, and left half dead. The priest and the Levite could do him no good, therefore passed by on the other side. "But (ah! that but) a certain Samaritan, as He journeyed, came where he was; and when he saw Him, He had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set Him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him." How sweet it is to be employed in tracing Jesus, the Lord of life and glory, the man of sorrows, and Him, who was acquainted with grief, toiling and labouring for the salvation of His Church. The Samaritan came where the poor man was; and so it is with Jesus and the sinner. Man by nature is in the same, yea, even in a worse, condition; for he is dead in trespasses and sins, and could never go to Christ in such a state. But Jesus has compassion upon him, quickens him into life, shows him his lost undone condition; who being thus wounded by the arrow of conviction, falls down in distress of soul, quite helpless, and in a state of spiritual bankruptcy, having nothing to pay. Christ, then, frankly forgives him all his debts, heals his wounds with His own precious blood, pours the oil of grace and the good old wine of the Kingdom into his soul, causing him to sing

"O love, thou bottomless abyss !

My sins are swallowed up in thee;
Covered is mine unrighteousness,
Nor spot of guilt remains on me;

While Jesu's blood through earth and skies,
Mercy, free boundless mercy cries!"

Not only is the Lord Jesus a sure foundation, but a place of safety in the time of trouble. "A man," we read in Isaiah, "shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land,' He who is the mighty God, became incarnated, clothed in our flesh and blood! Stupendous thought! to think that the great I AM, the eternal WORD, should be made flesh and dwell among us, tread this lower world and live a life of deprivation. He took the nature of His people into union with His Godhead, in order that He, the just one, might suffer, bleed, and die, that they, the unjust, might never die, but live in eternal union-oneness with Himself. O what love is here displayed! How true are the words, "God is love!" Who can fathom or fully comprehend the love of God to us in Christ Jesus our Lord! Paul in writing to the Church at Ephesus, after describing their state by nature, says, "But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ." God loved his people before they fell in Adam, and blessed them with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. "In the fulness of time, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, that He might redeem them which were under the law." "Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it ;" and God, the eternal Spirit, quickens every member of it into life, sustains and comforts them in all their exercises, sweetly instructs them in the truth, and leads them in the good old paths. What would become of the Lord's people, even after their regeneration, if the blessed Spirit was not daily instructing them, and opening up totheir minds those glorious truths of the everlasting covenant! What would the sinner know of the preciousness of Jesus, the efficacy of His blood, the

infinite value of the atonement, was it not for the powerful, unctious, anointings of God the eternal Spirit! Yet, alas, how little do we hear in this day of profession from the pulpit, or from those who profess to know the Lord, of the Godhead, personality, unction, and power, of the third person in the adorable Trinity! O thou blessed spirit! be thou according to thy word, ever with thy children to guide them into all truth; to comfort them in all their troubles; to open up and unfold the glories of Emmanual, and bring all things to our remembrance whatsoever He hath said unto us.

"Blest spirit guide us o'er

This life's tempesteous sea;

Keep us, O holy lover!

For we confide in thee.

"O that in Jordan's swelling,

We may be help'd to sing;
And pass the river telling
The triumphs of our King."

Jesus Christ, the rock of ages, is an hiding place from the wind; the wind of cutting conviction. When God the Holy Spirit convinces a man of sin, and shews him his real state, by nature, in the sight of God, what cutting work it there! He then views sin in a very different light to what he did before; instead of trifling with it, he feels it to be an intolerable burden. O what a mighty revolution takes place in the soul! His supposed righteousness, He now seeth to be filthy rags; and his heart language is, "What must I do to be saved?" When the soul is brought into such a state, O, what an hiding place is Jesus! When the tempest of Sinai alarms the sinner, he finding it to be nothing but fire, revealing floods of wrath and indignation, what a covert is Christ! What a harbour of refuge is Jesus! What a quiet safe retreat is the cleft of His own dear side!

(To be continued.)

"BUT CHRIST IS ALL AND IN ALL."

Could I, seated on a throne,
Call the nations all my own;
Spread my hands from sea to sea,
Say, it all belongs to me:

This, though great, would be but small,
Void of Christ, my ALL IN ALL.
Had I Alexander's seat;
Bowing monarchs at my feet;
Spreading through the world alarms;
Nations trembling at my arms :
'Twould indeed be very small
Without Christ, my ALL IN ALL.
Could I say, from pole to pole,
All is under my control;
Each obeys my just command,
Through the great Creator's land:
This would be a bubble-ball,
Christ not being ALL IN ALL.

Was I of the greatest fame;
Could I spread abroad my name;
Command th' universal eye,
Calling forth th' applauding cry:
What is that?-just nought at all,
Void of Christ, my ALL IN ALL,
Was I nature's brightest light,
Every action strictly right;
Blemish void before mankind;
Blessed with the greatest mind:
Light and mind would be but small,
Jesus is my ALL IN ALL.

Could I every language speak,
Hebrew, Latin, French or Greek;

Could I every art explain;

Every science quickly gain :

All this knowledge would be small,
Knew I not my ALL IN ALL.

THE BRIDEGROOM AND THE BRIDE.

WE now proceed to show how, though the bride was affected by the fall, it did not interfere with her relation to Christ. When Adam the first open head stood forth in creation, his future bride stood in his side, but was no help meet for him; for he was pronounced by God to be alone. "It is not