ZION'S WITNESS.

VOL. II.

MARCH, 1860.

A MONUMENT OF GRACE.

No. 18.

A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF ONE WHO FELL ASLEEP IN JESUS.

THE Covenant God of Israel hath ever seen fit to humble proud nature, in the saving acts of His love, by bringing it down into the dust, proving salvation to be all of grace. The work of grace is carried on and carried out on some, to us, most unlikely objects of that love; so that, judging according to appearances, we often exclaim, Is it possible that such stubborn wills and crooked tempers can be made to bow and bend to the Divine will? But we are brought to prove that

"He from the caves of earth and hell

Can take the hardest stones,

And fill the house of Abraham well
With new-created sons."

Such was the nature of the subject of this short memoir, who forty years ago was most perverse in his will, with a heart of stone; was following its carnal dictates to the gratifying of those propensities which are congenial to its views; and which would have still been pleasing, until death had closed his mortal career, had not MIGHTY GRACE stepped in, and said, "Hitherto shalt thou go and no farther; here shall thy proud waves be stayed."

"Jehovah was resolv'd to show

What His Almighty Grace could do."

Having known the deceased but a very short time, it is from his firmly attached friends that I have been enabled to glean a little concerning his general character. Though it was abundantly manifest, say they, that he was a child of God, one who had evidently obtained mercy, yet, at times, he showed much of the old Adam stock, and the fruits thereof, in a crooked, unamiable temper, which constrained them to refer to Rom. xi. 24, as applicable to his case. The words of our dear Lord, in this saint, as with every other, were fully verified: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."

"Grace turns the raven to a dove

The lion to a lamb."

The dear departed was seized with a most painful complaint but a few days before his death, which he very patiently endured, though suffering greatly from a surgical operation which his medical attendant thought necessary to be performed, but which yielded no benefit. Believing that he should not recover, he said, with great cheerfulness," My Father is going to take me home."

While sitting by the side of his bed, he related to me the many sorrows, trials, and afflictions he had passed through, together with the pinching privations arising therefrom: after which he added, with great composure of mind, "They are all over now."

"Yes," I said, "you now have only the valley to pass through." "Ah!" said he, "it is only a valley; there is no more death; for my Lord hath deprived death of its sting, and swallowed it up altogether: so that life, eternal life, is mine."

After relating the many days of deep poverty he had endured, he exclaimed, " They are at an end, and I am richer than all the world with all their wealth; for,

'What empty things are all the skies,

And this inferior clod;

There's nothing here deserves my joys;
There's nothing like my God.'

When speaking of a personal interest in that Covenant ordered in all things and sure, he turned his face towards me, and, with a smile I shall not soon forget, said, "It's all settled! My Jesus has settled that! He finished all for me! He hath finished redemption, and given me an earnest of it. He knew for whom He died, and would not leave me destitute of the knowlege; blessed be His dear name!"

To a friend, who went to see him the day before he died, he spread out his hands, and said, "Look at my fingers; see the marks of death upon them; they show you that death is near." He then cried, "Come, dear Lord, I long to be with thee." Many other interesting things dropped from his dying lips, plainly showing the state of his mind, and that his hope was firmly fixed on the Rock of Ages.

Before I left him, he said, "I shall want you." I answered, "What for?" He replied, "What for?-you know." It was to join him at the throne of grace. After which he uttered a hearty Amen. He then said, "I have done with the world,” adding,

"In vain the world accosts my ear,
And tempts my heart anew;

I cannot buy your bliss so dear,
Nor part with heaven for you.'"

This was the last time we met around the throne of grace in person; but though he is gone up higher, and his faith turned to sight, yet,

and,

"The saints in heaven and those on earth
But one communion make;"

"In such society as this

My weary soul would rest;

The man that dwells where Jesus is,
Must be for ever blest."

Thus departed our dear brother in the Lord to his heavenly rest, a monument of amazing grace, on Friday, November 4th 1859, Aged 74 years.

Bedworth, November, 11, 1859.

VERITAS.

CHRIST ALONE EXALTED.
Fourth Letter.

THE GLEANER TO THE REAPER.

MY DEAR BROTHER IN THE LORD,-In the balmy and odoriferous name of Jesus, our precious Jesus and best Beloved, I salute you at the commencement of this new year, earnestly desiring that the freshness, fragrance, and beauty of that never-fading Rose of Sharon may continue richly to open, and delightfully to distil upon your soul, by the unctuous power of the dear and most Holy Comforter. May He anoint you still more abundantly with "all

the fulness of God."

Much, very much, you have been privileged to realise in Christ; but, Oh! there is infinitely more beyond. It is still upward, forward, and onward. There is no danger of impoverishing, diminishing, or exhausting our transcendently glorious, rich, and full Christ. He is a bottomless and shoreless abyss of love, glory, and blessedness; and that, too, for us! Oh! what a handful and heartful of purpose is here, let fall in our very midst, that His joy may remain in us, and that our joy may be full! My soul has lately been set on fire in being led to embrace, in the arms of faith and love, a full Christ. Not merely in respect of what I have tastedand enjoyed; but from recognising in Him an abundant, redundant, yea, a never-ending source of delight yet to be unfolded and entered into. Thus our felicity and enjoyment is continually kept above us (a very safe place), and our souls are kept with expanded wings, and eager desires, stretching upward, and pressing forward with a full persuasion that we have not yet attained the height of bliss, nor are already perfect in knowledge; but, forgetting the things which are behind, we reach forth unto those which are before, still exclaiming, "That I may know HIM!" It is truly soul-animating, and mind exhilerating, to recollect that we must comprehend infinity before we can fully understand the richness of Christ our

matchless Inheritance. So that as we have deeper entrance and brighter views, this will still be the unattained climax-to know HIM in the glories of His Person, and more mysterious glories of His inheritance in the saints. One view of this broke upon my mind the other day with indescribable blessedness. My own salvation, which had appeared the mightiest thing imaginable, was, as it were, obscured by an overwhelming sight of the Divine Glory, as being the concentration, and consummation of all His goings forth on behalf of the children of His love, and His rejoicing in the habitable parts of His earth. Nor does this view lessen that of His love to His chosen portion-the lot of His inheritance. Oh, no! His love is immense, unspeakable, and passing knowledge. He resteth in His love; and can never, never change. But in this view of Him I saw that we were loved in Christ, chosen in Christ, accepted in Christ, justified in Christ, and glorified in Christ's glory; so that I am, as it were, lost in Christ; my worthiness or unworthiness, before so much thought of, has no part in the matter; "for of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen."

Oh! what a blessed absorption is this-swallowed up in Christ! Welcome such a death, for such a living life! Welcome such an annihilation, for such an existence! Methinks this is the timelosing place; I mean, where there is not one atom of space for SELF to occupy; and gladly and rejoicingly will we be very nothing, that He may be ALL; and we, in His own glory, be His Hephzibah; for as His Word does wonderfully say, the Church is the "fulness of Him who filleth all in all." As these wonders are developed to the soul by the Holy Comforter, we shall be kept in our proper place; for down, DOWN, in our own sight we must go, as we rise in and into HIM, our glorious Head. Nor will carelessness be the result of these discoveries; for as we are thus led on by the Spirit, our heart will burn with desire that our Beloved may be glorified in our outward conversation, that we may be "living epistles, known and read of all men.' Here, again, we must hang completely on our precious Christ; for He is the mainspring of our activity, the life of our obedience, the fervour of our zeal, and the fire of our love. It seems to me that He is to us and in us humility, meekness, patience, forbearance, joy, love, peace, &c. :-in short, as the Word declares, He "is made of God unto us Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, and Redemption," that we may glory in the Lord alone, and not in our riches, might, or attainments.

Accept my humble and hearty thanks for your last invaluable letter. It was a description to the full of the deaths which the Lord has been teaching me; and truly it seemed very wonderful that you should explain them in the same way. It has seemed good to His Divine Majesty, since my consolations have abounded, and year of

jubilee has arrived, to continually show me that I must not believe in my faith, rejoice in my joy, rest on my hope, or delight in my sweet sensations of love; but that I must go through, above, and beyond all these, to my dear Jesus, the Fountain and Foundation; of whom I must receive, and on whom I must rest all my weight. Nay, moreover, on all outward comforts, however lawful, such a death has been put, that my Christ must be enjoyed, or they are to me but shells and shadows.

The very thing you wrote concerning Abraham offering his son, &c., is what the Holy Ghost has preached me such blessed sermons from, as I have never heard from human lips. On the perusal of your precious epistle, I was constrained to go in and sit, in adoring wonder, before the Lord, and say, "What hath God wrought!" "Who am I, O Lord God? and what is my house that thou hast" thus dealt with me? "For thy word's sake, and according to thine own heart, hast thou done all these great things, to make thine handmaid know them." Take the praise, take the glory, O Lord, for it is all thine own; and still go on to bless, for, like the horseleach, we can but cry, "Give, give!" Christ is the soul-absorbing subject, and He alone can satisfy.

To your remark, that, "Surely my coming to Nottingham was of the Lord," I reply, Yea, verily, I cannot doubt it; and with a glowing, thankful heart believe that He, who "must needs go through Samaria," commissioned you to confirm me in the same truths that He Himself had taught me; and also to communicate things of our Beloved unknown to me before.

Ministers in our day seem to tell us of some of the things of Jesus, but do not get at and into Jesus Himself; and many seem to be more taken up with the Bride than the Bridegroom-the Church than the Church's glorious Head. But every man in his own line of things.

"Give me Christ, or else I die !"

Many thanks for your kind inquiries after my health: it is better, but my strength does not increase; which renews my hopes that, before long, my Beloved will say, "Arise, my love, and come away."

My paper is full before my heart is emptied. My Christ is so full, so precious, that I appear to have said nothing, and want another sheet-ah! a thousand sheets-to tell out a little of what I find in HIM; but soon we shall, in blissful immortality, breathe out the joys of our enraptured souls.

The dear Lord Jesus-bless you abundantly with all new covenant blessings throughout this year; may His sweet love glide into your soul; may you be satisfied with favour, and full with the blessing of the Lord. In much affection I rest yours, in our lovely and loving Jesus,

RUTH.