A WORD TO THE LIVING.

praise of the glory of His grace. His grace, His love, and His power is for ever mine, and I am His: "This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend, O ye daughters of Jerusulem !"

“All hail, triumphant Lord!

Heav'n with hossana rings;
While earth, in humble strains,

Thy praise responsive sings,

Worthy art Thou, who once was slain,
Through endless years to live and reign.”

Dear Reader,-May the fulness of wisdom guide thy steps; may the understanding of Jehovah thy Saviour be to thee a well of living waters and streams from Lebanon; and may we feast together at the same banquet, till we shall rise to the Paradise above. Yours in all straits,

"HAST THOU ENTERED INTO THE TREASURES OF THE SNOW?"

JOB, XXXviii, 32.

THE LORD'S GOODNESS ACKNOWLEDGED.

DEAR SIR,-I hope that the dear Lord will incline the hearts of many of His blood-redeemed ones to contribute for the support of such a gospel work as the "Zion's Witness."

The Lord in His love and mercy having brought me out of death into life, and given me to experience some of the blessedness set forth in your work, I hope, if it is His gracious pleasure, that it may still be the means of comfort and consolation to many of the redeemed family; those who know something of their life-union to the Son of God; those who know something of the blessed effects of being members of His body, and can, by the teaching of the Holy Ghost, say from the heart, by blessed experience, “As He is, so are we in this world.”

These precious truths realised and felt in the heart of the children, will cause them to live above self and all things connected with it; and will give them to see that all sin and sin charges are for ever put away by the precious blood of Christ; so that they will be able to join in heart-language with the Apostle Paul, saying, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

I find it no small mercy, dear Sir, to be brought to a knowledge of the distinction between flesh and spirit. They are so completely separate, that they can never come together; but are as distinct as light and darkness. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh," said our dear Redeemer, " and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit;" so that an amalgamation is utterly impossible. Thus we understand something of the sweetness of those words, "Ye must be born again."

I cannot help blessing and praising my dear Lord for bringing me to know a little of the importance of these glorious realities. I say realities; for they are only made known to us as we stand in union to Himself, from whom a manifestation of all blessings flow, they being treasured up in Himself. Thus He, the Object, becomes far more dear than the blessings He is pleased to bestow

Although I am fearful of trespassing on your time, yet, in the love of the truth, I cannot help acknowledging the goodness of my loving Jehovah in extending mercy to me, and exclaiming with the Apostle Paul, "By the grace of God I am what I am."

Trusting that the dear Lord will abundantly bless you in Providence and in Grace; give you richly to enjoy the sweet smiles of His all-lovely countenance; cause you to drink deeper and deeper into the great mystery of Himself; enable you to build up His Church in their most holy faith; and comfort His own beloved children-while we give Him all the honour and glory due unto His own precious Self-I remain,

March 15th, 1860.

Affectionately yours, in Christian bonds,

W. DONOVAN.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

C. R.-No! We do not consider any minister of the Lord Jesus Christ is justified by the Word in allowing a person to commune at the table with the Lord's children while living in known sin; neither do we believe anyone possessing the life of God and fear of the Lord would be allowed to sit down either by the Lord or their own conscience. That the Lord does allow some of His children to run into outward acts of sin, we dare not deny; but for them to be at home in it, and persist in it month after month and year after year; and, above all, to justify themselves by referring to David, Solomon, and others, we cannot square with either the scriptures of truth or living experience.

But why not be explicit, and tell us at once who you mean, seeing it so "materially concerns us?" and we hope to be enabled to act in the fear of the Lord in the matter. There is no doubt upon our mind that the case you name is the same that we have been compelled, though relunctantly, to believe to be true. Several have named it to us; but we thought it could not possibly be true: to say all, we were in hopes not.

R. J. P.-Shall appear next month.`

H. E. A. C.-We return you our hearty thanks for your sweet, encouraging letter and very liberal contribution.

W. D.-Yours was most welcome and cheering.

We feel ourselves greatly indebted to our London Friends for their quick response to our appeal. Although we have not yet reached the number required, we are greatly in hopes our friends have not relaxed their effort; but will enable us to announce a full achievement of our design in the May's number.

C. P.-Accept our best thanks for the interest you take in our magazine, and for your increased subscription.

J. M.-We are astonished to find that any man, professing to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, can defend Relly in his extraordinary errors. How can you, Sir, call that extolling the blood of Christ too high, when a man says it redeemed those whom God declares have no part or lot in the matter? If the Lord was to state in His Word, that the blood of Christ redeemed but one soul out of all the human race, we are not to conclude that the blood was less valuable on that account. The efficacy of the atonement does not consist so much in the thing shed as in the shedder. It was His Eternal Deity that stamped all His works with perfection, and His blood with power and prevalency; so that every thing performed by our glorious Jesus was truly the work of the Lord God Omnipotent.

As we read in the Word that Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it, &c., to the exclusion of that body of people that do not form any portion of His Church, we can hardly conceive of our being guilty of doing evil to the Lord's children in exposing whatever we come in contact with contrary to this glorious truth.

If you have never read the " Letters" of J. R., and we have no reason to believe you have, let us call your attention to the extracts on the wrapper this month and surely, after reading them, you will agree with us that our statements are not altogether uncalled for.

VOL. II.

ZION'S WITNESS.

MAY, 1860.

No. 20.

THE LORD'S WAY NOT OUR WAY.
(Continued from page 149.)

ACCORDING to promise, beloved, we resume our last month's subject; and may the Eternal Spirit lead us to write the truth as it is in Jesus, to the glory of a Triune Jehovah, and the mutual benefit of reader and writer.

"I will work." Yes, beloved, He will work; and though our flesh finds fault, our spirit saith, "Even so Father; for so it seemeth good in thy sight." The Lord has ever been wont to work the greatest things by the simplest means. We as creatures select the most powerful agents for the accomplishment of any great enterprise; and the sanity of a man would be much questioned, were he to take the opposite course, whether mentally or physically. But with our God all things being possible, He is never to be circumscribed. Who would have thought that there was safety for Moses in the house of Pharoah, seeing he had signed and sealed the bloody edict for his destruction? Yet it is very evident that that was the only safe place. Why? Simply because our Covenant Jehovah had eternally designed it to be the nursery and school for His servant; and who, in the unerring order of His Providence, would plainly show that "safety is of the Lord." In the case of Moses and the children of Israel, it was as though the Lord would say:

"I brought this people into Egypt according to my eternally arranged plan. When they first came, the good of all the land was before them, and they could eat in plenty. My servant Joseph was governor, and had all the provisions under his hand; and his brethren, though they sold him into Egypt, had a kindred claim upon him, which he never in one single instance denied, but always treated them as his own brethren. The relationship he could never deny. Though they had used him most shamefully, he still said, I am Joseph thy brother! In my own all-wise Providence, I took him to myself; and also took away Pharoah from the earth. When the everlastingly fixed time arrived another king arose, which knew not Joseph's' brethren. Him I allowed to deal subtilely with my people for a great number of years, according to my eternal

purpose and revealed Word. But I still watched over my chosen ones, and caused their oppression to work for my glory and their good; for the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and grew.' The day of their deliverance was fast hastening on, but, as yet, there was no instrumental deliverer among all their host. The Egyptians, being glad of the services of my people, could not bear the idea of having to deliver them up to a foreign power; and as there was a rumour about that the Israelites were eventually to be delivered, the tyrant king orders all the male infants of my people to be slain, hoping thereby to frustrate the accomplishment of my all-wise purpose; but I WILL WORK' causes all things to be subservient to my eternal counsel, making these grasshoppers of earth, while in the act of fighting against me, work for me. Though Pharoah thinks he has taken an effectual step to prevent the rescue of my chosen ones by slaughtering the innocents, yet I will make it plain that, whoever saith, it shall not come to pass when I command it not; for I will work.' Moses shall therefore be born, and shall be exceeding fair, because I intend to work my own way, making this lovely infant attractive; so that the very king's daughter shall have her natural affections drawn out toward the child. The father and mother of this beautiful boy shall have faith given them by me to entrust him in the waters of the river Nile, which my own hand formed, every drop of which, with thousands of others, I now hold in its hollow. They shall not be allowed to make an ark of the strongest and most waterproof substances in my creation, but shall use that feeble weed, the bullrush; all loudly, though silently, declaring that I will work. When this my servant Moses is fairly afloat in his tiny, and, humanly speaking, frail bark, I will not allow one contrary breath of wind to break the boundary of my fist to overturn or engulph the little ship: but I will send the daughter of this oppressing tyrant, to see a sight she never saw before. She shall be ravished with the little stranger; so that his lovely countenance and bright sparkling eye shall be as my finger to touch her heart and move her to, without the least. delay, rescue the sweet child. I will also cause Miriam, the sister of Moses, to watch her brother, so as to be ready to magnify the office I have eternally alloted her. When the daughter of the enemy of my people opens the little vessel, I will cause the child to weep. These tears, like so many small balls of fire on wax, shall so dissolve her heart, that she shall be compelled to take the infant and nourish it as her own son. And as I have given the mother of Moses faith enough to leave the child in my hands, though nature might fondly cling to the little charge, and writhe under the parting pang, I will honour that faith, by allowing her to nurse her own offspring; for the little fellow shall not be contented to suck the breast of a stranger, especially of one of my enemies. I will therefore make this his refusal of the