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wards took place. And sometimes as we see in a church, or churches-one man comes into the ministry and no blessing seems to attend his work; he leaves, and another comes in the providence of God, still no evident manifestation appears as to his ministry being accompanied with power; consequently he leaves, and a third succeeds, and the last man the Lord is pleased to make use of as an instrument in his hand to do his own work; working by whom he will work, according to his divine sovereignty, and uncontrolable will; and therefore concerning some churches, and many of their individual members who are saying the minister's word is no word for me; I cannot hear the man who is found over the church to which I belong, his preaching is not attended with divine unction and power unto my soul; but there is Mr. So-and-so, I can hear him, I find his word being accompanied with almighty power to my soul; so that my soul is blessed as my case is traced out in the ministry of the word. To such I would say-Go where you think you receive a blessing, but go peaceably, and without causing disturbance among those who think they can hear, remembering the Lord has not designed one man shall do another man's work; and if the Lord was to make use of only one man in the ministry he could not preach to all; and if he made use of all alike, there would not be room for all of them among his people.

As far as the ministry is concerned, and as concerning ministers, there are some who mimic, and strive to follow after another man's line of things, using his manners and phrases as much as in them lie; such have these whom they mimic for their master. But let a man minister according to the ability God hath given unto him, for edification; and account the Lord to be his master, to teach, counsel direct, and aid him in the work; and to own and bless his labours, according to his own sovereign will; and let the churches be satisfied with a man who in his ministry declares truth, although he may not preach all the truth. Christ is master also of all the trials, conflicts, troubles, and distresses attendant on his people; ordering and managing them, causing them so long to last and so to end as shall be for his own glory, and for their spiritual profit.

But, fearing I have already trespassed too long on your time, I must briefly touch on the question and its answer-" Master, where dwellest thou?"

Wherever Christ is endeared to the affections of a poor sinner's soul, there is earnest enquiry after him-"Tell me, O, thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon." And as to his dwelling place, he dwells in heaven, in the glory of his person, being sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, exalted as a prince and a saviour to give repentance unto Israel and the remission of sins." He dwells also in Zion; having said, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world;" so that he who was in heaven, while he was on earth, dwelleth on the earth, even while he is in heaven; he dwells also in the hearts of his people; for he hath promised not only to dwell with them, but to be in them; so that he dwells in the heart; from whence he is called upon, where he is prayed for, where he is longed after. But this question comes at last to this-Lord, dost thou dwell with me, and in me? And in the midst of this enquiry the poor bewildered child of God goes to seek him among the Hagarenes, he is not found there; he goes to mother Church, he cannot find him there; he goes to some arminian shop, where he is preached in a way, more calculated to frighten him, than to comfort him in the blessed hope that Christ dwelleth in him; well, he hears of some downright Antinomian parson, he goes there, and finds that which his soul ardently desired; and while he is concluding that as Jesus dwells in pure and holy light, surely, such a sinner as he cannot be the dwelling-place of one so holy; he is pleased to say-"Come and see;" which answer implies familiarity and condescension: if a poor and ragged beggar could meet Queen Victoria, or some noble personage, and should ask the question of either"Where dwellest thou ?" it would be thought immediately, "Aye, you want something; you want some money, or something" and the answer would not be "Come and see," But the great Master's answer is "Come and see;" it is the ragged, the poor, the wretched, the miserable, the ruined, and the undone, to whom he says-" Come,

and see;" and whom he leads into all the glorious doctrines of grace, and by the grace of the doctrines gives them to realise by a faith's view of himself, pardon, peace, justification, and eternal life, and so gives them to drink of the rivers of God's pleasure, and wherever there is a prayerful, ardent, earnest, up and down enquiry in the soul-Master, where dwellest thou? and, Dost thou dwell in me, Lord? the Lord comes down in his own time, and says "Come and see;" while he leads the soul so made to long after him, to see and find, that he dwells in him as formed in his heart the hope of glory; and by and bye he will say to all his redeemed, "Come up higher, and see,"

The Life, and Experience of JAMES MASON.

(Continued from p. 211.)

I Now come to tell out what I call my first soul deliverance. When the dear Lord was pleased to teach my soul to hope in his mercy, which was on this wise, I was brought very low: the language of Hezekiah was the language of my soul, (Isa. xxxviii. 11,12) "I said, I shall not see the Lord in the land of the living; he will cut me off with pining sickness: from day even unto night wilt thou make an end of me; like a crane or a swallow so did I chatter; I did murmur wards; oh, Lord, I am oppressed, undertake as a dove; mine eyes fail with looking upfor me." Such were the feelings and experience of my soul, one night, as near as I can recollect, about a week before Christmas,

Mr. DAY's Removal from Reading 1832; my wife was gone to bed; I was

to Tunstall.

THE Baptist Church, at Tunstall, in Suffolk, having given Mr. DAY an invitation to preach the word unto them for twelve months, he will at once (the Lord permitting) remove to that place, and commence on the second Lord's-day in October. We are authorised to state that after labouring among the people at Reading nearly ten years, he is leaving them on the best terms of sincere friendship. We venture to make the following extract from a letter written by himself—

"There is not one of the members of the church, that I am aware of, but wish me to stay among them; many times has my heart gone out in prayer, that the great Shepherd of the sheep would be pleased to raise up one, to feed them with knowledge and understanding. Some say I am leaving Reading for a larger salary; but this is not the case; for a kinder people than the little flock at Reading cannot be-and they have done more for my temporal support than many churches that I know, who are much greater in number. Why then do you leave them? say the people. This lies between God and my own soul; and I am fully satisfied that you will give me credit for acting honestly in the sight of God and man. May the Lord bless my labours to the comfort, establishment, and calling in of his dear people at Tunstall; and send a dear servant of his in his own time and way, to comfort, establish, and call in his dear people at Reading. And would you know in which way you might most please me, it will be in remembering the church at Reading, and supplying them, as you may be able with good, honest, experimental, and practical men, men sent of God."

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alone in the room, down stairs, wrestling with God in prayer; all at once these words were spoken unto me-"ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss; pray to Jesus Christ; none can help you but him." Such was the effect, that I jumped up off my knees, and stood up; the Bible laid upon the table; and I exclaimed aloud-" Lord Jesus Christ, if there is one word in this blessed book, upon which thou canst cause a poor sinner to hope, shew me that word, and speak it with power to my heart. Taking up the Bible as I spake, I opened it at the epistle to the Hebrews, and cast my eyes upon these words-" Wherefore he is able, also to save them to the uttermost ;" this word "UTTERMOST," took hold of my soul, and lifted it, as it were, from the deeps of trouble, from the depths of despair, from the very gates of hell, and I cried-"Who I can tell what God's uttermost is? It reached a Manasseh, who made the streets of Jerusalem run down with the blood of God's saints; it reached a Mary Magdalene, out of whom Jesus Christ cast seven devils; it reached a cursing, swearing Peter, who denied his dear Lord, brought him to weep bitterly, and at length to say, "Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee;" it reached a Saul of Tarsus, while as yet breathing out threatnings and slaughter against all that called on, and believed in, the name of the Lord Jesus, and brought him to cry, "I thank Christ Jesus Lord who hath enabled me for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, who was before a blasphemer and a

our

persecutor, and injurious, but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly and in unbelief." And oh, how precious was the sixteenth verse of that chapter-" Howbeit, for this cause I obtained mercy that in me

first, Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting." "Who can tell?" was the language of my soul, but what this precious, this glorious UTTERMOST, may reach my case and save such a vile blasphemer as me? Such a divine power and preciousness attended this word in my soul that it brought me to hope in God, and firmly to believe that Jesus Christ was able to save to the uttermost; not only was this scripture attended with power, but light broke into my poor dark mind, and as I pondered over the words

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Wherefore, he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him," I could see that Jesus Christ was the only way to God; in whom, alone, pardon, peace, reconciliation and salvation was to be obtained, "seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them."

Never, before this night, could I see any way of escape; but, now my poor soul was captivated with the power, the ability, the preciousness of Jesus Christ. O, I thought in the simplicity of my heart, "If he undertakes my cause I cannot fail; if he intercedes with God on my behalf, I shall indeed find acceptance." Well might his name be called Wonderful, Counsellor. With this Counsellor to plead our cause, we shall prevail over all our enemies, internal, and external; with this Counsellor on our side, every wrestling Jacob shall become a prevailing Israel, for in him, and by him, they shall have power and prevail with God and man. From this night I was a believer in the power and ability of Jesus Christ to save unto the uttermost all them that come unto God by him. From this night I became a prisoner of hope; and though I was not fully satisfied of his willingness to save me, yet I was led to believe he would appear for me, according to his own promise. (Ps. xii. 5.) "For the oppression of the poor; for the sighing of the needy; now will I arise, saith the Lord, I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.” brought to wait patiently for the Lord, to direct my prayer unto him, and look up, to expect him to appear, and deliver my soul. Thus the Lord brought me to feel that by sin I had debased myself even unto hell, and then revealed his dear Son in me, as able to save to the uttermost, and I have often enquired where I got this knowledge from? Not from man; for under Mr. K.'s ministry, I got nothing but entanglement and confusion yet I was taken with it as with a charm, though it brought me nothing but bondage and sorrow. When I got a little lift, a little comfort, a little consolation, it was in secret, from God, in searching the Scriptures, or pouring out my heart before him.

I was

I soon got tired of going to church: I soon discovered there was nothing there but a round of dead formality, that yielded my soul no satisfaction, and after a time my eyes were opened to see that the system taught by JOHN WESLEY, would not reach my case; and it was brought about this way. One evening I was permitted to attend a class-meeting, for though I never joined the Methodists, I was permitted to attend any of their meetings I thought proper. Well, as I have said I was at a class-meeting, and I believe they were glad to see the poor infidel amongst them; they told round the state of their minds as they called it; and I noticed they were all very happy, whilst the state of my mind was misery and gall. After they were thus examined, the minister gave a kind of exhortation, in which he exhorted them to improve the grace given; he said, angels who were created holy, and came from the hand of their Maker pure, sinned, and fell. Adam, who came from the hands of his Creator, pure and holy, upright and good, sinned and fell, and involved all his posterity in the sad effects of his fall: if, then, holy angels fell, if, then holy Adam fell, was it not possible for a fallen sinner, who had received the grace of God to fall from that grace? Yes; saith he, it is not only possible, but thousands have fallen from a state of grace into hell; and then went on to exhort his hearers to improve the grace given, lest they, also, should fall from grace. Whilst he was thus talking my soul sunk fathoms deeper into distress; and thought if God gives me grace, and leaves me to improve that grace, I shall perish after all; for I found I was not sufficient of myself to think a good thought; if grace, happiness, and eternal life could have been purchased for one good thought. I was brought by this exhortation to feel and know that unless I had a standing more secure than the standing of the angels who kept not their first estate, that unless I had a standing more secure than the standing of Adam in the garden of Eden, there was no hope for one so guilty, so helpless, so utterly lost as I felt myself to be. But glory be to the God of salvation, when, in his own good time he opened to me something of the glorious contents of that precious Scripture, (1 Tim. i. 9.) "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling." This order of Gospel truth suited my soul well; salvation before calling and called to know my eternal salvation, in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory, and that not according to our works.

Here there was opened to my view a standing that secured me, before my fall in Adam; that secured me before I became an actual transgressor; and though God knew I should deal very treacherously, and that I should be

a transgressor from the womb-yet, notwith- | standing all, his purpose was to save; that in me he might "shew the exceeding riches of his grace."

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But to return to the thread of my narrative, God raised my soul to hope in his mercy, and to believe that Jesus Christ was "able to save to the uttermost all them that come unto God, by him" and I received it not of men, neither was I taught it, but by revelation from Jesus Christ. On Christmas-day I went to chapel; I cannot remember the texts nor one word of the sermons I heard; but one thing I remember, and shall never forget it, whilst memory holds a seat in my mindat the close of the service they sung the hyinn

"Crown him Lord of all!"

I tell out the effect that this had upon my mind, I beg to make two remarks: Firstthat the things I was enabled to tell out at this meeting, I found some of them did not understand. Concerning this then, I came to the conclusion that they had not been such sinners as I had, and consequently. were strangers to the soul deliverances I had experienced. Mr. K. himself remarked to me, when coming out of the chapel, that some of the things I told made him tremble. This remark was made with reference to my feelings during the time that the cholera was raging at Wantage; and I then thought, as he had never sinned as I had, he could not enter into the feelings of guilt and condemnation I then suffered. But I bear Mr. K. this testimony: he was a kind friend to me in temporal things; and I believe a sincere friend in endeavouring to communicate to Whilst they were singing, my mind was led me religious instruction. But, like thouout to Jesus Christ, to think of his wonderful sands more, he was sincere in error; but an birth-his wonderful love in coming down to utter stranger to the truth of God in his own save sinners-his wonderful act of conde- soul; or he never would have told me (as he afscension in taking our nature into union with terwards did,) that the glorious truths of the his eternal Godhead his wonderful life, gospel, which God made known to my soul, going about doing good to the souls and and brought me out to preach, were dreadful bodies of men-and at last, dying for sinners evils, and contrary to the tenor of scripture, and rising again for their justification. My destructive to human responsibility, and soul was melted down under a sense of the tending, even more than infidelity itself, to greatness of the love of Christ, and the vast ruin souls; which were the terms he used nature of his tremendous sufferings, coupled with respect to the truths of the glorious goswith a view of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, pel of the ever-blessed God, in a letter he so that I loathed myself in my own sight, on wrote to me, which I have by me to this preaccount of my sins against so loving a Sa- sent day. The second remark I have to viour; and it appeared as if my sins crucified make is, that I believe I was in too great a him; and yet notwithstanding all, there was hurry in joining a church-before I thoa persuasion in my heart that he was able to roughly knew the people to whom I joined save me, and I cried, "Lord, if thou wilt, myself: and I believe many have been left thou canst make me clean!" My soul was to act thus imprudently, who afterwards have drawn out to "crown him Lord of all;" Lord been compelled to come out from amongst of all my mercies: and I felt persuaded, if he them; but amidst all, our "God hath his made himself known to me as my Saviour, Iway in the whirlwind and the storm, and the must for ever crown him Lord of all my salvation, from first to last.

From this time I felt a desire to join some Christian assembly; that is, to become a member of a Church: and I had some thought in my mind, that if I took the sacrament, or more properly, if I partook of the emblems in the ordinance of the supper of the Lord, that the Lord Jesus would there and then make himself known unto me, as my Saviour. Accordingly, I went and saw Mr. Keyworth on the subject, and he gave me encouragement to do so. On the Thursday-evenings they had (at the chapel,) what they called, "Experience Meetings," and it was appointed I should attend, and tell what I had passed through. I did so, with much fear and trembling; and was received a member amongst them; and on the first Sunday, in the year 1833, sat down with them at the ordinance of the Lord's Supper. And before

clouds are the dust of his feet." And I believe, humanly speaking, God taught me lessons among this people, that I could have learned nowhere else. It was here I learned the intricacies of bastard Calvinism and Fullerism-to weigh them in the balances of the sanctuary-to find these systems wanting; and at last to cast them to the moles and to the bats. Again, I have been brought to see, that in joining this church, I did, (to use a common expression,) put the cart before the horse. Many mistakes, baulks, and blunders I have made; but what a mercy! the God of our salvation rectifies all our mistakes; causes us to feel by our blunders, our blindness and ignorance in all things, and our need of the Spirit of truth, to guide us in all things unto the truth. By joining this church, I reversed God's order in his own ordinances-putting the supper before the ordinance of believer's baptism; though

up by an old hand: a good many have tried
to say something about this "William
Holmes."-Wait a bit-Let us
see what
an honest old Pioneer will make of it. A
lot of “iron-mouthed” sharp cutters, are
reproaching us because, in our reviews,
we do not cut off every body's head. Well,
well, boys; we have been in that school, and
line of things too-but, it worketh no good
to the soul. However, error, cant, hypo-
crisy, and religious merchandise we hate-
and must expose.

"A Sermon on the Knowledge of Christ, and of Interest in Him, the Support of a Believer, in Life and in Death: by the late

nothing is clearer in the word of God, than | Infidelity " is gone to be sifted and weighed the order of God, with respect to the ordinances of God in his New Testament church. (Acts ii. 41, 42.) "Then they that gladly received his word were baptised, and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers." Had it not been for the popish invention of infant sprinkling, we should have known nothing of Independent churches, nor nothing of that mongrel system of amalgamating the ordinances, called, mixed communion. I wonder not at a poor child of God making mistakes in this respect, at first starting but I do wonder at ministers, who once pretended to receive the ordinance of believers' baptism, starting aside like a broken bone, and turning open communionists; and, in some cases, scouting the ordinance of believers' baptisin altogether. I do wonder at men and women coming before a baptist church, and amongst the rest telling us the Lord has led them to see the ordinance of baptism-and many personal instances have I known of their turning round and slighting, and in some cases, rejecting the ordinence they pretended to have received from the Lord, and much of this is the force of evil example, set before the people, in the professing church of Christ.

But to return. Having partaken of the ordinance, instead of having that comfort I had anticipated, it was the means of bringing me into an awful state of soul trouble, which I shall describe in my next. J. MASON.

Christian Rebiewer.

"Jesus Christ-the Fountain of Lifethe Conqueror of Death-and the Glorious Righteousness of his Church." By JOHN BLOMFIFLD, Minister of the Gospel, Bethel Chapel, Cheltenham. PAUL, Chapter-house

court.

This is, truly, a savoury little Messenger of Peace-it is full of Christ, of the Christ of God-of that Glorious Mediator, Redeemer, and Intercessor, who is really the Friend of sinners. The author has written of Christ, and of the truth in him, in a simple experimental, yet exceedingly striking style. Some of the sentences stand out so bold and full as to be likely to make the reader dig deep in contemplation; and some of the questions are so close and solemn, that we think the heart must be hard indeed, that is not in some measure arrested thereby: Pastors of churches, and fathers of enquiring children, may safely put this tract into the hands of those, whose eternal welfare they are led to desire.

An Old Infidel's Reasons for Renouncing

JOHN GILL, D.D." When we say that Mr.
JOSEPH FLORY has been instrumental in

re-publishing this valuable sermon of Dr.
GILL's, we have said as much as is neces-
sary. We have read the title again and again,
Him." It is enough to set one's soul longing
"A knowledge of Christ, and of Interest in
to read the work. Perhaps in a future num-
ber we may make an extract or two, but for
the present this notice must suffice.

A small volume of Experimental Poems, written according to soul feeling; (as the author has very properly added,) by the late SAMUEL DAW, of Warbleton, will be published in a few days. Most of them are exceedingly choice and savoury; and bespeak the existence of a mind not only deeply exercised in the solemn matters connected with an eternal world, but also of a deep and well-directed natural talent to set forth in a pleasing strain, the work of God, and the effects of that work in the soul. We will forward a copy to any one ordering the same: its price will be one shilling. following stanzas are extracted from one of the poems.

The

But thoughts about dying, and fears about hell,
Would fill me with gloom, which I could not
dispel;

But when these forebodings of sin made me cry,
I thought I repented" so foolish was I."
Through reading, and hearing, I partially saw,
How great was Jehovah--how perfect his law;
I begg❜d for his mercy, as I could descry,
In some little measure--" how foolish was I."
But, oh! the carnality wrapt in my heart;
I quickly grew careless to each better part;
Good books and the Bible I chiefly laid by,
And took to romances-" so foolish was I.'
But God, in his mercy, I fain would believe,
At length brought me sorely, sincerely to grieve;
He shook me with terrors, I trembled to die,
Perceiving how "wretchedly foolish was I."
And am I grown wiser of late, shall I say?
I cannot perceive it; for every day
That passes, I've reason to feelingly cry,
Ah! that was a wrong step--" How foolish was I."
Lord, lead me, I pray thee, in Wisdom's right way
Protect me, and keep me, and teach me each day;
Or I shall to evil be running away--
"So very exceedingly foolish am I,"

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