"It still happens in the present day, to the praise of God's grace, that the Church is refreshed with delightful discoveries of the Lord's plenteous salvation. Often where we looked for nothing but briers and thorns, the Lord surprises us by the view of flowers of paradise blooming in the spiritual garden; and where we thought of nothing but Egyptian darkness on every side, it is said to us in a higher sense than to Abraham, Look upward and tell the stars, if thou canst number them.' Thus lately, in a village in France, the Lord opened up to our sight the cottage of a notorious fortuneteller, and discovered to us, instead of a family of degraded impostors, a peaceful and happy company of the lambs of Christ's flock, gathered in a short space from the most outcast vice and misery. In another quarter where the voice of preaching had long been silent, we were lately called upon to witness whole companies of the most sincere and lively children, which the Lord himself had regenerated by his Spirit, without human means, so that the Church was constrained to say, 'Who hath begotten me these?' and to look upon them as dew from the womb of the morning. And again, as has frequently happened to us, we enter a house to preach repentance towards God to some one whom we imagine spiritually dead, and are happily disarmed by the sweet smile with which we are saluted, and which is reflected from the peace of a soul that has long tasted that the Lord is gracious, and known perhaps more of the depth of Christian experience than ourselves. Such discoveries, my friends, are far more precious than any made by those who dig for gold; and it is impossible to express how deeply they put to shame the feebleness of our courage, strengthen our faith, and enlarge our hearts, how much more cautious and charitable they teach us to be in our judgments of others. Let us then, my brethren, open our hearts to the consoling hope that though 'a brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city, and their contentions are like the bars of a castle,' yet the

heart of the prudent man getteth knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge;' 'our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth.""—Ibid.

"There are times when God comes near to his people. There are occasions when efforts to advance his cause are specially blessed. There are harvest seasons for souls. This is proved by the whole history of the progress of the Church of Christ. At such times the hearts of men are ready to receive the seed of the Word. It falls as upon tilled ground, moistened by the rains of heaven. Where before all seemed hard and barren, we find mellowness and readiness to receive the seed, and to bring forth fruit. Such a season, we have good reason to believe, is now upon us. Pastors, and elders, and private Christians, will, therefore, suffer us to offer them a word of exhortation; and that exhortation is, that they be bold. The harvest is ripe, it is perishing. All around us are those who have heard the Gospel for years, but who have neglected its claims. It may be that even now the Spirit of God is striving with them-is convincing them of sin, of danger, of a judgment to come. not wait for them to come to you. Go you to them. Speak to them. Pray for them. Remember that immortal souls are going down to death. Delay not, lest while you tarry they vanish from your sight."-American Paper during the late Revival.

Do not, then, delay.

Do

"Nothing could supply the room of Christ to his Church; not the Gospels, though they record His eventful life and death; not the Epistles, though they contain the full revelation of His own truth; not ministers, though they are His ambassadors; not ordinances, though they are the channels of grace, and so many meeting-places between our souls and Him whom our souls love. None of these, nor all of these together, can be to the Church, in the stead of its own

Redeemer and Head.

Without His continued presence and

aid, the Church would speedily come to an end.

'People may talk as they please about the omnipotence of truth, and the adaptation of Christianity to man; but in a world like this, hostile to the truth, and alienated from God, no security short of that presented in the actual indwelling of Christ in His Church, His own kingdom and house, will be sufficient. But for this sweet assurance, our hopes of the Church's continued existence and ultimate triumph would become fairly extinguished. To this we owe it, that there has been a Church in the world up to this hour; to this we owe it, that there shall be a Church in it to the end of time.”—From "Closing Scenes in the Life of Christ," by Rev. A. L. R. Foote.

"Where are those, then, that go about to divide Christ from Himself; Christ real from Christ mystical; yielding Christ one with Himself, but not one with His Church; making the true believer no less separable from His Saviour than from the entireness of His own obedience; dreaming of the uncomfortable and self-contradicting paradoxes of the total and final apostasy of saints?

"Certainly these men have never thoroughly digested the meditation of this blessed union whereof we treat.

"Can they hold the believing soul a limb of that body whereof Christ is the head, and yet imagine a possibility of dissolution? Can they affeign to the Son of God a body that is imperfect? Can they think that body perfect that hath lost his limbs? Even in this mystical body the best joints may be subject to strains, yea, perhaps, to some painful and perilous luxation; but as it was in the natural body of Christ, when it was in death most exposed to the cruelty of all enemies, that upon an overruling Providence not a bone of it could be broken; so it is still and ever with the spiritual some scourgings and blows it may suffer, yea, perhaps some bruises and gashes, but no bone can be shat

tered in pieces, much less dissevered from the rest of the body. Were we left to ourselves, or could we be so much as in conceit sundered from the body whereof we are, alas! we are but as other men, subject to the same sinful infirmities, to the same dangerous and deadly miscarriages; but, since it hath pleased the God of heaven to unite us to Himself, now it concerns Him to maintain the honour of His own body by preserving us entire."-Bp. Hall.

"Right so it is with Christ and His Church. That one Spirit of His which dwells in and enlivens every believer, unites all those far distant members both to each other and to their Head, and makes them up into one true mystical body so as now every true believer may, without presumption, but with all holy reverence and humble thankfulness, say to his God and Saviour, 'Behold, Lord, I am, how unworthy soever, one of the limbs of Thy body; and, therefore, have a right to all that Thou hast, to all that Thou doest Thine eyes see for me; Thine ears hear for me; Thy hand acts for me; Thy life, Thy grace, Thy happiness is

mine.'

"Oh, the wonder of the two blessed unions! In the personal union it pleased God to assume and unite our human nature to the Deity; in the spiritual and mystical it pleases God to unite the person of every believer to the Person of the Son of God. Our souls are too narrow to bless God enough for these incomprehensible mercies; mercies wherein He hath preferred us, be it spoken with all godly lowliness, to the blessed angels of heaven: For verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham' (Heb. ii, 16). Neither hath He made those glorious spirits members of His mystical body; but His saints, whom He hath, as it were, so incorporated that they are become His body, and He theirs, according to that of the divine apostle For as the body is one, and hath many

members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ' (1 Cor. xii, 12).”—Ibid.

"And this (conjugal) is a relation wherein the Lord Jesus is exceedingly delighted, and inviteth others to behold Him in this His glory, Cant. iii, 11, 'Go forth,' saith He, 'O ye daughters of Jerusalem, and behold King Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart.' He calls forth the daughters of Jerusalem (all sorts of professors) to consider Him in the condition of betrothing and espousing His Church unto Himself. Moreover, He tells them that they shall find on Him two things eminently upon this account-1. Honour. It is the day of His coronation, and His spouse is the crown wherewith He is crowned. For as Christ is a diadem and a crown of glory unto Zion (Isa. xxviii, 5), so Zion also is a diadem and a crown unto Him (Isa. lxii, 3). Christ makes this relation with His saints to be His glory and His honour. 2. Delight. The day of His espousals, of taking poor sinful souls into His bosom, is the day of gladness of His heart. John was but the friend of the Bridegroom, that stood and heard His voice, when He was taking His bride unto Himself; and he rejoiced greatly (John iii, 29); how much more, then, must be the joy and gladness of the Bridegroom Himself! even that which is expressed, Zeph. iii, 17, 'He rejoiceth with joy, he joys with singing.'

"It is the gladness of the heart of Christ, the joy of His soul, to take poor sinners into this relation with Himself. He rejoiceth in the thoughts of it from eternity (Prov. viii, 31); and always expresseth the greatest willingness to undergo the hard task required thereunto (Ps. xl, 7, 8; Heb. x, 7); yea, He was pained as a woman in travail, until He had accomplished it (Luke xii, 50). Because He loved His Church, He gave Himself for it (Ephes. v, 25), despising the