battles, whereas, had he said in a place in the Hebrew tongue Gilboa, then had he limited the allusion unto Saul's battle, who was indeed a destroyer of religion, but so other effects of this battle fought in this text had not been pointed at. Therefore that he might grasp in all those events, which those battles that were fought about Megiddon brought forth, he said the place was called Armageddon ; and it is a usual thing that battles on the hill are pursued to the valley, and in the valley to the hill, the hill and the valley lying near together. And indeed the same events will this battle bring forth, which fell out upon all the former battles at Megiddo. So then the sum is, that these spirits went forth to gather these Popish and heathen princes together, into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon, where the battle shall have the like success that it had of old unto the destruction of God's enemies, the utter ruin of Antichrist, as of Saul, the settling of the kingdom of Christ upon David, unto the conversion of the Jews, who shall upon this occasion mourn bitterly over Him whom they have pierced.”— (Pp. 130-132.)

The counsel contained in the following paragrah may be useful to us in these days:—

"It leads you by the hand in all the sad changes that pass over you, to look to the Lord, and to wrestle with the Lord, and not to stand wrestling with men Jacob he is in trouble, and he wrestles with the Lord (Gen. xxxii. 26). And so it behoves the Lord's people to wrestle with the Lord, and not to stand contesting with the Bishops, nor with the Jesuits, as it may be men may do. No, no, prevail with the Lord, and get him to turn all things about; and if Jacob get God to bless him, Esau shall not then curse him. 'I will not let thee go till thou bless me;' and if the Lord bless Jacob, Esau shall be cursed."—(P. 122.)

Ertracts.

The Voice from Heaven.

"It seems to me, however, that the speaker on earth is the same whose voice then shook the earth,' and therefore must be Christ, who gave the law from Sinai. The contrast is not between Moses and Christ, but between Christ on earth and Christ in heaven. Christ was now speaking to them from heaven in the gospel; and the apostle warns the Hebrews not to imagine that they could despise his speaking with impunity, because it was not accompanied with such awful sanctions as had attended the giving of the law. For this purpose he contrasts, not the giving of the law with the giving of the gospel, but, as it appears to me, the terrible accompaniments of the giving of the law with the retribution which shall follow the gospel dispensation, shewing that the latter shall be the more formidable of the two. conclusion is, 'Our God is a consuming fire.' The contrast is presented thus: Whose voice then (TOTE) shook the earth, but now '—he does not say, 'He hath shaken earth and heaven according to his promise,' which would have been the natural language to have used if the

His

shaking had been past, but

Now (vvv de) he hath promised, saying, "Yet once more I shake, not the earth only, but also heaven "'—language which surely implies that the event promised was still to come." -Wood's "Last Things."

New Jerusalem.

"There shall you see New Jerusalem, the heavenly metropolitan city, all garnished with glory, like a spousess prepared for her spouse, with glorious mansions, and pleasant tabernacles in it, prepared ready to receive you; even such tabernacles as Peter wished in the Mount Tabor to be made when he was rapt with glory, that he could not tell where he was, nor what he spake. (Luke ix.)

"Briefly, in that Mount Nebo ye shall see what eye never saw : paradise without any serpent to tempt you any more, riches without measure, glory without comparison, life without death, day without night, liberty without thraldom, solace without ceasing, joy without ending, a land flowing with milk and honey. And here, to make an end of speaking of those things which are endless, looking in this mount well about you, ye shall see with your spiritual eye, that which Daniel with his prophetical eye did see so long before-that the kingdom, the power, and magnitude of the kingdom, that is or shall be under heaven, shall be given to the people of the highest, which kingdom shall destroy all other kingdoms, and this kingdom shall be everlasting. (Dan. vii.)"-John Fox.

Day of Christ's Coming.

"The day of Christ's coming shall be the day of their full freedom and perfect redemption; wherein they shall be a garden without weeds, a tree without a barren branch, superfluous bough, or fading leaf. As Absolom in respect of bodily perfection was without blemish, from the crown of the head unto the sole of the foot, so shall God's servants, upon the coming of Christ, be free from all blemish, and glorious in soul and body, like the sun in the firmament. This is called the 'Day of their Redemption.' And as the captive desireth liberty, so they desire the coming of Christ, our blessed Redeemer. And therefore they say, Come, Lord Jesus,' that they may have the full possession of all joy and glory in heaven."-A. Grosse, Pastor of Bradford, 1647.

Christ and his Church.

“Adam in purity was the type of the Coming One, he was created in that image, as I have mentioned on Ps. viii.; his relation to and lordship over Eve, who also was taken out of him, 'bone of his bone,' &c., was before the fall; but this mystery of oneness is between

'Christ and the Church;' so we find, that the descent of the Bride, when made ready, is the last thing mentioned before It is done;' this is the day whereof I have spoken, saith Adonai-Jehovah; and, indeed, an incomplete bride would be so incongruous an idea, that a complex figure is used; the adding to the Church daily of such as shall be saved, is set out by the building of the New Jerusalem;' . . . SO also, with respect to the other figure, Christ's mystical body, the perfected man, shall be in the age of the fulness of Christ;' in that age,' says holy Bayne, wherein Christ mystically, that is, Christ the head, considered with the body, is complete; that just age which God hath prefixed.""-Duke of Manchester.

เ

"When the Lord shakes heaven and earth, churches and states, it is to make way for Him who is the desire of all nations. If Christ and the glory of his holy ordinances, and spiritual worship, be not more exalted; if the sons of Levi be not purified, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness; if the house of God be not purged of corruptions; if pomp and splendour be the things most passionately prosecuted, and the vitals and essentials of religion, the great things of the law, purity of doctrine, spiritualness of worship, power of godliness, but in the second place regarded; if we be zealous for mint and cummin, and phylacteries, and precepts of men, and have not a proportionable fervour of zeal for the great things of God, certainly God will yet reckon with us, and call us to an account for all the blood which hath been shed, for all the treasure which hath been exhausted, for all the judgments and mercies, for all the providences and wonders, which have been expended upon us."-Bishop Reynolds.

Correspondence.

[We continue the extracts from a friend's letters, which we began in a former Number.]

From some parts of Scripture, we might be disposed to conclude that the tongue was a mere indicator of what existed independently in the heartthe mere hand of a clock. But from other parts, we learn that a fearful power of reaction is centred in that member; that the lusting to speak is an appetite which needeth feeding and strong control, as truly as any other sensual or spiritual craving. What a power is in a word spoken, especially to the man who hath given it birth! It thenceforth exists for aye, assuming its place among the other elements which combine to mould his character;a creditor constantly reminding him that his promises, asseverations, prophecies, theories, or attestation-words are due; he is encompassed by a host of genii, each the creature of his words, monitors not to be put off. How many a man has first been seduced into partizanship by some speech he has uttered in a moment of excitement at some meeting!

"While in thy lips thy words thou confine dost,

Thou art their lord; once utter'd, they are thine."-(Reach, p. 62).

How many can trace the commencement of a career of hypocrisy or open sin to some rash promise! The mystic word Yes or No, has stamped the character of a whole life. "A fool's mouth is his destruction; and his lips are the snare of his soul," (Proverbs xviii.). Every scornful expression impairs the lines engraven by God on the heart. Every word spoken in season, clears away a portion of the rubbish obscuring those lines, and deepens their impression. The simple words, "Je le jure," uttered by an obscure man in Paris, originated a movement which shook Europe to its centre. (See Carlyle's French Revolution, vol. ii. p. 107).

I believe far more of our opinions may be traced to something we have said, than directly to what we have read or heard. Such a man has told that lying story so often, that he at last believed it himself. What an evil it is to speak lightly of war, of sin, or of misery, which is sin's offspring! It dries up the founts of pity, as careless scoffing at bad men in power dries up the founts of reverence. How great, then, is the importance of avoiding the company of evil men! What a mistake it is to say, "If the evil be there, let it out." Irving said to S- "I would not give these things perpetuity." "Death and life are in the power of the tongue."-27th August 1843.

If ever man could say, "God hath a controversy with me," it was Jacob, when, in the grim midnight, that dread apparition of the Almighty came down to grapple with him. Laban had scarcely departed, leaving him like "a prey taken from the mighty," when Esau's approach was announced, with four hundred men; 66 without were fightings, within were fears." God had thus "beset him behind and before;" but a harder trial than all that was nigh. It seemed now that God himself "fought against him, and was turned to be his enemy." Like the child fleeing from the hand of the physician to the arms of his father, only to receive the nauseous drug the more surely! Alas! Jacob no longer finds those arms swathing him in melting tenderness; but grasping him in agonising conflict. He looked on the right hand, and no man would know him. Rachel and his children away from him, unconscious of his peril and his anguish, buried in sleep. No longer, as in times past, does darkness bring rest and dewy slumbers; night brings no sleep to him, but vexing thoughts, prolonged and exhausting strugglings. . . And there are weary ones now to whom is appointed " months of vanity and wearisome nights," whose years God seemeth to consume away in emptiness. They think upon God, and are troubled. They look for him on the right hand and find him not; and when, like Jacob, they meet him at last, he cometh upon them as a moth, and their beauty consumeth away. And untouched brethren can see no signs of their having met with God. Oh, ye desolate ones ! Those whom God is fashioning for his coming kinghood, will come from the secret of his presence with the countenance marred more than the sons of men. One such night as Jacob spent, and our brethren will see the traces of it in unsteady walking truly. Ah, let all men beware how they vex such! They bear a charmed life. From henceforth let no man trouble them; for they bear in their body the marks of Jesus Christ. Such are God's hidden ones! He has chosen them in the fire; they are as the apple of his eye. They carry written on their brow, "Touch me not." The Lord hath looked on them, and they are black; therefore their mother's children are angry with them. Oh, my poor brother, in these thy dark Gethsemane hours, weltering though thou liest in the pit of Tophet -all former landmarks and beacons of safety, and Bethel pillars, mementos of past deliverances, swept clean away, or hid in darkness-be of good cheer! Thy back is to the east, and thou seest not thy Lord's eager gaze ever and

....

anon for thy sake, to see if the day breaketh, even while he contendeth with thee. When the foundations of the earth are destroyed, then the Lord entereth his temple for thy deliverance. Fear not his contestation; fear only his leaving thee in thy slumbers when Esau's troop is at hand. Though he slay thee, trust in him, knowing that the only way to the Rock is through the miry clay; that it is through the fires of Sinai alone that God's elect ones can attain to the waters of life; that the graves of Golgotha must precede the songs of Zion; and when thou findest all prurient growths of the flesh struggling for life in this their congenial element of darkness, when "beasts of the forest do creep," be of good cheer, for the day breaketh. Lift up thine eyes, and behold that poor, sleepless, Godforsaken cripple! Wearied with God's correction, one thing alone Satan could not get him to do-he would not let God go-he bore in patience the pressure of those arms which "pressed him sore." Oh, tempted believer! be not tempted to let Christ go. Though sore wearied, thy reward is worth waiting for. Hark! The bird of morning sings; and ere the sun had risen, that lonely man was anointed with the oil of God's own gladness-constituted first-born among his brethren. He was made head over a multitude of nations-God's crowned king! Yea, and ere that sun had set, he had received the seal of his kinghood-the mark of God's fatherly complacency,-not in the discomfiture of his brother's host, but in his brother's reconciled embrace.-15th February 1846.

It is impossible to overestimate the effect which must have been produced on the Protestant Churches by their centre and origin being the hatred of an evil - Rome's harlotry being the great originator of the movement. Contrast that with the placid spectacle ever before the Church till the Reformation, as the key-note of the dispensation: a meeting of loving men, indwelt by the Holy Ghost, and Jesus rejoicing over them. A Church founded on love of the good, not on abhorrence of the evil-fruitful subject for meditation! Placid beauty the groundwork of the one-the stye of corrupt Rome the background of the other. Alas, the Protestant Churches cannot say, "Heaven lies about us in our infancy."

Before the Reformation, forms of benevolent exertion were positive achievements of good; since then, chiefly resistance to evil; doing, not enduring; the ideal substituted for the palpable; Jesus' voice was 'not heard in the streets;" Paul's voice was to the world's end; the useful, the profitable, is all in all now.-May 1841.

"Bread-tax" in large letters on placards. The abolition corn-law men have got great part of their work done when they have found out the real name of the evil. How much is in a name? Two millions of people daily repeating the words, "Bread-tax," will do more to destroy the present corn monopoly than hundreds of tracts against "Corn-laws." Hezekiah broke in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses made (2 Kings xviii.) because he saw the people burning incense to it, and called it "Nehushtan," that is, “ a piece of brass."

Oh, that we could get the true name for premillennial and postmillennial advents! The name, "Emmanuel," has done more to alter the mass of society than nine-tenths of the sermons preached during eighteen centuries.— April 1841.

A man on a ship's deck in a storm, ridiculing the poor wretch floating past him on a hen-coop, is a true picture of that cold-blooded contempt with