Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

But art thou fall'n so far from God,
That now thou feel'st his chast'ning rod?
And dost thou to return desire,

But fear to meet his vengeful ire?

Fear not, for "blessed are the meek,"
"A bruised reed he will not break."

Church of the triune God, rejoice,
Church of Jehovah's sov'reign choice;
Fix'd on the Rock of endless love,
Which sin, nor death, nor hell can move;
'Tis written, promis'd, seal'd, decreed,
"He shall not break the bruised reed."

J. S. HARVEY.

ZEPHANIAH iii. 17.

"The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he willjoy over thee with singing.”

GREAT is our God, the sov❜reign

Lord,

Who fills eternity!

And occupies unbounded space!
From whom no soul can flee.
At his command all beings rose,

By him supported stand;
No arrow flies, or sparrow falls,
Unguided by his hand.

But He's a God of covenant love,
To all his chosen race;

THY God in Christ, with thee he dwells,

The God of special grace.
His presence is in Zion's midst,

The whole he watches o'er;
Supplies their each returning want,
And guards them by his pow'r.
As from a fountain, all around
Partake the cooling stream;
So living waters gently flow
To every part from him.
Away with doubts and fears, away,
Rejoice ye trembling saints;
Though sin's the cause, in God is
found,

No ground for such complaints. Might and dominion all are his,

He reigns without controul; Then let it never once be thought, He'll lose a heav'n-born soul. How mighty his redeeming love And sanctifying grace; Dies for his church, and meetens her In heav'n to see his face. How mighty in his thund'ring voice, When he from Sinai speaks; And mighty too, the still small sound, The rebel heart that breaks.

How powerfully he calls them near, Whom he has made his own;

And mightily enables them,

To rest on Christ alone.

The Spirit's mighty pow'r is seen,
And felt by ev'ry saint;
The work begun he carries on,
Nor suffers one to faint.
He'll save them from temptation's
pow'r,

Though tempted they may be; And unbelief, that stubborn thing, Shall soon before him flee.

And though surrounded by the world, And its alluring toys ;

These vanish all, and lose their charms,

Before superior joys.

Well pleas'd, a triune God looks down,

Upon his favored fold;

The Father sees them as his own,

Chosen in Christ of old.

The Son can view them with delight,
The purchas'd by his blood;
The Spirit sees his work begun,

In meetening for God.

Thus satisfaction reigns throughout,
The sacred ONE in THREE;
The church belov'd, and God well
pleas'd,

His righteous ones to see.
His love to them can never change,
In it he'll ever rest;

No thought of alteration lies

Conceal'd within his breast. For ever then his church shall dwell With him in realms of bliss; They shall rejoice that God is theirs, And he shall own them his.

EBED.

THE

Spiritual Magazine;

OR,

SAINTS' TREASURY.

"There are Three that bear record in heaven; the FATHER, the WORD, and the HOLY GHOST: and these Three are One."

"

'Earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints."

1 John v. 7. Jude 3.

DECEMBER, 1829.

(For the Spiritual Magazine.)

ON THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD.

*Thy way is in the sea, thy paths in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known." Psalm lxxvii. 19.

THE study of providence has often afforded entertainment to the serious christian, when enabled to take a view of the different aspects of it. There are almost an infinite variety, both pleasant and painful. Numberless are the pleasing circumstances that occur in the pilgrim's journey; many happy connexions he has been led to form with christians like-minded with himself. He often sees the holy hand of his God in preventing and delivering mercy; and when he gives scope to his thoughts, and takes a wide walk through the world, he wonders at the variety. He meets with an eminent minister of the everlasting gospel, and many precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, but ground down to the dust under persecution, in poverty, and daily bread can scarcely obtain. Others, blest with abundance of all good, and know no want-wisdom's ways are pleasant, and her paths are peace. Some always under the rod of affliction, in their souls, circumstances, or families; others richly blessed with close walking with God, their basket and their store blessed, and children growing up like olive plants in the house of God. One saint shall be continually under a cloud of anticipated displeasure; another enjoying uninterruptedly the cheering light of the Lord's countenance. One minister shall be abundantly successful in turning sinners from darkness to light, and VOL. VI.-No. 68.

2 B

many by his labours are continually added to the Lord; another shall labour long in the same delightful work, but the net seems not cast on the right side of the ship; the living waters of the sanctuary seem stagnated, the voice of the turtle is not heard in the land, and scarce a few to be found who are asking the way to Zion with their faces thitherward.—But “even so Father, for so it seemeth good in thy sight." God will call the fool, and leave the worldly-wise to perish; a despised outcast in the family, congregation, or parish, shall be enrolled with all the worthies of free grace in the register of heaven, when the darling child shall be omitted; the most useful man in the congregation left, and the person who has long been a pest to the parish shall be made a monument of mercy.

We may go over the globe, and meet with many choice parts of the earth, where a gracious God has scattered his bounties with a large and liberal hand, but himself not known-his Son, a Saviour, has never there been sent; the voice of mercy never heard; the lamp of revelation has never been lighted; no herald from heaven has ever been sent there to exhibit Jesus, and point out to the degraded people the way to glory and to God; and all the abundant produce of the earth given to oppressors, tyrants, and children of wrath, who love and live in all licentiousness.

But let us look at some few of those providences that may be deemed distressing. Could we travel through our native land, and visit every ward in every hospital, we should meet with many that Jesus loves, whose names are engraved upon his breast, and who will fill a place in his presence in glory everlasting; but are now on a rack of pain-a raging fever-a galloping consumption-a broken limb -a deranged intellect-a breathless corpse! Have had no christian brother or sister to visit or relieve them-almost unknown in life and in death; but they have had their secret supports, their cordial cups, their ministering spirits, and their dear Redeemer, who has taken their blood-bought souls, and will their bodies, to his blest embraces, therein to dwell for ever.

We will leave the hospital and visit the workhouse; and here providence preaches aloud. We here may meet with the once affluent, the respectable, the aged, the cripple, the unfortunate, the idiot, and the dying, and the poor orphan; and here we often meet with the contented christian, whose sun of better days has set, and his future destiny fixed. With the wicked he must live, with the abandoned associate, with the diseased sleep, with the ungrateful take his scanty meal, and among the wicked die. But he is sent into this situation by the command of him who loves and who died to redeem him; and will explain in that day fast drawing nigh this and all other mysteries of providence.

Let us pass on to the prison, and providences dreadfully distressing present themselves. The humble pilgrim would conceal himself in a corner from the gaze of visitors, filled with shame at his situation, once so respected, now degraded; once enjoying the privileges of the house

of his God with his dear but now ruined family, but now cut off and deprived; having been a dupe to the artful, and lent his name to a friend, falsely so called; his reflections distress and distract him; his family degraded and brought down to poverty-the church he stood connected with-the minister he sat under-the dear friends he associated with—and the depraved characters that now surround him, sink his soul. Such a combination of circumstances so painful, that are frequently to be met with, should lead us often to bow before the Lord in deep humiliation and gratitude, that we are not in situations equually distressing.

We might call at the poor man's cottage, and see the scanty meal, the half-clothed children, the worn-out furniture, the care-worn countenance, the untilled garden, the almost empty cupboard, the languid fire, and the long unpaid bill marked down behind the door, and all brought on through unforeseen affliction; and yet here are to be found the favourites of that friend who loveth at all times, but whose good things are to be reserved for a better world; here they are to have tribulation, like Lazarus, while it is said of the rich man, "remember thou in thy life-time received thy good things, and Lazarus evil things." Luke xvi. 25.

But let us now look at the child of God in some of those deep soul agonies that is a part of his portion. He fondly thought that he was to be like Joseph, to wear his coat of many colours always, and all the sheaves to bow down to him ;—well, he shall be like Joseph, he shall have the smiles of his father many long days; but then he must be separated; he shall have cruel and false things laid to his charge, and be banished far away. So the real christian fares; he must be chastened out of the law; the terrors of God will make him afraid; and when he hears the voice of God, sinner, thou shalt die,' then indeed he will be afraid. When the unholy sins of his nature are discovered, a dreadful disease that no medicine can cure, stains and pollutions that he can see no remedy for, sins and transgressions that he does not know how they are to be pardoned; a dreadful debt contracted, that he knows must be paid, but he cannot tell how; viewing God as a fierce enemy, and quite ignorant of the way of reconciliation; sees wrath coming, but sees no hiding-place from the storm!this is distressing! And we may see in Job's case how mysterious and yet how blessedly it all issued-his "latter end was better than his beginning." So it is with the adopted children of God; when the time appointed in ancient love and counsel that the prison doors shall be thrown open, their fast-bound fetters all fall off, the day spring from on high visits them, and the open eye of faith views the vast and wide ocean of grace bottomless, and all the countless crimes of the many millions of saints taken up by the everlasting arms of the everlasting God, and thrown into this ancient river and there drowned; the sight and sense of this realized to the soul by the Holy Spirit will eject all distress, and help the saint to see that his God and Leader is

leading him by a right way; that it is best for him to eat the bitter herbs with the paschal Lamb, to have a crook in his lot, with all his fellow travellers on the road; and frequently he finds his trials and temptations produce the same effects within him as the weights of a clock, which keep the machine in motion.

And it often has been observed, (and it must be marked down among the mysteries of providence) that the ministers of Christ are more savoury and successful when in the furnace of affliction, and the children of God more humble and spiritual when tried and tempted. It becomes us then to say, the will of the Lord be done. And this may serve as a key to unlock the secret contained in one of the almost last sayings of our Lord, "In the world you shall have tribulation ;" but in Jesus peace. And many of the spiritual psalms of David were wrote when he was hunted like a partridge upon the mountains; and how amazingly the soul of Paul was unbound when his body was bound within the walls of the prison at Rome. Nor should we omit to mention the three children in the Chaldean captivity, and how the power of God was put forth in their preservation-a most marvellous providence here presents itself! the pride and fury of the Babylonian monarch-the unusual fire kindled to consume these conscientious men-and the simple, humble, but yet firm faith in their delivering but faithful God, are all subjects calculated to excite wonder; but the most of all we are led to wonder at, is the coming down of God to stand by his servants, to enter the flaming furnace, to walk about in the fire with them, to separate the heat from the light, to untie their bonds, to make the flame consume those who committed these captive children to the flame, and to make this pagan prince confess the power and providence of Almighty God.

But let us look at the closing scenes of life, in connexion with those who are marshalled among the strangers and pilgrims upon earth. And here human hopes are often dashed; we look at one who has long laboured in his Lord's vineyard, whose whole soul has been often engaged in the delightful work of raising the honours high of him he loved, for loving him; many are landed in heaven's harbour, and when they left the shores of earth, pointed to that good man as the instrument under God, who turned their feet into wisdom's ways; and under him they have often been instructed, refreshed, and blessed. Many more are marching on in heaven's highway to see their Father God, who have formed a part of this under-shepherd's flock-he dies; but it is evening, it is night with his soul, no weighty words fall from his lips at the last-nothing dropped to cheer his children in the faith who survive him. That mind that has so often been expanded in the sacred service of Jehovah, is now a complete wreck; that tongue that once sweetly told of things touching the King, has talked too incoherently to be repeated; and his best friends have been constrained to manifest their best regards by their absence. But here a providence teaches that all the followers of the Lamb are to look at the Master, not at the servant—at the upper Shepherd, and not the under-at

« AnteriorContinuar »