If Jesus had not been overwhelmed in sorrows, poor sinners would not have been overwhelmed with joys. None in hell ever knew the saving power of the Gospel. None in heaven, but those purged from the "old leaven." None truly pray on earth, but those who have experienced the new birth. None truly repent but those for whom Jesus was sent. None by nature are able rightly to come to the Lord's table. A true believer can kiss the rod, when is felt communion with God. The child of God feels a divine power when the Holy Spirit rains on his soul a gracious shower. No shower, no power. Some put more dependence in man, who knows only some things, than they do in Him, who knows all things. An awful character is he who is a great chatterer and flatterer. Only the God of power can keep a man on the watch-tower. Only the Lord's arm can gather into the heavenly farm. Only the God of heaven can purge out "the old leaven." Only the God of grace can enable a sinner to run the Gospel race. Only the God of wisdom can keep a man from spiritual whoredom. Only the God of peace can give a mañ true ease. Only the God of light can fit a sinner to walk with Him in white. Only the God of salvation can deliver from a deserved damnation. This is what He alone can do. Election to everlasting salvation prevents being punished "with an everlasting destruction." Human inventions cannot set aside Divine intentions. What a mercy! What men invent cannot prevent His intent. Those will endure to whom the promises are sure. Those will go to heaven whose sins are forgiven. Those will have a glorious resurrection from the dead, who have a grace union with Jesus, their Head. F. F. -Tetbury. WORDS FOR THE WEARY. "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain thee."--PSALM lv. 22. SURELY such words as these, spoken home to the heart, shall silence every murmur, lighten every care, relieve every anxiety, and inspire with renewed energy the way-worn pilgrim to press on in his wilderness conflict. It is not to be a discharged burden, but a friend-sustained one; hence the weight shall become a joy, the toil a delight, the weariness a sweet solace, and the conflict a victory. Thy burden! God-sustained one! What is it that thus causes thee weariness? Is it personal or relative care pressing down the spirit, causing the cry to arise, "Oh, that it were with me as in days that are past, when the candle of the Lord shone round about me"? Is there no sensible appreciation of "Casting all your care upon Him who careth for you"? Is there so much of the lonely walking amidst the world's dazzling? Has the rust come upon thy "weapon of all prayer"? Say, has not the absorbing claims of life's journey, under one or other of its numerous pressing urgencies, gathered all the time and attention to itself or themselves, until the heart becomes weighted and pressed down under a sense of weariness and burden, so that the cry or sigh necessitates, as it were, this gracious word of encouragement, "Cast thy burden upon the Lord." Well, poor weary one, it is the Lord Himself that bids thee cast, or roll, thy burden upon Himself. "He will not suffer thee to be tempted above that thou art able to bear." He does not call thee as a strong one to carry it to Him, but to cast, or roll, it upon Him. The turning over, as it were, in thy downcast condition, is that which He asks, and which thou, as a sinner sustained by Divine power, can do, assured, as the promise so fully confirming the precept does, that not only the burden, but thou thyself, shalt be sustained. Think not peevishly that thy burden-care-trial-is to be taken away; not necessarily so. Thou shalt be sustained. The care is cast upon the Lord. The strength equal to the day is afforded. The "present help " of "the Friend who loveth at all times" is accorded, and thou art a living witness to the Lord's covenant-love-power-faithfulness. To the awakened sinner Jesus, in these words, promises salvation. To the tried and exercised believer Jesus here speaks words of loving encouragement. To the weary one here is solace and sweet companionship, which is, as the Emmaus disciples described, a season of burning of heart. So, when this Word comes home with the power and unction of the Holy Ghost, it is truly Christ with you-"Christ in you the hope of glory, -the earnest of that Sabbatic rest when we shall be satisfied, and shall awake up with His likeness. ""Tis enough that He should care: Why should'st thou the burden bear?" "Cast" thy Courage, then; the word of Jehovah-Jesus cannot fail. gift-thy care-"thy burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain thee." A PHILLIPPIAN. THE HEART OF GOD TOWARDS HIS PEOPLE. "And the children of Israel said unto the Lord, We have sinned: do Thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto Thee; deliver us only, we pray Thee, this day. And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the Lord: and His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.”—JUDGES X. 15, 16. In this chapter we have one of those often-rehearsed instances of Israel's sinning and repenting, forsaking the Lord to serve other gods, and, in the day of their calamity, returning back again to Him from whom they so grievously revolted. The Lord had over and over again appeared on their behalf to deliver them from the hand of their enemies, which they could not, and, indeed, were not, permitted wholly to drive out of the promised land. When the several tribes of Israel came into possession of their territory, which they had to fight hard for, it is repeatedly recorded in the 1st chapter of Judges that the inhabitants of the land dwelt among them, "for they did not drive them out". "the Canaanites would dwell in that land." In some cases the Israelites so far prevailed that the Canaanites became tributaries to them. Here we have a type of the spiritual Israel of God now; the Canaanite or old nature does and will dwell in the heart, and cannot be driven out; it remains as a thorn in the side until "the hand of the house of Joseph prevails" (Judges i. 35); then it becomes tributary or kept in subjection, for it is only as Jesus, our spiritual Joseph, fights for us that we gain the mastery over our inward corruptions, and come off victorious over the old inhabitants of the land. The evil consequences of the Israelites "mingling with the heathen” was, that "they learned their works:" "6 "They forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger. And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth. And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and He delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and He sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies. Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had said, and as the Lord had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed. Nevertheless the Lord raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them. And yet they would not hearken unto their judges" (Judges ii. 12-17). Still the Lord continued to appear on their behalf, in raising up men who fought their battles and overcame their enemies, until after the death of Jair, spoken of in Judges 10th, when they once more fell into the grievous sin of idolatry, "and served Baalim and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook the Lord, and served not Him. And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel; and He sold them into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the children of Ammon" (v. 6, 7). This was a sad epoch in their troublous and eventful history; it seemed as if they had tried the patience of God to the very utmost, and that now He would perform all His judgments, and fulfil all His threatenings. For eighteen years their enemies were permitted to vex and oppress them, "so that Israel was sore distressed." What could they do in this extremity? "They cried unto the Lord, saying, We have sinned against thee, both because we have forsaken our God, and also served Baalim." But the Lord did not immediately deliver them. No, He condescended first to reason with them, and to show, from past loving-kindness, how greatly was their present departure from Him aggravated. "Did not I deliver you from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines? The Zidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, did oppress you; and ye cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand. Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods: wherefore I will deliver you no more. Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation." Awful words!"I will deliver you no more." But let not any one suppose that the Lord changed His mind in the sequel after uttering this terrible threat. No, our God is unchangeable, and His purposes unalterable; for, when He is said to repent of anything He intended to do, it is only to meet our finite understanding, since what He has once purposed He never alters, as He has declared, "My purposes shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." In His word there are conditional promises and unconditional. The conditional ones usually refer to temporal matters, and are dependent for fulfilment upon the commands or precepts by which they are accompanied being kept; for instance, if the children of Israel obeyed the Lord, and did not worship strange gods, He would deliver them out of the hand of their enemies, bring them into the good land, bless their basket and their store, &c.; but the unconditional promises are those relating to everlasting salvation, and are in nowise dependent upon anything the creature can do: they are firm and sure as the throne of God, being all fulfilled in and by Christ Himself, and made over to His blood-bought family. But, to return to the subject, After this terrible answer to their cry, the children of Israel, not yet daunted," said unto the Lord, We have sinned; do Thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto Thee: deliver us only, we pray Thee, this day." This was carrying out the injunction our Lord gave in His day, that "men ought always to pray, and not to faint;" but they not only prayed, "they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the Lord!" Then comes the pith of the whole subject: "And His soul was grieved for the miseries of Israel." One almost feels as if here one ought to stop; for who can tell the thousandth part of the heart of God towards His people? for truly, as the poet says : "His heart is full of tenderness, His bowels melt with love.' He could not resist their repeated cry, though apparently trying their faith to the very uttermost before vouchsafing an answer. They had to cry and cry again, "The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." In due time deliverance came to Israel by means of Jephthah, a most unworthy instrument as it would appear to human ken, the son of a harlot, the companion of vain men (see chap. xi.), showing that God often. chooses "base things of the world to confound the mighty, and foolish things to confound the wise, that no flesh should glory in His presence." And thus, as the delivered Israel in ancient times, again and again does He deliver His spiritual Israel now; and it may be truly said of the latter as of the former, "In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His presence saved them; in His love, and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bare them and carried them all the days of old." But, alas! how often do we vex and grieve His Holy Spirit, so that He seems to be turned against us; and, in very deed, the hearts of the people of God are as much given to idolatry now as were the Israelites of old. We serve other gods, and bow down to them, even idols of our own creation, which cannot deliver us in the day of trouble; so that if the heart of God was not towards us for good, we should sink in our misery when evil comes upon us, as a just chastisement for all our sins. "His soul was grieved! Oh, what does not this comprehend? "Grieved for the misery of Israel!" What depths of sympathy must have stirred God's heart when He saw us lost and ruined by the fall, so that He sent His well-beloved Son, to become a "Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief," to redeem us from our misery; "yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him, He hath put Him to grief;" and now can we not say, Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;" yea, His heart is ever towards us still. In all our wanderings and forgetfulness of Him He never fails nor forsakes us. Take comfort, then, dear fellow-pilgrims "The clouds ye so much dread, Are big with mercies, and shall break D It is but "for a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord, that hath mercy on thee." May the Lord bless this instructive history to some souls, for A LITTLE ONE Christ's sake! POPULAR AND UNPOPULAR FAITH. THE popular faith seems to be that few go to hell-many go to heaven, as if the words were to be read, "Staight is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto death, and few there be that find it (Matt. vii. 14); as if it was written, "Wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to salvation, and many there be which go in thereat." But, reader, look at the words, and read them for yourself. The unpopular faith is, that many go the way that leadeth to destruction, and that but few find the narrow way which leadeth unto life. So it is clear that those who hold the unpopular faith have on their side the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ; while those who are deluded by the popular faith are blinded by "the God of this world." The popular faith is, that man is not so totally ruined by the fall as to be incapable of doing something towards his own salvation. The unpopular faith is, that man by nature is "dead in trespasses and sins" (Eph. ii. 1); that his "heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jer. xvii. 9); that the carnal mind is enmity against God" (Rom. viii. 7); that his "tongue is a world of iniquity, full of deadly poison" (James iii. 6-8); that he hates God (Rom. i. 30); and that while in the flesh he cannot please God (Rom. viii. 8). An aged person once said to the writer, "We must do a little in between." Ah, this is the popular faith-this "doing a little in between." According to the conduct of some, they would have us believe that a good deal must be done "in between." The Lord have mercy, if it be His holy will, on these poor deluded souls who are for ever trying to "do something in between." When the glorious High Priest offered Himself a sacrifice for the sins of His people; when single-handed He fought and overcame death and the devil; when He uttered the precious words, "It is finished;" when He rose triumphant from the grave, and ascended up on high, leading captivity captive: what did He leave for any poor sinners to do "i between"? My unpopular faith says with a trumpet voice, "Nothing." Oh, if anything had been left for us to have done "in between," we must have been undone for ever. Reader, have you the unpopular faith that there is nothing required to be done by man in between"? Where is there any room for this "in between " doing of the creature? Is it in election? No. Is it in redemption? No. Is it in justification? No. Is it in regeneration? No. Is it in any part of salvation? No. This doing "in between" work is an abomination to God; yet how highly esteemed among men ! 66 'in The popular faith is, that God loves all alike, and that He has given all a chance to be saved. The unpopular faith is, that He does not love all alike, for He says Himself, "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated" (Rom. ix. 13), and that in the matter of a sinner's salvation here is no such thing as chance, he being chosen to it (2 Thess. ii. 13), and appointed by the Lord to obtain it (1 Thess. v. 9). The popular faith is, |