This hope is begotten with faith, is a fruit of the same grace, and produced by the same word; they are twins of the same womb, and go up together from the washing of regeneration. Faith conflicts in hope, and hope confides in faith; thus in mutual fellowship, through doubts and fears, darkness and distress, waiting the coming of Jesus Christ, they outlive all opposition, until each are dissolved, in the glorious appearing of the Son of God. CHARITY. The new-born principle of life is love to God. It is the holy seed; the new creation; the new creature, begotten of God by the Spirit's testimony of Jesus Christ in the word of the gospel. It is God's image, for "God is love;" and as love is the fulfilling of the law, it is "the righteousness of God" in the soul, and cannot sin. God, in the riches of His grace and mercy by Jesus Christ, is the source and cause of its affections towards God, and so it delights in God's holy law. The knowledge of God in Christ is its life and true understanding, and, like a tree planted in a rich and vigorous soil, its growth is in the knowledge of God's boundless grace, and its increase stands in the increasingly precious manifestations of the grace of God, and knowledge of the adorable Redeemer. Love triumphs through the excellency of her faith in Him in whom she trusts, and on whose arm she rests. And, finally, shouts, "victory, through the blood of the Lamb"-the word of her testimony. WILLIAM GIBBS. To the Editor of "THE POT OF MANNA." SIR, I AM exceedingly sorry to find, from a notice in the last number of " THE POT OF MANNA," that there are doubts about the prospect of its continuance, from want of funds to carry it on; and I regret this fact the more, because I believe it to be a little work especially suited as an instrument in the hands of God the Spirit, of doing much good service in the promotion of an increased spirituality of mind in the Lord's household. Nearly all the so-called religious publications of the day, particularly those which are best known, are of a purely sectarian character, and in seeking to promote the interests of their peculiar feelings and principles, I believe the spiritual interests of Jehovah's kingdom are in a very great degree lost sight of. One says, "I am Paul," and another, "I of Apollos"; but who says "I am of Christ ?" Truly darkness is filling the land, and difficult it is in the increasing gloom to distinguish who are the Lord's people, and who are not; so close is the resemblance in the present day between the real christian and the outwardly moral character; and this, through the breaking down, or the entire removal of the ancient land marks. In this day of darkness, the pursuits of the christian, and the manner of his carrying out his lawful calling, and even the reasons he would give for carrying on his lawful trade, are the same as those of the worldling. He can be as happy in the company of the worldly-minded as in that of the spiritual-minded; and he is found as often in the one as the other. Surely these things ought not to be. Little may we expect in such a state of things to find those marks of the christian character which ought to be seen in all those who have put on Christ; and we can hardly afford to lose one faithful witness in these perilous times, to the truth "as it is in Jesus." My own belief is, that if there were more dependence on the Holy Spirit, and less on one another-more looking to the Lord Jesus, and less to the mere instruments which He is pleased to make use of, there would be a more increasing conformity to His mind and spirit, and a decreasing conformity to the mind and spirit of the world; more fellowship with the sufferings of Christ, and a greater and more abiding knowledge of the power of His resurrection. "Great Exhibitions" would lose much of their charms, and "Papal Aggressions" much of their terrors, as far as christians were concerned. "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light." (1. Peter ii. 9.) Here we have God's own mind in forming a people for Himself, and the reason given why they should be such: if they are to be a peculiar people, we are told it is, that they may shew forth the praises of Him who hath brought them out of nature's darkness-out of Satan's bondage into His marvellous light. One may well inquire in the present day, "what the peculiarity of God's people consists in?" for surely it does not consist in their separation from the world. Well may we be hearing on all hands of the " hidings of God's countenance," withdrawals of the Spirit, and questionings of the grace wherein we stand, when the Lord's own words are so little regarded. If it were otherwise, I believe there would be more frequent cause, and more heart too, for rejoicing in the Lord-for the garment of praise, instead of the spirit of heaviness. But well may the Holy Spirit withdraw, when He is so dishonored. I earnestly pray for the Lord's especial blessing on your work and labour of love, and do most earnestly hope you will not be discouraged because of the difficulties of the way. I trust the modest appeal you have made to the Lord's people will not be suffered to fall to the ground; but that it will be responded to with that earnestness which it deserves. Yours, In the fellowship of the Gospel, June 3, 1851. THE SACRED SCRIBE. GRACE, mercy, and peace be to you: though not acquainted, yet, at the desire of a Christian, I make bold to write a line or two unto you by way of counsel, (howbeit I be most unfit for that.) I hear, and bless the Father of lights for it, that ye have a spirit set to seek God, and that the posture of your heart is to look heavenward, which is a work and cast of the Mediator Christ's right hand, who putteth on the heart a new frame, for the which I would have your ladyship to see a tie and bond of obedience laid upon you, that all may be done, not so much from obligation of law, as from the tie of free love; that the law of ransom-paying by Christ may be the chief ground of all your obedience, seeing that ye are not under the law, but under grace. Withal, know that unbelief is a spiritual sin, and so not seen by nature's light; and that all conscience saith is not scripture: suppose your heart bear witness against you, for sins done long ago; yet, because many have pardon with God, that have not peace with themselves, ye are to stand and fall by Christ's esteem and verdict of you, and not by that which your heart saith. Suppose it may by accident be a good sign, to be jealous of your heavenly husband's love, yet it is a sinful sign, as there be some happy sins, (if I may speak so) not of themselves, but because they are neighbourhood with faith and love. And so, worthy lady, I would have you hold by this, that the ancient love of an old husband standeth firm and sure; and let faith hang by this small thread, that He loved you before He laid the corner stone of the world; and therefore He cannot change his mind, because he is God, and rests in his love. Neither is sin in you a good reason, wherefore ye should doubt of Him, or think, because sin hath put you in the courtesy and reverence of justice, that therefore He is wrath with you; neither is it presumption in you to lay the burden of your salvation upon One mighty to save; so being, ye lay aside all confidence in yourself, your worth and righteousness. True faith is humble, and seeth no way to escape but only in Christ; and I believe ye have put an esteem, an high price upon Christ; and they cannot but believe, and so be saved, who love Christ, and to whom he is precious, for the love of Christ hath chosen Christ as a lover; and it were not like God, if ye should choose him as your liking, and he not choose you again; nay, he hath prevented you in that, for ye have not chosen him, but he hath chosen you. Oh, consider his loveliness and beauty, and that there is nothing which can commend and make fair, heaven or earth, or the creature, that is not in him-in infinite perfection; "for fair sun and fair moon are black, and think shame to shine before his fairness." (Isa. xxiv. 23.) Base heavens and excellent Jesus; weak angels, and strong and mighty Jesus; foolish angel-wisdom, and only wise Jesus; short-living creature, and long-living, and ever-living Ancient of days; miserable and sickly, and wretched are those things that are within time's circle, and only, only blessed Jesus! if ye can wind in His love, (and He giveth you leave to love Him, and allurements also) what a second heaven's paradise, a young heaven's glory is it to be hot and burned with fevers of love-sickness for Him! and the more your ladyship drinks of this love, there is the more room, and the greater delight and desire for this love. Be homely, and hunger for a feast and fill of His love, for that is the borders and march of heaven; nothing hath a nearer resemblance to the colour and hue and lustre of heaven than Christ loved, and to breathe out love-words, and love-sighs for Him. Remember what He is; when twenty thousand millions of heaven's lovers have worn their hearts threadbare of love, all is nothing, yea, less than nothing, to His matchless worth and excellency Oh, so broad, and so deep as the sea of His desirable loveliness is! glorified spirits, triumphing angels, the crowned and exalted lovers of heaven, stand without His loveliness, and cannot put a circle on it. Oh, if sin and time were from betwixt us and that royal and King's love, that high Majesty, eternity's Bloom, and Flower of high lustered beauty, might shine upon pieces of created spirits, and might bedew and overflow us, who are portions of endless misery, and lumps of redeemed sin! Alas! what do I? I but spill and lose words in speaking highly of Him who I will bide and be above the music and songs of heaven, and never be enough praised by us all; to whose boundless and bottomless love I recommend your ladyship, and am, your ladyship's in Christ Jesus, SAMUEL RUTHERFORD. : St. Andrews, March 27th, 1640. To the Lady Fingask. THE CHOICE CHRISTIAN MRS. ANNE BRINE. (Concluded from page 61.) THEN those words were very pleasant to me: "I taught Ephraim to go, leading them by the hand; but they knew not that I healed them. I drew them with the cords of a man, with bands of love. I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and laid meat unto them." Then was I helped to see that though I had not been so strongly beset with temptations as some are, yet that was not an indication, that the work of grace was not right, in and upon me; for the Lord can work in what way He pleases. And surely, I have great cause of thankfulness, on this very account, that I was not left to the buffetings of Satan, nor to be so long under that sad horror and bondage of conscience, as some be, and though I had not such great revelations of Christ, nor such ravishing joy and comfort as some have; yet, I had such views of Him as a suitable and sufficient Saviour, that I would not part with my hopes of an interest in Him for the world; and also had received such joy and comfort from Him, as did far surpass all the comfort that can flow from the best, and greatest enjoyments of this world's things yea, for one moment's communion with God is far preferable to all the riches, honors, and pleasures of this world; for it yields more satisfaction and peace than can be met with in the highest station of worldly grandeur. : Thus was I helped to meditate on these things, and to stand and admire, that I should be so highly favored, as to have any discovery of pardoning grace, any manifestation of redeeming love. It had been a great mercy, if the Lord had fixed His love upon me, and had not made it known to me: but oh! it is matchless and unparalleled grace indeed, that He should send His spirit to reveal this His altogether unmerited and inconceivable love to my soul! I can never enough admire this great, this inexpressible love. Neither am I able. (Something is here wanting, by injury her writing hath suffered, through one means or other.) Then was the language of my heart, "oh! that I might never commit one sin more!" How can I bear to think of offending so kind, so loving a God? What! sin against such love and mercy, that hath been discovered to sinful unworthy me! How can I bear it! Wretch that I am, are there yet the remainders of sin in me! I hate it, I loath it. Oh! that I might be wholly and entirely freed therefrom! This, I say, was the constant language of my heart for some time. I was unwilling, as I have said before, to leave my lodging-room, so much as to eat a little victuals, for fear of having my thoughts diverted from things that are heavenly and divine. And when I was in company, I was restless till I got by myself again. One time, I well remember, having been in company, when I got to my chamber again, I was thinking over something that had passed, till, on a sudden, those words came with such power, 66 my son, give me thy heart;" I answered, Lord, do thou take it, thou alone art worthy(here also some injury hath happened to her lines.) I admired, that the eternally-glorious God should stoop so low, as to desire a place in the hearts of such poor, nothingcreatures, as we are, who is glorified and adored above, by the blessed angels, and hath no need of the adoration and services of such poor dust and ashes as we are. Oh, wonderful and matchless grace! I had that afternoon such views of the glories of heaven, of the bliss and happiness that the angels and glorified saints are possessed of, that made me even long to be dissolved, to be with Christ, which is far better. Some little time after this, one sabbathday, as I was going to the meeting, this thought darted into my mind, that I was all this while but deceiving myself, and building my hopes on a sandy foundation, and not on Christ, who is the only way of salvation. This thought made me tremble, and I was in sad distress till those words came in: "deliver him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom, ," which a little supported me, though I could not tell whether there was a scripture or not; but when I came home, I looked into a concordance, and found it. In the afternoon, when I was in the meeting, my fear seized me again, that all I had met with was only a delusion; that Satan was endeavouring to deceive me, and so took this method, which he thought was the likeliest, to keep me quiet, persuading me, that I was in a safe state; when, alas! it was no such thing. I thought he could transform himself into an angel of light, and can bring scriptures to those that he brought to trust in and depend on something short of Christ. This I fully thought was my case for about half an hour; then those words were brought to my mind: "God is not a man, that He should lie, nor the son of man, that he should repent." (Here the narrative she gives is left unfinished). We shall present the reader with some farther account of her experience, and of the carrying on of the good work upon her soul, out of some of her letters, which she wrote to relations, friends, and acquaintance. I shall begin this account with some lines taken out of a letter to her mother, whom she much honoured, and tenderly loved. She writes thus: DEAR MOTHER, I am very glad to hear of your being in such a comfortable frame, whilst under your late affliction. The presence of God is very comfortable and delightful at all times, but in a special manner in a time of affliction; it makes affliction seem very light and easy: through grace I know something of it. I also know something how dismal and distressing it is to be on a sick bed; and, to my own apprehension, to be near the time of dissolution, and to be wholly deprived of His comforting presence, to have not one glimpse of love, no sealing evidence of an interest in His favour, but quite on the contrary, writing the most bitter things against myself; lying for some time under the dreadful apprehensions of approaching wrath and endless misery. This is a very sad case; but, as I before hinted, this is not always, nor, indeed, not often mine; but it has been the pleasure of my dear Lord, most times, when attended with bodily illness, to favour me with visits of love, to give me repeated discoveries of my interest in Him, and to let me see that it is in very faithfulness that He afflicts, that it is for my real good and advantage, though I at present may not discern how or which way; for what He doth, we know not now, but we shall know hereafter. I have been filled with admiration and astonishment that my afflictions are not the rebukes of an angry God, but His fatherly chastisements for my profit, that they come not in vindictive wrath, but are as the rod in the hand of a loving and tenderhearted Father. That He will lay no more upon me than He will enable me to bear. That they are part of my portion; yea, that they are really part of the blessing designed for me in the eternal covenant. That they are mine, in the sense the apostle speaks of, when he enumerates the many benefits that are the saints' property: "whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are your's, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." But I must conclude for want of time, &c. To a friend she writes thus: Yours I received, in which are contained intimations of the love and kindness of the Lord Jesus taking hold of your soul, and making you a partaker of the grace of life, in the views of which you are led into the admiration of His excellency, and the wonders of His grace. That the savour and power of those soul-refreshing truths are, in some measure, experienced by you. Oh, that lovely One! how sweet are the least glimpses of His peculiar favor, when He is pleased to give some special discoveries of it, in our attending upon Him. But what will it be, when we shall enter into the joy of our Lord, and be made to swim in that vast unfathomable ocean of eternal love and glory? In the meantime, it must be testified that the blessed Jesus deserves the highest seat and entertainment in our hearts. Where should He he set, but in the midst of our dearest and most ardent love, to command all in us to a most willing obedience, and to the utter abolishing of all our idols, that He alone may be exalted? It is His own power and spirit that only can maintain His noble cause, or effectually plead for His royal prerogative in our souls. But, oh! what need have we to be begging of God, that there may be a reviving time, after such a long winter-season, for if these withering, backsliding days be not shortened, how will His honour be vindicated? It is matter of great concern to me, at times, to see the decays there are amongst the professors, in this our age, as well as to feel the declinings in my soul. And I am sometimes ready to say, what will become of God's great name? But this may be our strong consolation, that there is no limiting of His power, nor searching of His understanding. He knows how to restore in a moment the desolation of many generations. He can, if He pleases, revive His children, and make them to rejoice in Him, and cause them to flourish in the courts of their God. The Lord help us to live by faith, and to rejoice in the hope of His glory, knowing that none ever trusted in Him, and were confounded. In another of her letters she thus speaks : I am willing to embrace an opportunity of writing to you, by which you may understand that I have you still in remembrance; and am, as helped, in my prayers to the Lord making request for you, that you may be filled with all joy and peace in believing, even "joy unspeakable and full of glory;" and that you may be led more fully into the knowledge of divine truths, as they are in Jesus. It is not a bare notion of things in the head, but a real experimental knowledge of Christ, and Him crucified that will stand us in stead. The great apostle accounted all things but loss and dung, in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, rejecting all confidence in his own righteousness, and resting wholly and only on Christ and His righteousness for justification and acceptance with God. Indeed, it is in the Lord Jesus only that we have righteousness and strength. And this is such a righteousness, as can answer all the demands of justice, and all the requirements of the law of God, and all the guilt of conscience, yea, and all the accusations of Satan, and render a person spotless and |