POETRY. THE HAPPINESS OF SAINTS. Psalm xxxiii. 12; lxv. 4; lxxxix. 15; cxliv. 15. How happy the children of God, Though frequently tossed about; Though often they here feel his rod, The praises of God they will shout. They feel they 're corrected in love, They know they deserve all their pain ; Yet still they his faithfulness prove, Who for them on Calv'ry was slain. Their happiness deep will be found As rivers whose bounds can't be seen, So fully their comforts abound, For Jesus still keeps them serene. Though all earthly comforts they lose, Exhausted their pleasures can't be; Though worldlings may them oft abuse, In all things" they happiness see. Their happiness is full of pow'r, It drives all their sorrows away; As peaceful as is the pale moon, As day-light is hidden from view. 'T is glorious as heaven, for Christ And all that springs thence must be drest It soars to the regions of peace; 'T is there they for ever must dwell, With Christ who their joys will increase. How blessed the prospect to have When called to leave this vain world, That Christ their Redeemer will save, And ever they'll be with their Lord. This happiness surely is mine! Until all thy beauties I know. Oh fit me for that blessed change, When I all my troubles shall leave; That I in the heavens may range, No more the blest Spirit to grieve. When there I arrive in thy peace, My soul shall o'erflow with pure joy; There pleasures shall ever increase, Nor sin any more cause alloy. Oh, blessed for ever be God, Who constantly rests in his love; Though thorny below is my road, I daily his faithfulness prove. In him I for ever will trust, I know he will keep to the end; My happiness there will increase; For ever his goodness shall prove. There I shall the Father e'er praise, Who gave me in love to the Son; And there I'll adore Jesus' grace, Which made me for ever his own: There to the blest Spirit will I Give praise for the work he has done; And to the blest Three in One, cry Hallelujah to God round the throne. Deptford, Keut. J. HARDING. LETTER TO A FRIEND. YOUR letter though short I was glad to re ceive, As it gave out a tone that I love ;A dissatisfaction with pleasures below, And a relish for those from above. How welcome to me is communion with those Whom Jesus has claimed as his own, Where traits of a character born from above, In humble demeanour are shown. "T is not the big words, or the pompous parade Of those who are anxious for show, You say amidst all your discouraging scenes, He 'll find them wherever they go. Yea, thanks to his name, my soul can rejoice, And glory in this as a truth; For once I was lost, but free grace found me out, Amid the vain pleasures of youth. And brought me, a rebel. to yield to his power, And own all the deeds I had done Were worthy of death, and nothing could You must as a soldier of Jesus, expect To encounter with all that oppose. Believe me, you often, not only abroad, But in all and through all the conflicts of time, No failure shall ever take place: In christian affection my wife with me joins; "" D. A. MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR THEE. 2 Cor. xii. 9. COME all ye weary, tempted souls, The powers of darkness may beset, Though unbelief does oft suggest Yet doubts are few, when God declares "Sufficient is my grace." Professors who, lukewarm and cold, God's all-sufficient grace. Backsliding souls, whose ways of sin Oft prove a sad disgrace, Till then you could join the responses of May be restored, since God hath said, those, From whom now in heart you dissent; You cannot (though nature's best feelings may urge) Find truth where you once found content. Go, seek it elsewhere, and the Lord give you strength To brave every storm you may meet; And when through oppression your spirits may faint, Go ask for supplies at his feet. Sufficient is my grace." Sinners, whose ways declare that they THE SPIRITUAL MAGAZINE, AND ZION'S CASKET. "For there are Three that bear record in heaven, the FATHER, the WORD, and the HOLY GHOST: and these Three are One."-1 John v. 7. "Earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.-Jude 3. "Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience."-1 Tim. iii. 6. NOVEMBER, 1842. AND A DARK AND DREADFUL PROS- "The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance; but the name of the wicked shall rot." TRAVELLERS to heaven shall never be beyond the reach of troubles and conflicts, till they are removed beyond the limits of this world, and introduced into the celestial kingdom of light and peace. Here there are storms more tempestuous than those which rage around the rocky shores of our sea-girt isle. Here there are plagues more desolating than those which have filled populous cities with dead bodies. Here there are lions and leopards more ferocious than those which endanger the life of the traveller who is directing his course through tractless forests. By the power and grace of the Holy Spirit we are enabled" to glorify God with our bodies and our spirits which are his,”—and even to honour him in the face of the greatest difficulties and dangers. How sweetly David sung of the manner in which he was enabled to glorify God in defiance of every danger, by the power of his November, 1842.] God: "By thee have I run through a troop, and by my God have I leaped over a wall; it is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect: he maketh my feet like the hind's feet, and setteth me on my high places." When the Spirit draws, it is easy running in the ways of God, and to do and suffer for him (2 Cor. vi. 9, 10). What oil is to the chariot wheels; what wings are to the bird; what wind and sails are to the ship; what rain is to the parched ground: so is the agency of the Spirit to believers in running the christian race. When it it is suspended their hands hang down, their knees are feeble, and their hearts faint. It is the Spirit only that leads beside the still waters-the waters of salvation; to Calvary, to behold his mercy; to the cross, to behold his wonders; to the throne of grace, to receive every thing we need; to the shores of heaven with our robes washed white in the blood of the Lamb, with the conqueror's badge glittering at our breast, and adorned with the unspotted garments of salvation. our path is overspread, the gospel Amidst all the gloom with which can afford, by the blessing of the I I : Spirit, the most consolatory views in affliction, and yield to the soul the greatest support amid the heaviest distresses. He can assuage the most vehement grief, pacify the disturbed conscience, lighten the heaviest burden, dispel the darkest cloud, and subdue the mightiest foe. As God's ancient people were led about in a wilderness, and chosen in a furnace; so it is now this present evil world is a wilderness, and vale of tears to all the sons of God. In this tabernacle they groan being burdened; they are sometimes troubled on every side; they have afflictions without and fears within; wearisome days and tedious nights are appointed unto them; they find by experience, that tribulation is still the way to the kingdom of God; that they must suffer with Christ before they are glorified together. The saints of God have sometimes rashly construed their sufferings, and the prosperity of the wicked, into a sort of evidence either that they were not saints, or that there was no advantage in godliness; but the fact is, that the greatest saints may have the greatest sufferings, and that true godliness is the greatest gain. The patriarch Jacob mistook the intention of his afflictions when he said, "All these things are against me." The beloved of the Lord must not now think it strange if they have to pass through fiery trials. One whom Jesus loveth, as he did Lazarus, may sicken and die. In the members of his mystical body Christ is yet an hurered, and needs meat; thirsty and wants drink; is naked and needs clothing; is sick and in prison, and needs visiting. What from an evil world, an evil heart, and this old serpent, it is no wonder that a feeble saint is sometimes in great heaviness. But still through grace he may be of good cheer, for his sufferings shall not endure for ever; no, the days of his mourning shall be ended. Not one of all his sorrows come by chance, none of them spring from the ground. He who worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will, and is infinite in wisdom, love, and power, orders every cross as well as every comfort; without him a sparrow cannot fall on the ground, nor can the greatest fire of adversity singe a hair on the heads of his servants. In our prosperity we cleave to the creature, dote upon the things and persons in this present world, as if our happiness and comfort were bound up in them: but in the day of adversity God convinceth us of our mistakes, by causing us to see the emptiness and vanity of all sublunary things: we begin to find the world to be but gilded emptiness, a mere nothing. The afflicted soul saith of all creature-excellency, "It is not," Prov. xxiii. 5.-Not that which it seems; not that which it promiseth; not that which we expect and flatter ourselves with. And besides, the soul finds by experience the unsuitableness and dissatisfaction that is in all these things; that there is no proportion between a spiritual being and an earthly portion; that the wind which a man takes in by gaping will as soon fill a hungry belly, as creature-comforts will satisfy the spirit. A little that a righteous man hath, is better than the riches of many wicked." "For the Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off," Psalm xxxvii. 16-28. O believer remember afflictions are but God's pruning knives to make us bleed, and purge us that we might bring forth more fruit," John xv. 2. Like as we see flowers smell sweetest after a shower; or, as the burning bush that burned, yet consumed not, but was the brighter for the fire or as gold put into the fire, looseth its drops, but nothing of its substance, and is made the purer gold; or as grapes under the press make the sweeter wine; or as wheat under the flail hath its chaff beaten off and is 2 20 the purer corn: so are afflictions to all that are in Christ, and know experimentally that Christ is theirs they make them through his grace like roses, which though sweet, yet they never drop sweet water, but when the fire is under them; or as spices when beaten to powder, then they smell the sweetest. A box of ointment is most fragrant when broken and poured forth. May we be content not only when God giveth, but also when he taketh away; when we receive good from the hand of God, but also when we receive evil; when we abound with blessings, but when with crosses: when we enjoy all, and when stript of all. As the sheep is as patient when she is shorn, as when her fleece groweth upon her back. This lesson though hard Paul through grace had learned it, Phil. iv. 11, 12. If we have but little of the temporal comforts of this dying world, we have the blessing that maketh us "" rich in faith, an heir of God, and a joint heir with Jesus Christ." Is that beast better that hath four or five fields to graze on, than a little bee that feeds on dew or manna, and lives upon what falls every morning from the storehouses of heaven, clouds, and providence? Can a man quench his thirst better out of a river than a full pitcher or drink better from a fountain which is finely paved with marble, than when it swells over the green turf? The greatest evils in this world are from within us; we must look for our greatest good in God; for God is the fountain of it, and when all things look sadly round about us, then only we shall find, how precious it is to have God for our friend; and of all friendships, that only is to support us in our needs. God is able to keep us from shipwreck, though we be not kept from storm. Remember believer, God in the covenant of grace hath chosen thee in the furnace of affliction; and all the promises of the gospel are passed upon us through Christ's cross. It may be thou art entered into the cloud which will bring a gentle shower to refresh thee in thy sorrows Our graces are but in the seed when the grace of God is planted in us first; but this grace must be thrown into broken furrows, and must feel the cold and the heat, and be softened with storms and showers, and then it will arise into fruitfulness and harvests. In the weakest faith there is some apprehension of a promise, though darkly, and there is some relying upon Christ, though he discerns it not, and though he feels nothing in him but desires, yet he resolves he will hang upon Christ, and die at the horns of the altar. Faith is wrapt up in his heart as the leaf and blossom is wrapt up in the bud, and faith lives and moves in him, as the child lives in the womb and he knows it not. For though spiritual desires are not faith, yet they are signs of hidden faith. The weakest faith is ever joined with a broken heart, mourning under sin as its greatest burden; he will make conscience of all his ways and be afraid to sin against God. We are apt to think all is well as long as the sun shines, and the fair breath of heaven gently wafts us to our own purposes. But if you will try the excellency, and see the work of faith with power place, the person in the waters of deep tribulation : let him ride in a storm; let his bones be broken with sorrow; and his eyelids loosened with sickness; let his bread be dipped in tears, and all the daughters of music be brought low; let God give him Job's experience Job vi. 4. For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me. I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder he hath also taken me by the neck and shaken me to picces, and set me up : |