No. 273. SEPTEMBER. (PUBLISHED MONTHLY. ONE HALFPENNY. THE GOSPEL TRUMPET Published by the Trustees of the late PETER DRUMMOND, at the Tract Depot, Stirling, N.B. "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.' S was convicted of murder, and sentenced to death. The crime had been deliberately planned, the circumstances were aggravating, and the proof was clear. The jury returned their verdict unanimously, and the judge, in pronouncing sentence, warned the prisoner that he had no ground what [Eight Copies sent Monthly (post free) for One Year for 48.] The ever for expecting mercy. criminal was then led to a stone cell, and chained to an iron bar in the floor, there to pass the numbered days between the sentence and the appointed time for its execution. In spite of all that had passed, the infatuated man built himself up in the expectation of pardon. Sleep [New Series, No. 9.] 66 "Thou art a God ready to pardon" (NEHEMIAH IX. 17). ing and waking, he continued to occupy his time dreaming of the pity that his case would move in the heart of the Queen, and of the merciful message that she would send to him. From wishing it he slid into believing it, like an article of faith. The truth is, he could not endure to think that he was on the very brink of eternity, and therefore he hoped wildly against reason and evidence, that he would escape. 66 prisoner whom we have described. If you have already closed with the 1 offer made in the gospel, you have gotten the pardon into your hand, and heart. You partly taste the sweetness of the gift, and rejoice in the goodness of the Giver. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." "He that hath the Son hath life." Your sins are blotted out; and Christ's righteousness is yours, and you will stand in it accepted in the great day. But if you have not closed with the offer made in the gospel-if you have been living without God and without Christ in the world, still you are not He became more eager as the time drew near. In the long, dreary, sleepless nights, if the wind rattled on the roof, or a watchman's footfall were heard ringing on the stone pavement along the gloomy corridor of the prison, he started with a beat-yet in the condition of the infatuated ing heart,-Is this the messenger bringing me a reprieve? When all was silent again, he listened at the key-hole of the iron door, until his ear seemed ready to crack with the straining. Oh! it was eager, deep, long-sustained listening; but the pardon which the criminal so fondly expected never came, and the death which he refused to believe in, approached as steadily as the laws of nature, and overtook him at the appointed hour. Reader, in respect of your guilt and God's judgment-seat, you are not in the position of the wretched 1 prisoner who desired and hoped and perished. You are in the same condition as to the sentence passed on you, and that a sentence of death eternal; but you are in a different condition, in respect that a pardon is ready, is offered, is pressed upon you. You are in the state of one condemned already, but to whom a free pardon is offered from the King eternal. The Son of God has come to your prison with a pardon in His hand. He stands at the door and knocks: but up to this moment you have permitted Him to stand and knock in vain. His tender complain "Quicken me in Thy righteousness" (PSALM CXIX. 40). stands recorded against you-" Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life." Look at the difference between yourself and that poor prisoner. He longed and listened with his whole soul for a pardon, but no offer of pardon ever reached him to you the offer of pardon has come, but you have turned a deaf ear to the message, and allowed the Divine compassionate Messenger to knock and plead in vain. Think of this, dear friend, and pray over it before the thought drop from your mind. Turn aside, and fall upon your knees, and confess your sin in the name of the Saviour, and close with Him now. He is willing. He will receive you at once, and God will forgive you, although you have treated Him so ill. Speak to Him, and pour out your heart to Him. Fall into His bosom as the prodigal did, and He will rejoice over you as a lost sheep found. sheep found. He will take you now into His loving heart, and for ever into His happy home. But, reader, although you are not now like the prisoner of our story, there is one event in which your case ! may be fearfully like his, and like it for ever,—that is, if you remain careless and Christless till death overtake you, and carry you away to the judgment-seat in your sins. While you 67 are here, God's terms are, "Seek, and ye shall find;" but when you have passed into eternity unforgiven, you will never hear those words again. Although the lost should listen for mercy with all the energy of their being, their listening will not bring mercy when the day of mercy is done. Oh! my brother, you have permitted the din of this world to drown God's still small voice in your heart; make Fear not to silence now for Him. listen fully, for the word is love; it offers a free pardon to you: "Hear, and your soul shall live!" A Sabbath Morning Hymn. WE rest, for the "Lord's holy day" is commencing, We bring Thee our hearts, full of praise for Thy good ness, In crowning last week with Thy love; With joy we unite in one happy thanksgiving, O Father, accept, through our gracious Redeemer, And Father, forgive, for the sake of our Saviour, And oh may the one upon which we have entered We ask, too, O Lord, that when life shall be over CHARLOTTE MURRAY, 68 "The Lord blessed the Sabbath day" (EXODUS xx. 11). The Stepping-Stones. In some of our northern streams, which are broad and swift, but yet comparatively shallow, stepping-stones may be seen, which are used to cross from one side of the river to the other. Between these stones the water sweeps in an ever flowing stream, eddying and whirling round as it passes on. Each stone forms, as it were, a little restingplace, where the traveller is untouched by the stream, and each is in succession stepped upon by him as he passes on to the shore. And so to us, as we pass across the stream of busy, every-day life which goes whirling around us, full of perplexities and confusion, each Sabbath is a little resting-place, where the stream of life's work cannot reach our feet as we pass on to the shore of the promised land (Heb. iv. 1 and 9). It is a blessed thing to think of the Sabbath day as a day of rest-rest with God from the toils of life-pointing our thoughts onwards to the time when we shall reach the final resting-place (Rev. xiv. 13), and be at home with God (John xiv. 2; 1 John iii. 2). Those who honour the Sabbath day are blessed by God (Isaiah lviii. 13, 14), and those who do not are like those who seek to cross the stream without the steppingstones,—they are in great danger of being swept away. As a stepping-stone is a type of the shore, so the Sabbath day is a type of Heaven—and if this be so, each Sabbath should remind us of Heaven, and our Sabbath worship prepare us for the worship of the life to come (Rev. xxii. 5). Oh! may each Sabbath henceforth be for us more and more filled with God's presence (John xx. 19)—a day given up to God-a day in which to meditate on His love-a day for taking our sins to Him for pardon (Luke xv. 21; xviii. 13)—and for praising Him for all His mercies (Psalm ciii. 1, 4). Many think it a day for worldly recreation, but there are two reasons for keeping it holy:-(1) God's command (Exodus xx. 8-11; xxxi. 13-17; Lev. xix. 3; Deut. v. 12-14), which no man has a right to set aside. (2) It is a type of Heaven, where Christ dwells (Heb. iv. 14; Rev. xxi. 22, 23), and therefore the less the world and the more shall we be enabled, even whilst on earth, to have a foretaste (faint though it be) of those unspeakable joys which God has prepared for those that love Him, through Christ Jesus our Lord (1 Cor. ii. 9). the more Christ enters into our Sabbath, -Rev. T. B. B. Ferris. The Best Robe. "I will clothe thee with change of raiment." SINCE God pronounces our righteousnesses —observe, not our wickednesses, but our devotions, our charities, our costliest sacrifices-to be "filthy rags," trust not to them. What man in his senses would think of going to court in rags? Nor think that the righteousness of the Cross was wrought to patch up these-to make up, as some say, for what is defective and wanting in our own merits. Nor fancy, like some who would have a Saviour and yet keep their sins, that you may wear the rags beneath the righteousness. Put them away, not as a dress which a man lays aside to be afterwards resumed, but cast them away like a beggar, who, having got a better attire, flings his rags into the nearest ditch, and leaves them there. "Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer Thee?" (JOB XL. 4). 69 THE EDINBURGH FORTUNE-TELLER. "You are one o' the impudentest fellows I ever I met with," said an old woman to Mr. Paterson one morning, abruptly seizing him by the arm as he was going down the Canongate. "Such a night as you had last night. You made me out to be the greatest sinner in the Canongate." "My friend, I don't know you," he replied; "I don't remember ever seeing you before." "Never saw me before! Last night you never kept your eye off me a moment. I would have thocht nothing o't, had you come and told me by mysel'; but to do it before a' yon folk -'twas too bad." "Where is your house?" said the missionary, "and I'll go and see you;" for by this time a crowd had gathered on the pavement. "Come awa', then," was her immediate reply. And taking him up to the top flat of a neighbouring "land," land," she ushered him into a dirty hovel full of smoke. "This," said she to her husband, who was sitting by the fire, "this is the man that gave me such a redding-up last night." 66 What! you never took your eyes off me all the time you were speaking; so you just meant me." "But tell me what struck you most?" 'You said that I was a liar, and that I would be cast into hell." "Well, then, are you a liar?" Yes, I am. Oh!" she said, with a tone of deepening feeling, "I've been living a bad, bad life; I've for many years been a fortune-teller, and I may say I've made my bread by telling fortunes, and that's just telling lies, you know." "Well, then, let me tell you, it wasn't my words that I spoke to you; it was God's words, and He knows your every thought, and every word you speak." He read to her Revelations xxi. 8, and xxii. 11, 12, 15. "Now, it is the Lord Jesus," he added, "who says all this, and not I." "You are right," replied the woman, in a tone more and more subdued; "I am no less a sinner than you said I was; but what is to become of me?" "There's nothing for you but to go to "But is what I said true ?" asked Mr. Jesus." Paterson, mildly. "But will He take such a wretch as me? "True! it was all true; and I'm sure all O! I am a great sinner; and O Jamie," she you said was meant for me. "How do you think that? I never named you; as I said before, I didn't so much as know you." added, turning to her husband in evident concern, "you're no better than me! I doubt we'll both be cast down to hell!" "It really doesn't look well," said the |