fully avoid dwelling upon the excellences of the creature more than those of the Lord Jesus and his salvation-grace, and thereby minister to an appetite for hearing that which only moves the natural passions. This we know our brother did not do; yea, some thought he hardly said enough. But could our departed friend have been consulted, we doubt not but he would have said, "Let Jesus alone be exalted, and the grace that saved a sinner so unworthy be alone proclaimed." The Gospel, and not the amiable disposition of the creature or the charity of the Christian (though both are indeed commendable and to be desired), is best suited for pulpit ministration; and those who love the one most will at all times be anxious to proclaim it to their fellow dying men. And now our brother sleeps in the grave, and his ransomed spirit is with the Lord, and his ministry in " Zion," and his labours of love are finished. We pray the Lord to send another faithful and appoved labourer into the Gospel field at Chatteris. The sphere is wide-the prospects are encouraging-the friends are happily united and in peace. And from our hearts we pray that their unity and peace may not be disturbed, but that they may be led prayerfully and patiently to watch the hand of the Lord towards them, and with one heart seek to exemplify that blessed truth to others, while they enjoy the comfort of it in their midst, "How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" REVIEWS. neral Sermon for Charlotte Brooker. By B. "Remembering the Creator in Youth. A Fu Tatham." London: W. H. Collingridge. We had purposed ere this to have given some choice extracts from this vital testimony to the truth of an inward and saving faith in Christ; but, upon consideration, we feel it our privilege rather to advise the perusal of the whole, than to cull out the choicest portions. We have no acquaintance with the preacher, but from this sermon we should hope he is a great blessing to the churches at Five Ash Down and Eastbourne, in Sussex. "Is there no Salvation without Baptism?" London: Houlston and Stoneman. Our brother Joseph Flory, the pastor of the Baptist church at Somersham, has been requested to publish" THE DISCUSSION AT CAMBBIDGE between himself and a Mormonite elder. The defence by Joseph Flory is spirited, plain, and beyond contradiction. He has fought for Baptist principles, motives, and practices, very well. All classes of men, all creeds of professing Christians, must certainly scout with the utmost abhorrence the Mormon system; and they will, therefore, put this pamphlet into the hands of all who are ig norant and weak enough to be in danger of the delusion. It is not every man that could have faced such a foe as Harding, the Mormon; but Joseph Flory, like David, went in the name and strength of the Lord, and met Goliath like a MAN. careful and intelligent manner. And now, dear reader, we would ask, what are your prospects for another and an eternal world? Are you unconcerned about it, and think your chance for Heaven will be as good as those around you? Let me tell you you press Similitudes of our Lord and Saviour "An Exposition of the Parables, and Exhave personally sinned, and the safe or un- Jesus Christ, &c. By Benjamin Keach." safe state of others will be no relief to your London: W. H. Collingridge. Here is a spirit when death shall seize upon you, and production! Upwards of 900 royal octavo the frown of an offended God shall meet you; pages, full of sound, comprehensive gospel or is my reader one of long standing in a truth, thrown out in 147 sermons, all proprofession of doctrinal truth, and yet desti-perly divided, sub-divided, and arranged in a tute of those evidences which prove his saving interest in them? You will remember that regeneration is as much a doctrine of the Bible as redemption by the blood of Christ. Effectual calling, as well as predestinating favour; election to holiness here, as well as to everlasting life hereafter. The faith evidencing our oneness with Jesus is a receiving as well as a believing. The "love of God" is shed abroad in the heart, which is followed by a tenderness of conscience lest we sin against Him. We would affectionately direct you to inquire as before the Lord concerning this matter. Believer in the Lord Jesus, we shall soon follow after the hosts of ransomed ones, and with Christ as our captain, and truth our banner, we would not fear; why should we? We are very weak; but an Almighty arm is our present safety, and soon Heaven shall be our home, and redeeming love our endless song. Whittlesea, 1856. D. ASHBY. indefatigable student, an industrious penBenjamin Keach must have been a most stood in the old pulpit at Winslow, in Bucks, man, and a persevering preacher. We have from whence good Benjamin was dragged by the gospel-haters of his time, and thrust into the pillory. We stand now in the chapel, if not in the pulpit, where he spent his last days. We have often looked into his "Metaphors" and "Parables," and derived good therefrom; we feel great interest in all he did: we seem to know him, and are glad that "The Bonmahon Industrial Printing School' has produced so cheap and so perfect an edition as the one now before us. Our young men in the ministry will not hurt themselves if they give this volume a thorough reading. After that, it will serve them all the days of their life, as a useful book of reference; for it contains not only the studies of Benjamin Keach, but the fruits of many choice minds are collated and well worked in. We should like to criticise each parable separately in the EARTHEN VESSEL, but we cannot pledge ourselves to such a task at present. At many of our readers, because there is little "Sermons on the First Epistle of Peter. By H. F. Kohlbrugge, D.D., of Elberfeld, Germany, 2 vols." London: Partridge and Co. "German Neology" is a term which has been floating upon the surface of public converse now for some time, and from many things said and written, one might be led to feel that Germany had most awfully and uni-productive of much good. We watch the versally departed from "the faith once delivered unto the saints." And truly we can bear testimony that there has appeared but very little of genuine godliness, pure faith, or life-raising, Christ-exalting Gospel, in those parts for a great length of time; nor can we find that decided, discriminating, heaven-born preachers, are very numerous there. It is gratifying, however, to read from the preface to these volumes, written by "Octavius Winslow," that the Straussian and Myth theology are like bubbles, bursting and evaporating, never, we hope, to be seen any more, either in Germany or elsewhere. How awful are all those deadening and delusive systems, which, in our own land and on the Continent, are so rampant and so rife! The following description of the Hegel philosophy is too truly expository of much that passes for preaching and for pure religion in these days of ours: DAVID AND GOLIATH. WHEN David, with his sling and stone, He trusted in the Lord alone, Who made his promise good. In this great battie of the Lord's But God, who needed strength affords, Were wholly laid aside; O Lord, when trials great we meet, Eschenmayer," says Octavius Winslow, admirably sums up the negations of the Hegel philosophy, as a system which has a God without holiness, a Christ without love, a Holy Ghost without a sanctifying power, a Gospel without faith, a Fall without sin, a death without an oblation, a community without divine worship, grace without redemption, this world without the next, an immortality without individual existence, and a Christian religion without Christianity.' Blessed be God! this self-contradiction, even in Germany, is fast losing its power, and with it its disciples. A brighter and purer day of Christian truth, we rejoice to believe, is dawning upon the Continent, the pledge and harbinger of which we hail in the beautiful pages it is now our privilege to introduce to the English religious public. The exalted views of the Lord Jesus-the transparently clear exhibition of the way of salvation-the rich springs of consolation opened to the mourner-and the tender yet irresistible power with which are enforced the preceptive portions of the Epistle, contained in these To Mr. Isaac M'Carthy, of Madeley, Shrop volumes, must endear them to every enlightened and spiritual mind." A sketch of this German divine, and a review of his Sermons on Peter's Epistles, we hope to give next month. Humbly cry to David's Lord, THE IRISH MISSION. shire. DEAR BROTHER,-Knowing how arduously you have laboured among your own countrymen, endeavouring to expose and to convince them of the errors of Popery, will you kindly furnish the readers of the EARTHEN VESSEL with some of the most interesting results of your mission? I would first ask you, "How did you meet the arguments of the priests and others, who contend for prayers for and to the souls of the departed?' "Negative Theology: Analysis of the Letter of the Rev. Thomas Binney-An Exposure, gc. By John Campbell, D.D." London: W. H. Collingridge, City Press. There has been, for some time past, a great paper war beI have reason to believe you can materially tween certain conflicting parties; this pamphlet is one of a series, and a most awful pic-aid me in defending the pure principles of the ture it presents of that striving for the Protestant faith. I therefore hope your best mastery, so common among men of arbitrary efforts will be put forth through the medium and hasty spirits. Were we to notice this of this monthly journal. Truly yours, controversy at any length, we should afflict C. W. BANKS. THE GREAT QUESTION. HOW SHOULD WE PREACH? HOW SHOULD WE HEAR? THE following paper has been in our hands | the hearers of the Gospel," beyond all ques tion they are great indeed. The authority, the character, and the glorious results of a true and faithful Gospel ministry, are set out in Acts xxvi. 16-20; on which words we should be glad fully to expatiate, but neither time nor space will now serve. We cannot see from the Word of God, that the mere hearing of the Gospel leaves unregenerate men in a worse condition than before they heard it; except in those cases where men make an unholy use of the glorious doctrines of grace. But as we are merely clearing the way for something more complete, we hastily pass on to the last observation, and that is,- "the actual condition that men are in under the preaching of the Gospel." Our mind on the subject is this :— As Moses and Aaron were sent to fetch the Israelites out of Egypt-as Gideon was sent to deliver the children of Israel out of the hand of the Midianites,-even so the faithful Gospel minister is sent to call the predestinated sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty, and, instrumentally, to bring them back from the Fall, and from the ways of sin and death unto Christ, and into the truth and liberty of the Gospel. Read the sixth, the eighth, and tenth chapters of John's Gospel, for a true pattern of Christ-like preaching. Let us make one quotation, and then we leave "A Blast" to speak for himself. four months. It has caused us much deep Our Lord and Master certainly did make believing in Him," a test of his hearers' real and eternal state and condition. He said, “If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins." So every true servant of God must lift up the Lord Jesus Christ as Heaven's great Saviour, who only can, and who truly can, save the greatest of all sinners; and having done so, like his Master, he may, yea, he must, most faithfully declare, that "if they believe not that Christ is that glorious Messiah, they must die in their sins." But what "A Blast" does mean, when he asks, "Does not the Gospel require the obedience of faith of those who hear it?" we cannot fully comprehend. Our conviction of the great design of the Gospel is in strict accordance with that, illustrious word spoken by James (Acts xv. 14), when, quoting Peter's words, he said:"Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, TO TAKE OUT OF THEM A PEOPLE FOR HIS NAME." Wherever the GOSPEL of JESUS CHST is carried, it is God's messenger. By it, He says to the north, "Give up," and to the south, "Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from Here is one more sample of the Sathe ends of the earth; EVEN EVERY ONE viour's preaching: "Then said Jesus, When THAT IS CALLED BY MY NAME (Isaiah ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then xliii. 6). As regards "the solemn re-shall ye know that I am he, and that I do sponsibilities of both the preachers and nothing of myself; but as my Father hath VOL. XII.-No. 141. M . taught me, I speak these things; . Here we introduce the paper from our correspondent "A Blast," in which are some weighty matters, and others hard to be understood. But, as these questions are now so widely agitating the churches, we must give them fair play. To the Editor of the EARTHEN VESSEL. apostles are witnesses against him, as a de- Now, if my suspicions concerning the nature of my sins were strong before, though now they slumbered, how must these words have awakened them again with tenfold terrors! "Where is the man whom words like these, Though free before from all disease, Would not deject to death?" and These are words like none of your wizards and convincing. I fell before them in my that peep and that mutter, but are clear, full, apprehension as a condemned man: when I now reflect upon that time, it is a very great wonder to me, and a cause of great thankfulness how my gracious God, in the midst of all my despair, sustained me; the Holy Spirit did so mightily work in me to help my infirmities, that I was enabled to "Pour a prayer, that conquered pain, MY DEAR SIR,-In my last I promised to produce other evidence besides my own, to show the nature of those sins of which the Spirit of God convinces those persons who have had the privilege of hearing the Gospel; for however distinct may seem my own convictions, I might very justly have reason to doubt the truth of them, if others of the Lord's children, in similar circumstances, had not been convinced of the same sins, and arrived at the same conclusions. I remember well, when my wounds which I received under my first convictions were scarcely healed, but yet Christ Jesus was very precious to me, so that his love warmed my heart, his blood Removed despair, with all its heavy load, sprinkled my conscience, and the excellency Repelled the force of death's attack, of his person and salvation occupied my in- And brought the recanting prophet back." cessant meditations, I used to wonder if any About two or three years after this, W. of the Lords children had been judged like Huntington's "Justification of a Sinner, and me, and found guilty by the apostles-the Satan's Lawsuit with him," was put into my elders of the city of refuge-of unbelief and hand, but I was afraid to read it, lest I its evil fruits, as I had been. When good men should meet with some fearful passage again described a law work, they never touched my that would condemn me. Mr. Huntington was case, for, indeed, how could they? They one of those prophets that made me tremwere without the Gospel,-as ignorant as ble, and I was afraid to consult him, for he heathens, when the Word of the Lord first seemed never to prophecy good concerning came to them; whereas, I had known the me. However, I was induced to expose my Scriptures from a child, so that I could scarce-conscience and experience once more to his ly plead ignorance for anything I had done, or anything I had left undone. While I was cumbered with these thoughts, my good old friend, the late W. Milford, baptist minister (known in many parts of England, and was formerly of the school of S. E. Pierce), to whom I was greatly indebted for the use of good books, put W. Huntington's "Arminian Skeleton" into my hand, and I went home and read the following passage:-. "When the final judgment is set, all these books will be opened. The man who sins against his own conscience breaks through the law of nature, and by these acts of sin, exposes himself to the punishment of a neverdying worm. But when he comes to know the written law and sinneth against that, he breaketh through God's bounds, sinneth against the glorious dispensation of God, is convinced by the law as a transgressor of it, and exposes his soul to all its plagues and curses. But if after all this he hears the Gospel and believes not the word of life which Christ spake, the same shall judge him. The severe tests; and what was my surprise, when In the trial of Prodigalis, "both Law and Gospel were point blank against him;" he was accused of transgressing all the laws of As sure as a man has a carnal heart ruling in him, whatever he may think or believe, he is "offended in Jesus;" our proud natures may MAZZAROTH; OR, THE HEAVENS. (Continued from page 206.) submit to the letter of truth, but never to the TWELVE SIGNS IN THE BIBLICAL spirit of it, for "the carnal mind is enmity to God," and "hateth the light." Hence it is that there is a universal defection spoken of with respect unto Christ,-mark it well: it is said, "No man received his testimony;” “He came unto his own and his own received him not; "He hath concluded all in unbelief." Now this shows that there are no exceptions to this general defection; no letter-learned men, no mere natural believer in any doctrine, however sound, will escape the Judge's decision. "No man receiveth his testimony," &c. Such, then, is the fact that all men by nature stumble at the stumbling-stone; and whereever the Gospel is preached in the Spirit, this innate malice is brought out and manifested, which otherwise lies hidden in the heart. It is this offence at the cross that constitutes the sin of unbelief; positively, it is an opposition to Christ and his righteousness; and negatively, it is a want of hearty submission to Him. Hence it is said, "They have not submitted to his righteousness." This is, therefore, called "disobedience." Now, disobedience is the want of conformity to some law, for where there is no law there is neither obedience nor disobedience. That which convicts of disobedience is the same that exacts obedience. It cannot be sin not to receive a testimony unless it be a duty to receive it, because the same command that convicts of the one requires the other; hence the same word that justifies the believer condemns the unbeliever. "He that believeth shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned "-the only two classes recognised in this Word. The Jews on one occasion said, "Of a truth this is that prophet that should come into the world," and they fain would have made Him a king, and they followed Him across the sea in boats. Now here is natural faith acting upon its conviction; here is diligence and seeking Jesus for natural things-the utmost that natural men can do the very things that "Little One" says, if I understand him, are the limits of the responsibilities of natural men. But mark, did the Lord commend their obedience? No, He arraigned them as transgressors,-"Ye seek me because ye eat of the loaves and were filled." He taught them the more excellent way-to "labour for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life;" to "do the word of God;" to "believe on him whom he hath sent." This He spake to "the Jews"-"the people "-"the multitude," not to disciples. (Let "Little One" read, and convince himself.) If such was our Lord's judgment then, such will it be in the last day. And if He held up the spirituality of the Word as a glass by which they might see themselves, so ought we. To do otherwise is to darken counsel and rob God,--to deceive souls, and to leave them to perish at ease and in security without the trumpet's warning. "A BLAST." THE tribe of Levi, as typical of Christ in his ministers, is the subject for reflection. I have considered their earthly position, and their external appearance, as among "the poor of this world," and although I have travelled some hundreds of miles since I wrote my last piece, and have conversed with many of the Lord's servants, I have neither seen nor heard anything calculated to remove the impression that the great majority of ministers are men very deeply tried, ofttimes sorely persecuted, and frequently driven to their wits' end, to know how to provide things honest in the sight of all men. falls to my lot to witness much; and many suggestions I could offer, whereby, in every sense, I believe, the minds, the bodies, and the earthly estates of our brethren, might be bettered; but I must at once turn to my bible, and from thence gather a little material for further meditation. It The spiritual and ministerial privileges of Levi-and the very precious and most peculiar mercies bestowed upon the true and the faithful servants of the most high God-are now the chords which I shall try to touch, if I can get my harp down from the willow for a little while. These privileges and mercies are certainly couched in that prophetic blessing Moses pronounced upon Levi, and which is recorded in Deut. xxxiii. 8-11: "Let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy Holy One," said "the man of God," when "he blessed the children of Israel before his death." Whole volumes have been filled with attempted expositions of the Thummim and the Urim; but I cheerfully subscribe to the sentiment of Rabbi Kimchi, when, of these deep things, he said, "he is on the safest side who frankly confesses his ignorance." No man can feel his ignorance much more than I do at times, when brought to look at some of the amazing mysteries contained in God's holy Word, neither can any one be much more favoured than I feel myself to be, when "an unction from the Holy One" resteth on my spirit, and when I am inwardly persuaded that I have "the mind of Christ." Strict obedience to the Tirshatha would I render, when (Ezra ii. 63) he said, |