The Church and the Truth

I TIMOTHY iii. 15.

THE Apostle in the course of two Epistles gives a great variety of counsels to Timothy, his own “son in the faith,” and a young minister of Jesus Christ. In the verse noted above, he states the object for which these counsels were given, as follows: “that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” Timothy was, no doubt, a man who felt his constant need of divine direction in his work as an ambassador of Christ, and the apostle was evidently inspired of God to supply him with many necessary and important instructions, the record of which is preserved for the benefit of ministers of the gospel and others in subsequent times. We do not intend to enlarge on this subject in the present article, but, perhaps, we should point out one feature of the character of a Christian minister which the apostle strongly desires Timothy to exemplify, that of a good soldier of Jesus Christ. He impresses upon him that he has entered upon a life of trial and conflict, that it is his duty to wage a holy warfare against sin and error, and that while he would require to be “gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,” he was also under obligation to “reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long suffering and doctrine.” A popular idea of the present day is that the Christian minister should avoid all controversy and reproof in the pulpit, and should only preach sweet and comfortable words that will not offend the flesh of any. But this idea is born of the flesh and not of the Spirit, and is entirely out of harmony with the example and precept of Christ and His prophets and apostles. Its observance in practice cannot be attended with a blessing. It is vain to think that the truth, if faithfully declared, can be made sweet to the natural man; rather the important

circumstance should be constantly remembered, though it may be sometimes difficult to grasp, that it is by the application of the very truth which the sinner naturally hates that he is to be saved for eternity, if saved at all.

We now proceed to the special subject we have in hand, and intend to notice, first, that there is a “house of God” in the world, secondly, the apostle’s definition of the character of this house—it is “the church of the living God”—and then, thirdly, one great end or purpose for which the house or the Church of God exists, namely, to be “the pillar and ground of the truth.”

I. The first point to be noted, and that briefly, is that God has a “house” in the world.

It may be thought strange at first sight that the infinite God should be said to dwell in a house, a figure that suggests limitation and confinement. Is He not boundless and unsearchable in His being and perfections, one whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, one who inhabiteth eternity? True is this; in His essential being, He is omnipresent, and dwells in all parts of His universe at all times; within created limits He is not and cannot be confined. Thus He exclaims to those who had low and narrow views of His infinite majesty, “Where is the house that ye build unto me, and where is the place of my rest?” But while all this is true, yea gloriously true, there is also a very important sense in which it is possible for God to make His presence felt and known more clearly and impressively to His creatures in some places and under some circumstances than others; and it is this He has been pleased to do in the riches of His sovereign grace to the fallen children of men. In the fulness of the time God condescended to come and dwell in the tabernacle of a weak, though sinless, humanity, in the person of His Son Jesus Christ, Immanuel, God with us, God in our nature. It is also a blessed reality that He dwells by His Holy Spirit in that institution here designated by Paul “the house of God,” and destined and fitted to show forth His everlasting praise.

The first idea suggested by the word “house” is an outward material building, and under the Old Dispensation, God was pleased to associate the manifestation of His gracious presence in a special degree with the observance of a variety of rites and services in a “house made with hands.” By His instructions, a magnificent temple was erected at Jerusalem, in which He visibly displayed His glory, and where sacrifices and intercessions were constantly offered in His name. Here was the seat and centre of the complete and perfect worship of God under that dispensation, and nowhere else was it lawful for ancient Israel to observe these ordinances, or to expect the same peculiar manifestations of divine glory. The worship of God in its completest form was then confined to a particular spot of the earth, and a special material house appointed for the purpose. But this order of things is not so appointed under the New Dispensation. The

temple at Jerusalem was destroyed, and divine worship in its most perfect form may now be observed in any part of the earth, and is confined to no special building. Christ says, “Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” The house of God now is exclusively a spiritual institution, and manifestly a more glorious temple than any of the ancient temples at Jerusalem. “God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”

1. Let us observe, in the second place, the apostle’s definition of “the house of God.” He declares it to be “the church of the living God.”

The word “church,” in the original, signifies an assembly of persons, not any merely physical structure. The apostle evidently desired to make it very clear and emphatic that God’s house was a gathering of living souls and not a mere collection of dead stones. The people in those days, whether Jews or Gentiles, were liable to cling to the erroneous notion that God’s house was some material building, and that God could not be rightly worshipped unless He was addressed in some temple or other “made with hands.” The Jews, indeed, were very ready to think that, when the temple at Jerusalem was forsaken or destroyed, the house of God was gone. This materialistic idea of the Church is still very common in the world, notwithstanding the progress of centuries, even among people who profess to have higher and more spiritual ideas of the true nature of God’s Church. How many there are who think that almost everything is secured if they are seated in some particular building where their fathers worshipped! This will make up to them for all defects in the doctrine taught, or worship observed, in the building. “Truly the things seen, and temporal,” have oftentimes a powerful hold of the mind, even when there is a spiritual profession in the life.

The word, in the original, for “church” means, more explicitly, an assembly or body of men “called out and together.” In the language of Dr. Hodge, the term was used “to designate the public assembly of the people among the Greeks, collected for the transaction of business,” while it is used in the Scripture “for those who are called out of the world by the gospel, so as to form a distinct class.” Again, it was not all the people in Athens who heard the proclamation, but “those who actually assembled who constituted the ecclesia of that city. In like manner it is not those who merely hear the call of the gospel who constitute the Church, but those who obey the call.”

It is clear, then, that the Church of the living God is not composed of dead sinners who may hear with the outward ear the gospel call, but those who have been called effectually by the power of the Holy Ghost, out of an estate of sin and misery into an estate of salvation, which implies union to Jesus Christ, the glorious head of the Church, and a right and title to all the privileges of the sons of God. “The living God” is the God of

the living and not of the dead, and the true Church is a spiritual temple, consisting of lively or living stones “built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” (1 Pet. ii. 5.) It is in proportion, then, to the number of such persons as these, in any body calling itself a Church, that that body is worthy of the name, and able to do the work of Christ in the world. Large communion rolls and numerous external activities often obtain, at the present day, where there is no genuine sign of the work of God’s Spirit in effectual calling, where, in fact, nothing but spiritual death reigns supreme.

1. The third and last point to be considered is a great end or purpose specified for which the Church exists in the world, namely, to be “the pillar and ground of the truth.”

The first thing we observe under this head is “the truth.” The apostle had found “the truth”; it was no uncertain and changeable quantity with him. He was confident that God had given an infallible declaration in His word of all the things of which He speaks to men. “The truth,” then, we regard as the whole counsel of God, given by the Holy Ghost, in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. This is a counsel in which there is no flaw or imperfection, and that may be unreservedly relied upon for eternity. The apostle has, no doubt, very specially in view, divine revelation as bearing upon the whole matter of the salvation of sinners through Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, and this he declares to be “the truth.”

The second thing we observe is that the Church is called upon to be “the pillar and ground” of this truth. God makes use of means and instruments for the accomplishment of His work in the world, and one great mean is His Church. It is the duty and privilege of the Christian, both in his personal and in his Church capacity, to act as a pillar to the truth. Pillars were used for holding up statues, and for holding forth proclamations; and one great work committed to God’s Church is to hold up and to hold forth the truth as it is in Jesus. The Church is to hold up the truth, not to let it fall in the mire of unbelief and carnality; to exalt the truth as the supreme object of attention, not herself or her own wisdom or policy. The Church is also to hold forth the truth—that all who run may read it—that sinners may be warned as to their guilt and danger for eternity, and may be directed to Him who is “the way, the truth, and the life.” By the divine blessing, the holding up and holding forth of “the truth” will prove instrumental in the conversion of many from the error of their ways, and of planting their footsteps in the narrow path that leadeth to eternal life.

The Church is also called upon to be the ground or basement of “the truth”—its “stay,” as may be found in the margin of our Bibles. The idea is a cognate one. The Church is the foundation upon which the superstructure of divine truth is erected. The Church is not to afford support to error, but to the truth, and is

to exist for the purpose of being instrumentally a stay and protection to the truth in the world.

If any body, calling itself a Church of Christ, ceases to be a pillar and stay for the truth, it ceases to perform a necessary function of “the Church of the living God,” and, in proportion to the degree of its apostacy, does it lose the right and title to be considered a Church at all. Doubtless it is true, that God must be the keeper of the city, otherwise the city must decline and perish, and the truth along with it. But it is desirable and necessary that the professing Church should have its high calling deeply impressed upon it, in order that it may seek grace to walk worthy of its holy vocation. This is the apostle’s aim in his penning such weighty and significant words to the excellent Timothy.

Notes of an Ordination Sermon.

BY THE LATE REV. ALEXANDER MACLEOD OF UIG, LEWIS,
AND ROGART, SUTHERLANDSHIRE.

(Taken from his own manuscript and hitherto unpublished.)

“Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.”—I Tim. iv. 16.

THE subject of this and the subsequent Epistle was born at Lystra, which was a city of Lycaonia. Of his father we are merely informed that he was a Gentile, who had married a Jewish female whose name was Eunice. Timothy was instructed in the oracles of God from his earliest years and brought to a saving acquaintance with the truth by the preaching of Paul on his first visit to Derbe and Lystra, at which time Timothy was only a very young man. When the apostle returned to visit the brethren in these cities at the distance of a very few years, they gave him such a favourable report of the piety of Timothy that Paul determined to take him for his companion in preaching the gospel among the Gentiles, and to cut off all occasion of complaint on the part of the Jews who did not see that the ceremonial law was virtually abolished by the death of Christ, Timothy was circumcised. From this time he accompanied the apostle for several years, assisting him in his apostolic office, until, as is generally understood, he took the pastoral care of the Church at Ephesus. Timothy evidently enjoyed a large share of Paul’s affection, who always speaks of him in language denoting the very high estimation in which he held him, and the tenderest solicitude for his welfare. This Epistle is thought to have been written by Paul in the year

58 A.D. Its original design was to give instructions to Timothy concerning the management of the Church of Ephesus, and it was probably intended that this Epistle should be read publicly to the Ephesians, that they might know upon what authority Timothy acted. The Epistle goes on, fraught with every necessary and salutary admonition, which is applicable to every Christian minister in every period of the Church, and which is calculated to cherish and promote that circumspection, faithfulness, and usefulness, which are implied in the exhortations of the text. “Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt save thyself and them that hear thee.” In enlarging from these words, I shall consider,

I.—The exhortations of the text; and

II.—The promises by which they are enforced.

I.—The exhortations.

I. “Take heed unto thyself.” Notice six particulars:—

(1) Take heed that you be a sound believer, that you have been convinced and converted, and that you are making progress in the divine life.

(2) Take heed that you be a called and sent minister to witness the things you have seen and felt. If the Lord does not send ministers they shall not profit the people. The profitable minister is he who can say, “Lord, thou hast sent me; therefore go with me; bless me and make me successful.”

(3) Take heed you be an exercised minister—not satisfied with systematic and orthodox views merely, but coming forth in the fulness of the blessings of the gospel of Christ, speaking from the heart to the heart, and bringing out of the treasure “things new and old.”

(4) See that there be conscientious diligence in all the means for attaining fitness for this great work. “Till I come give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.”

(5) See that you will have the glory of God and the salvation of souls in view.

(6) See that you watch in all things; be on your guard against every temptation, every external and internal enemy, that your conversation be such as becometh the gospel, and that you walk with circumspection worthy of the vocation by which you are called. Being surrounded with more temptations than other men in general, the minister should learn to bear injuries with patience and be ready to do good to every one; to be affable without levity and humble without pusillanimity, conciliating the affections without violating the truth, connecting a suavity of manners with a dignity of character, obliging without flattery, and throwing off all reserve without running into the opposite extreme of volubility and trifling. “The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient.”

Be watchful in the improvement of time, losing no time in indolence or unnecessary sleep, formal visits, or perusing useless books. Every day should have its work in Christ’s vineyard.

As the Christian religion pre-eminently regards the welfare of our immortal souls, as its object is to promote the honour of God and the salvation of men, how incumbent it is upon the ministers of this holy religion to feel its grandeur and importance, to imbibe its true spirit and genius, to “magnify” their ministerial office, and to display the beauty and glory of it before a dark and fallen world! To them are committed the word of life, the mysteries of godliness, the riches of divine grace, for it is through this consecrated medium that these great and inestimable blessings are chiefly communicated. Hence they are called in the language of inspiration, the light of the world, the salt of the earth. If the light then be eclipsed, darkness covers the land; if the salt lose its savour, the earth becomes putrid and corrupt. Being, therefore, the appointed and instrumental causes of diffusing this knowledge of Christianity, and its character and reception in the world being closely connected with their fidelity and zeal, how ardently they ought to seek a conformity of spirit, a perfect congeniality of soul to this sacred and momentous office with which they are invested! To produce a capacity of enjoyment, there must be a congruity between the mind and the object, so that religion, when rendered congenial to the mind inspires also confidence and delight, and renders the service of God a service of perfect freedom and happiness. The heart, attuned to a just and elevated sense of divine objects, assists the operations of the understanding. Its feelings imperceptibly mingle with the light of the mind, and by their reciprocal influence, the fire kindles within, the thoughts begin to sparkle, and the expressions to flow. This is to become “burning” as well as “shining” lights.

There is also a force and an authority with the truth, when it is delivered with gospel sincerity and simplicity and accompanied with genuine holiness. Such characters are living sermons, read and understood of all men. Discourses about virtue are pictures only. A virtuous example is a virtue embodied, animated, and exhibited to public view. Well may saints be represented with a glory around their heads, seeing the work of sanctification assimilates them more and more to the divine image, and enables them to have a life and conversation becoming the gospel of Christ. This holy fervour of spirit and hallowed flame of devotion, which all the ministers of Christ most anxiously desire to cherish in every duty and trial, arises from a spiritual knowledge of the glory of God shining in the person of Jesus Christ, and is a very different thing from that species of knowledge which defends only the outworks of Christianity, illustrates its nature and importance, and admires it only as a beautiful and perfect system. Knowledge is one thing; grace is another. Hence some men are able

advocates for “the faith once delivered to the saints,” zealous champions for the truth as it is in Jesus, standing forth in the trenches, repelling by cogent arguments the bold attacks of infidelity, and yet, at the same time, strangers to the interior and vital parts of the Christian religion, to that inward sanctification of mind, to that spirit of genuine piety and devotion with which the ministerial success of a pastor, and the salvation of his own soul are inseparably connected. Though the intellect of fallen man still retains many vestiges of its primitive grandeur and capacity, though it be still competent to the investigation of the most abstruse sciences, and even to the acquisition of sound and orthodox notions in the great science of theology, yet it has no such perception of divine truths as admits them into the mind under a just view of their spiritual nature, moral beauty, and transcendent importance. “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” His conceptions on these subjects are so feeble, so indistinct, and so inadequate that he himself comes not under their influence. To all practical purposes the light he has is little better than darkness, and if the light that is in him be darkness, how great is that darkness! It is, moreover, to be observed, that not only considerable theological learning may be acquired, and much sacred criticism displayed, but also the most splendid gifts may be bestowed for the general edification of the Church, independently of divine grace. But when genuine piety is not the basis of these qualifications and gifts, they swell and inflate the mind, and usually exhibit a light which dazzles more than it illuminates, leading to self-exaltation more than to the glory of God. Whereas it is the character of grace to humble the sinner, to exalt the Saviour and to promote holiness, all which are characteristics of true ministers of Christ; and the influences and operations of the Spirit upon their souls for these glorious ends are of a much higher order than those extraordinary gifts or even that miraculous information of the understanding, which were conferred in the days of the apostles. The latter were designed for particular purposes and ceased with the reasons which occasioned them, whilst the former are essential to the salvation of men, and to that holiness, without which, we must be eternally lost.

Let, then, holiness to the Lord be inscribed in deep and legible characters on the heart of the Christian minister. Let an ardent love to God and man inspire him with the most active benevolence. Let the love of Christ constrain him to consecrate all his gifts and talents to the glory of God and the benefit of his fellow-creatures. It is under the daily tuition of the Holy Spirit of grace and supplication that he can be thus animated and supported, in order to abound in every good word and work, to make full proof of his ministry, and to act the character of a faithful steward of the manifold grace of God,—of a careful and tender shepherd, of

a vigilant watchman, and an indefatigable labourer in Christ’s vineyard. It is the Spirit that will enable him to ask aright, and to perform aright, that can stimulate him to care, to vigilance and exertion—to foil temptations, to discipline the inward man, to regulate the heart, to mark the secret recesses and operations of sin, to pursue it in all its multiplied forms and branches, to guard against its insidious or more daring encroachments, and to attain, not only deliverance from its dominion, but also the lively and habitual exercise of these Christian graces that constitute the beauty of holiness, and to which the Lord has annexed His promises and blessings. It is the Spirit that will enable him to wrestle at a throne of grace for a blessing to himself and to his people, that will keep him often in prayer, secret meditation and communion with his own heart, that will teach him savingly in all truths, and bring them seasonably to his recollection, that will render him well versed in all the sacred writings, and that will capacitate him to use the sword of the Spirit successfully as a skilful master in Israel, with Gideon’s motto, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon,” and to repel all the fiery darts of the wicked one, with a holy dependence on that final victory and triumph which the Lord has promised to all His faithful witnesses.

Under the teaching of this Spirit, he will “give heed to the doctrine;” he will be enabled to declare “the whole counsel of God” and to “contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints.” He will not be carried about by every wind of doctrine, nor teach every kind of doctrine to his people. The ballast of grace and spiritual understanding will enable him to weather out the wintry storms to which he will be exposed from the world, the devil and the flesh, from external and internal enemies in the dangerous voyage of human life. Dangers and difficulties, opposition and contempt, he must calculate upon and expect. The very nature of his ministerial functions implies the former, and all the grandeur and dignity of it will not exempt him from the latter. “The truth itself” will offend. He will be regarded as an enemy by some for no other reason but because he tells the truth. The truth condemns the lax conduct of the unconverted, and their unscriptural creed founded on that conduct. To live in the consciences of such men as a witness against them is all that is desirable as long as they are at enmity with God. By consistency, however, you will command their esteem, for many often deny what they cannot disbelieve, and ridicule what they cannot but silently revere.

Whatever opposition therefore he may meet with from the supine indifference of some, or the intemperate zeal of others; whatever misrepresentations may, with secret but malignant industry, be circulated with a view to cloud his character or depreciate his ministry and usefulness; and however such vague and idle reports may be received, with a kind of inward complacency, by those who affect even candour and Christian charity,

and from whom better things might be expected—let none of these things, however, move the Christian minister. Let not the storms of various opinions move him. Let not the applause or flattery or contempt of any person or persons whatever move him off the gospel ground on which it is his privilege to stand, and which he is commanded never to abandon, as he would wish his own salvation and that of his hearers. Neither let fastidious delicacy, which is often more shocked at a breach of the artificial forms of politeness than of the sacred duties of Christian morality, deter you from making full proof of your ministry, of approving yourself to God, as a workman that needeth not to be ashamed; recalling ever to mind Paul’s declaration to Timothy—a declaration of universal application—that all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Let all his trials for righteousness’ sake remind him of the dignity of his character, and of his resemblance to his Lord and Master, that the disciple is not above his Master and the servant above his Lord. “It is enough for the disciple to be as his master, and the servant as his lord.”

If our own hearts be deeply affected with the important truths we deliver to others, we shall then walk with circumspection worthy of the vocation by which we are called. Let, therefore, a solemn sense of the terrors of the Lord, of the bitterness of sin, of the vanity and precariousness of all sublunary enjoyments, of the importance of eternity and the responsibility of our office, stimulate us to carry the momentous truths of the everlasting gospel with energy and life to the hearts of our hearers. For if our souls are not kept in the lively exercise of grace, our rounds of religious duties will unavoidably be cold, and our most sacred ministrations will be deplorably blasted. Let us always bear about us the dying of the Lord Jesus, and uniformly take heed that we are delegated ambassadors of Christ, to transact matters of everlasting importance between an infinite God and immortal souls. And if the honour of such a glorious embassy be so ineffably great, what inexpressible need have they of taking heed to themselves in all things, in the exercise of self-denial, ardent love to God, disinterested regard for His honour, and compassion for souls! What prudence, faithfulness, diligence, humility, holy zeal, spirituality of mind and conversation; what order and plainness and fervour; what just temperature of mildness and severity, are necessary as needs be! What heed for fear we may get careless and lukewarm in the Lord’s vineyard about His glory and the salvation of souls, for fear that we may be deserted of God, and that pride and sinister motives may bear sway!

1. Take heed that “the doctrine” be not your own, nor that of others, but “Christ and him crucified”—Christ in all His offices—justification by faith—the law of God as a rule of life—the covenant of grace, with all its benefits. No Arminian or Antinomian doctrines.

Let a man speak as the oracles of God. Let thy doctrine be accompanied with much humility and self-denial, so as to have God’s glory and the salvation of sinners in view. Let it not be mixed with vain philosophy, so as to be delivered from seeking yourself and the applause of men in the excellency of speech. It is found that the holiest ministers preach most plainly, and that the plainest ministers are most successful. Let it be grave and weighty, sound speech that cannot be condemned, commanding ourselves to every man’s conscience. The power of the truth upon our own hearts will greatly advance this.

Paul preached with a demonstration that the Holy Spirit was in him, sanctifying him. He preached so as to give a demonstration that the Spirit was with him. He was out of weakness made strong. The grace of our Lord was made sufficient for him. The Lord renewed his strength; he received out of the fulness in Christ, and grace for grace. He preached by the Spirit to the heart of the hearers, with the demonstration of the Spirit and with power, from the heart to the heart, from faith to faith, and from experience to experience.

1. “Continue in them.” Continue (1) in thy views; (2) in thy calling; (3) be laborious and diligent. Continue in thy principles and work; you must not abandon either while on earth. “Woe is me if I preach not the gospel!” Continue to seek after greater fitness for thy work, in prayer, reading, and meditations.

II.—The great promises and encouragements by which these exhortations are enforced.

1. “Thou shalt save thyself.” Your continuing and persevering in the ways of the Lord will tend to promote the salvation of your soul daily. “This is our rejoicing, the testimony of our consciences.”

“Thou shalt save thyself” from the guilt of other men’s sins and ruin, if thou be faithful in the ministry. “Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked, and that he has not turned, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.”—(Ezek. xxxiii. 9.) “I am clean,” said the apostle, “your blood be upon your own head.” “I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare the whole counsel of God.”

1. Thou shalt save “them that hear thee.” It is in the proportion in which a minister of Christ is taught to promote his own salvation, that he promises usefulness in the Church as a means of saying others—of opening their eyes to turn them from darkness to light. He is to preach in season and out of season for this end, and they are to hear. God’s glory and the salvation of sinners are the great ends of preaching, and the Lord promised His countenance to His ministers, even to the end of the world, for convincing and converting sinners, and for building them up in their most holy faith.

The Memoirs or Spiritual Exercises of Elisabeth West.

(WRITTEN BY HER OWN HAND.)

“Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men.”—Psalm xxxi. 19.

“Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.”—Psalm lxvi. 16.

THOUGH I cannot tell the time and place, when and where the Lord did me first good; yet this I know, that He began with me very early, when I was young in years, to incline my heart to seek the Lord. I wanted not good education from my mother, and likewise from my aunt, who was a godly woman, and took much pains on me. When I was conversing with my comrades, I would be telling them what my mother was saying to me, that if I were good, I would get to heaven. Now, thought I, heaven is such a place, where I would get fine clothes, and every thing that was brave and bonny.

This so allured me, that I could been content to do anything to get to heaven: I resolved, I would neither swear nor lie, nor do anything that was ill: but I would pray and seek the Lord, then I would be sure to get to heaven; yet I found a strong inclination in my heart to break all my resolutions: for the first temptation that came in my way to sin, I embraced it cheerfully. I was extraordinarily given to play of all sorts, which took my heart wholly up, so that I thought it a melancholy thing to be religious; but when I had gone to my bed, I would think, what if I go to hell, where I will never come out? That word never, wrought strongly upon me; but the remedy I took to still my conscience was, I would say my prayers I learned at school; then I was well enough. I cannot distinctly give an account how I spent my time: for some years I satisfied myself with the Pharisee’s religion, that I was not so ill as others; but, in the Lord’s own time, when He was pleased to send the gospel among us at the Revolution, then I began more serious-like to seek the Lord; I left off my form of prayer, and betook me to another way which I thought would please God better. I was for a considerable time under the ministry of Mr. William Erskine: all that I can observe, during the time he preached among us, was, that I attained to a great delight in hearing the word, which wrought upon my affections, that I durst not neglect secret prayer; where sometimes I would be very tender, and shed some tears, then I thought there was no doubt but I was converted. It pleased the Lord to remove this faithful servant by death.

Then I frequently heard great Mr. James Kirkton with a great deal of delight; for his sermons were very taking and good for the memory; the which I had been telling to others, they commended me; so I gained a great deal of applause with those among whom I conversed. This pleased me extremely, though I knew never what it was to make application of anything I heard. O how great reason have I to wonder and admire at the goodness of the Lord that did not send me to the pit in this selfish condition! seeking justification by works, never remembering what I was by nature. In this case I remained until it pleased the Lord to send Mr. George Meldrum to be our minister, in place of Mr. William Erskine, who was the Lord’s messenger to me indeed. The first time I heard him I thought I felt something I never felt before, but knew not what it was; that word was made out to me, Hos. xi. 1, 2, 3. He preached on these words, Joshua xxiv. 15, “Choose you this day whom you will serve.” Where he besought us earnestly, with tears, that we should choose presently whom we should serve. He said, “Many will say, I will do that afterwards; but few will say, I will choose presently.” He protested, he would not go out of the pulpit till we would give our consent presently to the bargain without delay. If I right remember, this was the first time that ever I could observe the Lord speaking to me in public. At this time I thought the Lord made me willing in a day of His power to choose and consent to serve the Lord. O that I may never forget this day!

After this there arose some fears on my spirit, that the Lord did not regard anything I did; I thought my prayers were lost, for I could observe no answer; then that word came to me, Heb. xiii. 5, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” But, I now knowing there was such a word in the Bible, it yieldeth me some small comfort; this being the first time that ever my ears were opened to hear Christ preached in such a manner as now God eminently helped him to preach and me to hear. At this time he told us, “that our prayers were rejected by God, unless they were at first put into the hand of Jesus Christ; and that if we had not a saving uptaking of Christ in His natures as God-man, and in His offices as prophet, priest, and king, in every duty, it could not be accepted by God.” Then I was struck with astonishment: for I was persuaded, that never a duty I had performed was accepted; for I never employed Christ to any. Now it was not in one preaching or two that he delivered these truths, but distinctly he preached on every one of them from several texts of Scriptures; such as Galatians iv. 4, 5, “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” Matt. i. 21, “And thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he shall save his people from their sins.” Acts iii. 22, “A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you, like unto me; him shall ye hear. And whosoever will not

hear this prophet shall be cut off from among the people.” Psalm ii. 6, “I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.” Heb. vii. 26, “Such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, made higher than the heavens.” O what love and desire was wrought in my heart after Christ, the time that these words were opened up, when I heard what he had done and suffered for poor sinners! yea, Jesus won my heart to Himself by love. Our minister also held forth the sufferings of Christ, from John iii. 14, 15, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” He not only preached to us on the sufferings of Christ, of which I never heard the like before (for I thought every sentence was a wonder, and was backed by the power of God), but also he made offers of that Christ to all that would receive Him; this was the blessedest news that ever I heard. Likewise he offered the cross, with all the circumstances thereof, to every one that had received Christ; to which my heart gave consent to take Christ, with cross and loss whatsoever, and that cheerfully, without any hanker in my heart.

After this I found corruption begin to stir in me; but, whatever troubled me, I got it spoken to on the Sabbath day, which struck me with wonder. I several times resorted to Mr. Meldrum, and told him my case (though very confusedly); his converse to me was both meek and comfortable; but particularly he exhorted me to keep a record of all the Lord’s dealings with my soul (if I could write). I thought this a strange command; but I heard the same exhortation from Mr. John Flint at Lasswade, on these words, Isaiah xiv. 5, “One shall say I am the Lord’s and another shall call himself by the name of Jesus; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord.” This being on a communion Sabbath, he exhorted every one to write with their hands to be the Lord’s. I would fain have put this exhortation in practice, but knew not how to begin; it being presently before the sacrament in Edinburgh, which was the first after the Revolution, and the first I ever was partaker of.

ON THE FAST DAY.

EDINBURGH, 9th August, 1694.

I am here this day, O Lord to go about a great work, which I am not capable of; therefore I desire Thy assistance. The thing I go to begin with is, to enter into covenant with Thee; and I desire, Lord, that Thou wouldst consent to the bargain. Say not to me, as in Psalm i. 16, “What hast thou to do to take my covenant in thy mouth?” but though Thou shouldst say the same to me Thou art right; but I will plead upon Thy own word, Matt. xi. 28, “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” O Lord, I know not any thing that is so loading to me as Thy absence, not knowing the cause thereof, and the sin that keeps Thee from covenanting with me. I shall

desire to say with Job, xxxiv. 32, “That which I see not, teach thou me; if I have done any iniquity, I will do no more.” O Lord, I have Thy promise, and I will come in Thy favour, and plead that my sins may be blotted out for Christ’s sake; and give me leave to come to Thy holy table, to get my longing desires granted. I take heaven and earth to witness, that I desire Thy love before all the riches in the world: help me this day to prepare for a covenant betwixt me and Thee; for I am very unfit of myself to do this great work: if Thou had not said in Thy word, that all that are willing to come to Thee, Thou art willing to entertain. Now, O Lord, I beg that, in Thy goodness, Thou would have mercy upon me, and let not this be an unfit fast-day; but take glory to Thyself; and be not angry with this that I am writing, for it is to show my willingness to the bargain. O Lord, I beseech Thee, be not approaching to me at Thy table in anger; but in favour bestow Thy mercy on me; yet I think, before Thou be absent at such a time, I would rather Thou would come with rebukes (if not in fury) to me; for I long to be in Thy company. I cannot express my unfitness to come to Thy table, but I will cast myself on Thy mercy, as Queen Esther, when she was going to the king; I will go, and if I perish, it shall be at Thy feet.

The Saturday following, being a day of preparation for the sacrament, when my vows were made, and promises to the Lord; —O Lord, most holy and gracious, to whom all praise is due; I here this day avouch myself to Thee, on the terms of the covenant. Here, O Lord, I intend in Thy strength to walk humbly all the days of my life; as Thou wast humble in all things, both in Thy birth and during Thy abode in this world, so I intend to do; and as Thou wast mocked, bruised, and crucified for my sins, and yet bore it patiently; here I profess I shall be patient in all things Thou castest in my way, be what it will. As Thou wast not angry at them that despised Thee, but prayed for them; so help me never to be angry at anything, though it were ever so great an offence to me, in scoffs and mocks, for Thy name’s sake; except it be that Thou be offended at it! And as Thou walkedst all Thy days in poverty, and not in pomp and honour, who many times wanted where to lodge and lay Thy head; so help me to be content with my lot in this world, were it ever so mean; if Thou be my portion, I have enough. I here this day promise to renounce all lusts and idols, and give my heart to Thee; all which I shall seal to-morrow at Thy table.

(To be Continued.)

Obituary Note.—We regret to record this month the death of Jessie Macleod, Strathy Point, Sutherlandshire, an aged Christian woman, long confined to bed, but much esteemed for her spiritual, exercised character by a wide circle of friends. A light has gone out on earth that will be greatly missed. A fuller sketch will appear in an early issue.