| | PAGE. |
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| “CASTING ALL YOUR CARE UPON HIM,” | 205 |
| A SERMON. By the late Rev. Alex. Stewart, D.D., Dingwall, etc., | 209 |
| THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. By Rev. J. R. Mackay, M.A., | 219 |
| THE DIARY OF DUGALD BUCHANAN, | 222 |
| KITTY SMITH, | 230 |
| THE LATE WILLIAM MACLEOD, BORRAIG, GLENDALE, SKYE, | 233 |
| PRAISE—EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON, | 234 |
| LA NA CEISDE ANN | 236 |
| NOTES FROM OLD DIVINES, | 239 |
| NOTES AND COMMENTS, | 241 |
| ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF DONATIONS, | 242 |
| CHURCH NOTES, | 243 |
| THE MAGAZINE, | 244 |

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THE Free Presbyterian Magazine And MONTHLY RECORD.

VOL. XX.

OCTOBER, 1915.

No. 6.

“Casting all your care upon Him.”

I PETER v. 7.

THE Apostle Peter, in the last chapter of his First Epistle, addresses a solemn admonition to the scattered strangers to whom he writes—“Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.” He gives them this counsel apparently in view of an approaching “fiery trial,” to which he refers in the preceding context. He calls them to recognise “the mighty hand of God” in it more than the puny hand of man, and exhorts them to the exercise of self-humbling—manifestly in a way of lowly confession of sin—as that exercise of mind to which the promise of exaltation and deliverance is attached, according to the words of Christ Himself—“Everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” But the Apostle in this connection does not stop at the negative exercise of self-abasement; he proceeds to admonish the strangers, in the very same breath, to the positive exercise of trust in God’s gracious and loving care—“casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” He declares, in effect, that God was not smiting them with a view to drive them farther away from Him, but rather with a view to draw them closer to Himself. “Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth.”

Let it be observed that self-humbling and trust in the Lord are entirely consistent with one another. In fact, they are two essential aspects of saving faith in all its exercises, and the one is not complete without the other. Self-humbling without trust, and trust without self-humbling, are not saving graces. If the Lord has brought us to lie low before Him confessing our sins, let us not be satisfied till He lead us on to an apprehension of His mercy in Christ, and of His gracious care for the interests of perishing sinners. Let us further distrust any faith in His mercy that is not accompanied by a spirit of self-abasement on account

of sin. Saving faith towards a gracious God in Christ humbles the sinner in the dust in view of his guilt and unworthiness, and exalts him to peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost, in view of the riches of the gospel provision.

Let us now notice three things principally in the subject before us: first, certain kinds of care that devolve upon us; secondly, the duty of casting these cares upon the Lord; and thirdly, the great encouragement we have to do so.

I.—We shall observe certain kinds of necessary care.

1. There is the care of the soul and its interests. This ought to be the chief care of every one of us. “What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul? What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” The soul, as fallen, is under sin and condemnation—liable to eternal death. If we lose our souls, we lose our all for eternity. The soul’s salvation ought to be our principal concern; everything else is as nothing in comparison therewith. Such as are taught of God believe and feel this to be truth.

Many of our brave fellow-countrymen are at present exposed to imminent danger and death on land and sea. It is theirs, no doubt, to give all necessary attention to the serious work in which they are immediately engaged, but they ought not to forget at the same time that they have souls which must live in happiness or woe for ever and ever. We praise the Most High that there are some among them who remember this daily before Him. But alas, others are careless, and it is our earnest desire that many of them would be awakened to real anxiety for their soul’s salvation. Such care will not make them less, but more, efficient defenders of their country. May the cry of many go up without delay, “God be merciful to me a sinner!”

1. There is the care of the body and its interests. A certain degree of anxiety for bodily life, health, and sustenance is lawful, though the great evil is that sinners, left to themselves, indulge this concern to an excessive degree. It is quite proper, for example, for our brave soldiers and sailors, who are willing to lay down their lives for their country in a just cause, to desire intensely, at the same time, self-preservation, as far as that is consistent with duty. The care of the body and its interests is lawful in subservience to higher concerns. The commands, “Thou shalt not kill,” and “Do thyself no harm,” have an important place.

2. There is the care of friends and others. Many at home at the present moment are justly anxious about the temporal and eternal welfare of friends who are abroad (or are likely to be) fighting in this great War. They are deeply concerned that their kinsmen may be safely carried through the conflict to the end. If those who are at home fear God, they are intensely anxious that those at a distance, who are not yet savingly changed, may be brought to the feet of Jesus, ere it be too late. They cannot but be in daily dread of hearing sore tidings, such is the

widespread destruction of human life that is taking place. Again, many of our soldiers and sailors at the front are bound to have a keen anxiety about the dear ones whom they have left behind in the homeland, wondering how it shall fare with them, if they themselves are struck down in the conflict. “Love seeketh not her own.”

II.—Let us next observe the duty of casting all these kinds of care upon the Lord.

1. Sinners naturally, through darkness and unbelief, are disposed to carry all their own burdens. They do not see how relief or success is to be obtained unless they themselves, at any rate, carry the heaviest part of the weight. Thus the need arises for a positive exhortation to cast all care upon the Lord. Even God’s people, who have had most experience of divine help, are never safe in this respect. They must be taught over and over again that their sure and all-sufficient help is in Jehovah’s name.

2. Are you concerned about your soul’s salvation, the interest of infinite importance? Are you convinced that you cannot redeem or save your own soul? “Salvation is of the Lord;” cast this care upon Him. Are you anxious about your temporal welfare—whether you shall live or die, or whether you shall have a sufficiency to meet your common needs? Endeavour to cast this care upon the Lord—“your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things.” Are you alarmed for the welfare of others? Is their case for time and eternity a heavy burden to you? The only way of relief is to commit it to the Lord in believing prayer. He knows all things, and has all power in heaven and in earth. Seek to plead His gracious invitations and promises. Go with every kind of care that oppresses you to His throne of grace, and make known your desires to Him who is mighty to deliver.

3. Some may feel that they have no power to obey the exhortation, and that their principal difficulty is to actually exercise faith, and cast all their cares upon the Lord. Their faith, if they have any, they find so exceedingly weak. But let such come making known their lack of faith to Him and asking Him to supply their need out of His infinite fulness of grace, and they shall not be disappointed. The Lord Jesus is the author and finisher of faith, and He is a liberal giver. This leads us to observe:—

III.—The great encouragement given to sinners to cast their cares upon Him: “for he careth for you.”

1. He has shown a general care for His creatures, not only in connection with the provision of His providence, but with the provision of His grace. He has sent the word of truth and the gospel of salvation to the ends of the earth, and makes sinners everywhere welcome to come to Christ and to receive Him as all their salvation and all their desire. The commission to the gospel ministry is, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to

every creature. He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved: he that believeth not shall be damned.”

1. He shows a special care over those whom he has chosen in Christ and who in due time flee for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before them. He careth in a special and saving way for all such as come to Him through Christ and cast their cares upon Him that He may help, sustain, and save. The Lord’s care over His people extends to all their needs—small and great, temporal, spiritual, and eternal. It is a care that is unceasing, unchangeable, and everlasting. There is nothing that affords Him greater delight than to see them coming with their cares and anxieties, and confiding in Him for the relief and help He is able and willing to give. “He delighteth in mercy.”

The Lord’s voice is to the city at the present moment, and calls us not only to exercises of self-humbling under His mighty hand, but of confiding trust. He sitteth upon the floods and reigneth King for ever, and who can help effectually but He in all trials and extremities? He is able to make a way through the sea, and a path through the mighty waters, and at the fourth watch of the night to command a great deliverance. “Trust ye in the Lord for ever; for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.”

THERE will be space enough in eternity to carry on delayed repentance, to rue one’s follies when it is too late; and in a state past remedy, to speak forth these fruitless wishes, “Oh that I had never been born! that the womb had been my grave, and I had never seen the sun! Oh that I had taken warning in time, and fled from this wrath, while the door of mercy was standing open to me! Oh that I had never heard the gospel, that I had lived in some corner of the world where a Saviour, and the great salvation, were not once named!” But all in vain. What is done cannot be undone; the opportunity is lost, and can never be retrieved; time is gone, and can never be recalled. Wherefore, improve time, while you have it, and do not wilfully ruin yourselves, by stopping your ear to the gospel call.—Thomas Boston.

GOD hath a threefold rod, whereby He maketh Himself known to a people. 1. He hath the rod of His mouth, whereby He makes known His Word to us. 2. There is the rod of His hand, and that is, affliction and crosses. 3. There is the iron rod of destruction, when God doth utterly destroy, that destruction shall not rise up the second time. Now God hath been long speaking to you by the rod of His mouth, and by the rod of His afflictions and crosses; and O! now beware, lest He come and speak to you by the iron rod of destruction: look that the treaty which is betwixt Christ and you, be not broken. O! be persuaded to lay hold upon your time, while it is with you.—Andrew Gray (of Glasgow).

A Sermon.

BY THE LATE REV. ALEXANDER STEWART, D.D., MINISTER AT MOULIN, DINGWALL, AND EDINBURGH SUCCESSIVELY.*

“Although my house be not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure; for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow.”—2 SAMUEL xxiii. 5.

DAVID, from his earlier days, to the close of his long and varied life, was visited with many and painful afflictions. Like Him whom in spirit he called Lord, though descended of David after the flesh, he was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. But sanctified affliction produces godly sorrow, and godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation. Of this, David was a most conspicuous and instructive example. From his youth, he was taught to know and worship the Lord God of Israel. After he was taken from the sheep-fold, and brought to feed Jacob, and rule over Israel, new temptations beset him; iniquities, according to his own sorrowful confession, did at times prevail against him, and his falls were grievous. But the Lord had chosen him for a servant, therefore He did not leave him to perish in his sin. This sweet Psalmist of Israel was reclaimed from the error of his way; and after wiping off his penitential tears, he again tuned his sacred harp to the praises of his own great Shepherd, who had restored his soul, and had led him anew in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. From the manifold mercies of God to his soul, experienced through the whole course of his diversified life, David possessed an assured confidence that the Lord had established His covenant with him, that the God of Jacob was his everlasting portion, that He would never fail him nor forsake him, and that He would build up his throne and establish his seed to many generations. Notwithstanding this assurance, many of his troubles still remained, impaired his comfort, and broke the peace of his family. His children had in many things grieved his heart; his enemies perpetually harassed him; and, especially, in his own soul he did not find his desires and expectations accomplished, nor spiritual

* The name of Dr. Stewart is well known to those acquainted with the history of the Church of Scotland as that of a highly-honoured minister of the Gospel and a distinguished Gaelic scholar. His ministry was much blessed of the Lord. He was the father of the eminent Rev. Alexander Stewart, Cromarty. Dr. Stewart died on 27th May, 1821, in the 57th year of his age. He was a member of the Northern Missionary Society. His biographer says that his published sermons consist of written preparations, “unequal to his spoken discourses in liveliness and force.” At the same time, we believe that the Christian reader will find a sweet relish of divine truth in perusing the present discourse.—ED.

grace growing up to that maturity which formed a most valuable part of the promise in the covenant of his salvation.

Here we have an example of a case common to those who have been led through mercy to lay hold on the covenant of life, established through the Son of David, the great Mediator. A believer has apprehended and laid hold of this covenant; he knows it is all his salvation, he feels it is all his desire, yet he has to mourn his shortcomings and the disappointment of his hopes in some of those points which he believes to be most infallibly secured by that very covenant. This is a case that calls for tender treatment; and while we would humbly endeavour to state the believer’s views of the covenant and his experience in connection with those views, let us earnestly implore the presence and blessing of Him whose commission to His servants is still the same as ever, “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.”

I.—We shall state the believer’s views of the covenant. Having searched the Scriptures which testify of Christ, and having been led by the Spirit to the knowledge and love of the truth, the believer perceives that the covenant of his salvation is indeed an “everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure.”

He sees the perfections of God illustriously displayed.

His justice is satisfied by the perfect obedience and sufferings of His own Son in the human nature, who thus paid the full penalty of man’s transgression and wrought out a complete righteousness adequate to the demands of the perfect law of God. His mercy is gloriously manifested in freely bestowing a full pardon and even conferring the highest honours on sinners, rebels, outcasts, who deserved nothing but to be consigned to “the blackness of darkness” for ever. His sovereignty is maintained in “doing what he will with his own;” in choosing, according to the unerring counsel of His will, the objects of His special favour; and dispensing to these such measures of His grace and His bounty as appear good in His sight whose dominion is over all, and who “giveth not account of any of his matters.” His truth is vindicated in fulfilling His unchangeable word that the wages of sin is death, that, without due expiation, He will not clear the guilty, that nothing unclean shall enter into the holy Jerusalem above, that though heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law till all be fulfilled; all which is completely accomplished in the meritorious work of the great Redeemer and in the sanctifying operations of the Divine Spirit on the soul of a penitent sinner. Thus the honour of the divine government is secured and all the intelligent world is made to know and acknowledge that the righteous Jehovah loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity. The believer, contemplating the wonders of redeeming love, admires and glories in that covenant by which mercy and truth thus meet and shine forth together.

He sees the salvation of the penitent sinner fully secured.

Abundant provision is made for the sinner’s deliverance from the penalty of the law, seeing Christ hath redeemed him from the curse of the law “by being made a curse for him” (Gal. iii. 13). Abundant provision is made for the sanctification of his depraved nature “by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost shed on him abundantly through Jesus Christ his Saviour.” Strength, wisdom, and courage, together with “the whole armour of God,” are supplied to bear him through his spiritual warfare; light to guide him in his pilgrimage, consolation and support in time of trouble. Nor is temporal safety and provision wanting; “his place of defence is the munition of rocks; bread also is given him; his water shall be sure.” He sees the Lord at once a sun and a shield to his people; “Christ made unto them wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” And he foresees the final complete glorification of his soul and body in that bright world where there shall be no more sin nor curse, no more night, no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, nor pain; where the ransomed of the Lord shall live and reign with him for ever and ever.

The believer sees the subordinate provisions of the covenant well ordered in all things. The Bible, the deed or instrument which contains the covenant, is preserved entire, is published abroad to the world, is translated, or translating into all languages and disseminated through all lands so that people of all nations and kindreds and languages may hear in their own tongues the wonderful works of God. Messengers are selected and appointed, are equipped and sent forth, to make known the precious contents of the Bible, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Particular ordinances are appointed as seals or conveyances of the blessings of the covenant and administered in the churches to those who lawfully claim the benefit of them. Various dispensations of Providence, some of a prosperous, some of an adverse nature, directed by the Author of the covenant, serve to display the wisdom of its constitution, the suitableness and certainty of its promises, and the abundance of its resources. He sees these things further confirmed by the experience of those on the one hand who have embraced the covenant, and on the other of those who have rejected it. While he sees Christ crucified become a stumbling-block to the unbelieving Jews and foolishness to the philosophic Greeks, yet he sees that to them who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor. i. 23, 24).

The believer sees the stability and perpetuity of the covenant insured by the immutable character of the parties engaged. The Father has promised to the Son that “the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand;” “that he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied.” The Son undertakes and performs: “I have glorified thee on earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do; those whom thou gavest me I have kept,

and none of them is lost.” The Holy Spirit also undertakes and carries on His work in the hearts of those whom Jesus has ransomed till He has sanctified them wholly and presented them without spot or blemish. None of these parties can fail; the word of Him who cannot lie is passed. As if this were of itself insufficient to satisfy men slow of heart to believe He hath added His oath; and because He could swear by no greater He hath sworn by Himself, that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, His word and His oath, the blessings of the unchangeable covenant might be confirmed for ever to believers. Mercies thus unalterably secured may well be called “the sure mercies of David.” They cannot be exhausted; the source from which they flow cannot fail; they are like the pure river of the water of life proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, and flowing for ever and ever.

The Lord takes pleasure in repeating in His own person the assurance of the endless continuance of His loving-kindness toward His chosen: “For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee” (Isaiah liv. 10).

Having thus stated the views which the believer is taught to form and habitually to entertain of the covenant of his salvation, we shall now enquire—

II.—What is his experience in connection with those views?

While the believer’s faith is lively and his views of the provisions and blessings of the covenant are clear, he rejoices in them as “all his salvation and all his desire.” He knows there is salvation in none else; that in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills and from the multitude of the mountains; that in the Lord alone is the salvation of Israel (Jer. iii. 23). He does not wish for it in any other way than this which is so honourable to God and so secure to the sinner. His chief desire is to become a full partaker of this salvation and to glorify God by a life and conversation becoming this glorious scheme of redemption. But here he has at times to mourn a sore disappointment. The Lord does not always grant him his heart’s desire in the manner and season and measure that he expected. He desires to be spiritually-minded, to be raised above the world, to have his affections set on things above, to be wholly resigned to his Lord’s will and able to say in all things, “Not my will, but thine be done,” to have his whole temper and spirit conformed to the pattern of his Master’s spirit, seeking to have the same mind which was in Christ, and to learn of Him to be meek and lowly in heart. In endeavouring to attain this blessed temper, he does not trust to his own powers; if he did, his failure would be no wonder; but he has respect to the covenant and looks to its promises: “I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good; but I will put

my fear in their hearts, that they shall no. depart from me” (Jer. xxxii. 40). Notwithstanding this, he often finds reason to complain that “iniquities prevail against him;” that backwardness to duty, discontent with his portion, or with something in his lot, impatience of temper, worldliness of spirit, distrust in providence are often working in his heart; though to will be present with him, yet how to perform that which is good he finds not; though he delights in the law of God after the inward man, yet he finds a law, that when he would do good, evil is present with him (Romans vi. 18), etc. While the everlasting covenant is all his salvation and his desire, his confidence and delight, still a body of sin, a body of death is his burden and his grief.

The believer desires to be fitted for his divine Master’s service; to be more fervent in spirit, more active, and more successful in any work in which he is employed; to be more fruitful in every good word and work; and thus to glorify God in his body and spirit. In his hopes of attaining to fruitfulness he does not depend on his own exertions as if they alone were sufficient though he knows they are required, but he looks to the provisions of the covenant and thence draws his encouragement to labour and exertion. “I will be as the dew unto Israel; he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. From me is thy fruit found” (Hos. xiv. 5), etc. “He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.” But neither doth this grow with him according to his desires and his hopes; he still finds, to his grief and mortification, daily cause to accuse himself of sloth and barrenness, to lament his leanness and unprofitableness; that after all his flattering hopes of making a fair and fruitful show and accomplishing a great deal, he is little else than an unprofitable servant, an unfruitful cumberer of the ground.

The believer having tasted that the Lord is gracious and experienced the sweetness of communion with Him, desires to have constant fellowship with his heavenly Father and with his Son Jesus Christ; to be daily beholding the beauty of the Lord and drawing water out of the wells of salvation, and so to have a continual joy and peace in believing. And in this point also, he has respect to the covenant; he remembers the words of his Lord: “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full” (John xv. 11). “Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full” (chapter xvi. 24). But here, too, he is often sorely disappointed. Temptations arise and his faith is clouded—his prayers are hindered—his communion with God is disturbed or interrupted, his hopes are overcast, his joy is changed into sorrow and mourning.

He desires to see his own house and the household of faith flourishing. With respect to his children he can call God to witness that He has no higher wish, no greater joy, than to see that his children walk in the truth; and whatever be their lot in

the world, that they may have their portion with God’s people. So also for his brethren in Christ, his heart’s desire and prayer is, that their souls may prosper, that their light may shine, that the interests of Christ’s kingdom may be advanced, and that the children of Zion may be joyful in their King. In breathing out these desires he takes encouragement from the promises of the covenant, “Behold, thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord. The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion, and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life; yea, thou shalt see thy children’s children, and peace upon Israel” (Psalms cxxxviii. 4, 5, 6). In this case, too, he has to mourn at times the disappointment of his fair expectations. A darling Benjamin is forced away from his father’s embraces, a favourite Joseph is, perhaps, torn by a wild beast, an accomplished Absalom becomes an undutiful rebellious son, and a Hophni or Phinehas, though well educated and in the priest’s office, become abandoned to vice and almost break their father’s heart. “His house is not so with God” as he wished and hoped, and this is a cause of sore lamentation. Neither does he see the church of Christ prospering in his land and in his day. Lukewarmness prevails, the love of many waxes cold, the godly man faileth and is taken away from the evil to come, the godly pastor who fed the Lord’s little flock in the wilderness is called home and the babes and sucklings are prematurely weaned from the breast. When the pillars of the church, the champions of the faith are removed, irreligion and profanity become bold, and the pious remnant seek for shelter in private retirements; they enter into their chambers and shut the doors about them; they hide themselves for a moment until the indignation be overpast (Isaiah xxvi. 20). The zealous believer sees with grief and indignation the cross of Christ despised and the enemies of the cross lifting their heads with daring confidence. Alas! he cries, “is the Lord’s hand shortened that it cannot save or his ear heavy that it cannot hear?” When his enemies rage and make a noise even in the house of the Lord (Lam. ii. 7), where is the Lord God of Elijah? where is the promise of his coming? “Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? Hath thy soul loathed Zion. We look for peace, and there is no good; and for the time of healing, and behold trouble” (Jer. xiv. 19).

Thus does the believer often complain and mourn that his desire is not yet fulfilled, that “the Lord maketh it not to grow.” Instead of advancing he suspects himself to be losing ground. He is reaching forth, indeed, to the things which are before; but the more he reaches and lifts his eyes he only sees the greater length before him and finds that perfection is the farther off. He is almost ready to faint and give over “because of the way.” For a moment he is tempted to doubt the sufficiency and stability of the covenant, but his faith is strengthened and he dares not doubt. He is ready, however, to doubt his own interest in the covenant and to think that his iniquities have separated between

him and his God, and that his sins have hid the Lord’s face from him that he will not hear (Isaiah lix. 2). This hangs heavy on his soul and makes him go mournfully from day to day.

Let us endeavour to address to a mourner in this situation—

1. A word of encouragement. The case calls for encouragement and comfort. Although a believer should be left for a time under sorrow and discouragement, yet it is not the will of their heavenly Father that one of these little ones should perish. His command to his ministering messengers concerning such is still, “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.”

Consider the promises applicable to your own particular situation.

You complain of carnality, backwardness, coldness of affection, besetting and indwelling sins defiling your soul, hindering or corrupting your duties, marring your comforts and still drawing your heart from God, or hiding from you the light of His countenance. But the Lord assures you that in time all that you complain of shall be purged away: “I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin” (Isaiah i. 25). “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you” (Ezek. xxxvi. 25). Paul complained as you do now: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death?” But he found comfort at hand, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans vii. 24, 25).

You complain of unfruitfulness; that your own graces do not grow; that you are not profitable to others; that, instead of glorifying God with your body and spirit, you rather dishonour Him by a barren profession and a useless life; that you are cumbering the ground and only fit to be cut down and cast forth as a withered branch. But O! thou self-accusing mourner, hear the word of the Lord: “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground;” “I will save her that halteth, and gather her that was driven out” (Isaiah xlv. 3; Zeph. iii. 19). “They shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine,” for “from me is thy fruit found” (Hos. xiv. 7, 8).

You complain of want of communion with God; that you have lost the cheering fellowship you once enjoyed with Him in His ordinances; you “go forward, but He is not there, and backward, but you cannot perceive Him.” You fear that the Lord hath cast you off; that His mercy is gone for ever; that even His promise doth fail for evermore. But hearken, O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest and not comforted, the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and what doth He say? “For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee; in a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer” (Isaiah liv. 6, 7, 11). “When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none,

and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them; I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water” (Isaiah xli. 17, 18).

You complain of the want of grace and piety in your family or in the church; and you ask with painful longing, when will salvation come to your house? “Wilt thou not revive us again, that thy people may rejoice in thee?” (Psalms lxxxv. 6). But you may still take to yourself and plead the promise made to the church of old, “I will pour water on him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my Spirit on thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring; and all thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children” (Isaiah xliv. 3, 4; liv. 13). Behold, and read; hear, and understand; ask, and plead, and be not faithless but believing; and thou shalt yet see the glory of God!

Consider your own past experience.

Recollect how it fared at times with your bodily health when you said with Hezekiah, “I shall go to the gates of the grave, I am deprived of the residue of my years.” Notwithstanding your apprehensions the Lord stretched out His hand and healed you and bade you live, so that you cried out with the same pious king, “What will I say? He hath both spoken unto me and Himself hath done it.” Doth God take care for the body? Doth He take care for the beast of the field which He hath made? And will He not much more care for the soul which He hath redeemed? Will He not heal your spiritual diseases and relieve your pains and make you to sing with the king of Judah, “Behold, for peace I had great bitterness; but thou hast, in love to my soul, delivered it from the pit of corruption, for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back” (Isaiah xxxviii. 10, 15, 17).

Recollect how it fared with your soul when at times your spirit was overwhelmed within you and the water had gone over your soul. Yet then did the Lord visit you. He heard your cry; he brought you up out of a horrible pit out of the miry clay; he set your feet upon a rock and established your goings (Psalms xl. 2). Even then when your soul fainted within you you remembered the Lord, and your prayer came in unto him into his holy temple (Jonah ii. 7).

You complain that whereas in former times you had falls and also recoveries, yet now you find little change, but a constant languor and deadness of spirit, even “a perpetual backsliding.” Then your complaint is the same that David uttered long ago, “The enemy hath persecuted my soul, he hath smitten my life down to the ground; he hath me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead; therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me, my heart within me is desolate” (Psalms cxliii. 3, 4). But, with David, do you also remember the days of old? Who

formerly raised you up and recovered you? Who restored your soul? None else than your gracious Shepherd whose charge you still are. “If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son; much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life” (Romans v. 10). As sure as Jesus died and now lives, so surely they who have died with Christ unto sin shall live with Him also. Lazarus was once delivered from the power of death, yet a second time he sunk into the grave. Is it for that reason the less likely that he whom Jesus thus honoured shall have part at last in the resurrection of the just?

Formerly, your heavenly Teacher gave you shorter lessons, now He gives you heavier and longer tasks. He tries your strength, and makes you feel your own weakness that your strength may be in God. For two tedious years Joseph pined in prison, and concluded that his friend, the chief butler, would never remember him more. But his God had not forgotten him, and even then his highest exaltation was near at hand. Even in his confinement Joseph had one support, that the Lord showed him mercy and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison. If the Lord has still given you favour in the sight of some of His own servants and people, esteem it as showing you mercy and as a token for good. Your deliverance from trouble is fast approaching. If your wilderness grow more dreary as you advance, yet you are always drawing nearer its confines, nearer to the water of Jordan. If the river become deeper as you wade through, yet you are assuredly approaching the further bank, the boundary of Canaan, the fields of your rest. The days of your mourning will soon be ended, for “your complete salvation is nearer than when ye first believed,” nearer, by many steps, than it was on the happy “day of your espousals,” when nothing but the voice of gladness and singing was heard in your tabernacle.

1. Suffer me to add a word of admonition. Remember you are yet in the body. You bear about with you a body of sin and of death of which you cannot be wholly freed in this world. While you cannot suppose that you are already perfect and need not expect to become so here yet press on toward perfection. Let not your discouragements hinder your exertions. Let not weeping hinder working. Still sow, though in tears. In due time you shall reap and bring your sheaves rejoicing home. Bear up under your present burdens. You will soon cast off that “vile body,” and it will incumber you no longer. “Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he will strengthen thy heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord” (Psalms xxvii. 14). Remember you are yet in the wilderness. Do not expect that here you can feed daily on the grapes of Eshcol. A rich cluster may at a time be brought to your hand, but it is not the native growth of this barren soil. You may find some “bitter herbs” mixed with your sweetest portion, but they are of a salutary purifying virtue. Bless God for your daily manna, the word, and prayer, and daily ordinary

duties, comforts, and opportunities. Use these diligently and thankfully when richer cordials are not given. They will be as honeycomb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones (Proverbs xvi. 24). Remember you are yet in the midst of the enemies, your warfare is not yet accomplished. Your enemies may have been put to flight, but they are not yet banished from the land. Do not expect the conqueror’s crown while you are but in the heat of the conflict. The time is not yet fully come for putting off your armour, but be strong and of good courage, be not afraid, neither be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you whithersoever you go (Josh. i. 9). Even now, the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in; behold, He shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, skilfully and tenderly conducting the process until He shall have purged away thy dross and taken away all thy tin. Jesus, the ever-living Mediator, is even now praying, nay, He hath already prayed and obtained His request that your faith fail not till the combat be ended, till the victory over the “last enemy” be complete, till the crown of life be obtained, till you come to Zion with singing and everlasting joy upon your head, till you obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall for ever flee away.

As to such as desire not the salvation promised in the everlasting covenant, we cannot conclude without addressing to you this affectionate counsel, “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near.” “Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.” Amen.

MEN of power often want wisdom to direct them in the execution of their power, for great men are not always wise, and so their power degenerates into tyranny and oppression, and often ends in the ruin both of the ruler and the ruled. But the Generalissimo of the world, the great Pilot of the universe, is God only and infinitely wise. All His measures are laid with such depth of wisdom, that nothing can disconcert them. He sees into all possible futurities, so that no event can surprise Him. However the sons of men may be alarmed, His holy and wise hand is always at the upper end of the chain, and He knows and moves every link of it. He sets all the wheels in motion, from the least to the greatest, and they move no way without His direction. There cannot so much as a hair fall to the ground, without His will. This we think a very trivial thing, and yet there is a Divine hand in it. The bullets fly promiscuously in the day of battle, yet they are so under the direction of God, that they fall on those whom He has a mind to kill, and pass by those whom He intends to save alive.—Thomas Boston.

The Second Coming of Christ.*

EVERY one conversant with the New Testament is aware that the Second Coming of Christ is a theme that occupies an all-important place in the teaching of the Apostles. There has been, on this account, practical unanimity among Christians regarding the fact that Christ will come again in His own Person, in a bodily sense, and in the glory of His Father. But when we pass beyond the fact, and enquire as to the time and as to the significance of the Second Coming, there is found among Christians anything but unanimity. This, on the face of it, is lamentable; although, at the same time, we have no doubt that the Adorable Head of the Church has not permitted this long-persisting diversity of judgment on an all-important matter without His, at the same time, so ordering all things connected with the visible Church, as that even this diversity should have some fruitful results. So far as Scotland as a whole is concerned, it may even yet be asserted that the Christian people have interpreted the Biblical references to the Second Coming in a post-millennial sense; but, even here, pre-millennialism has of late years been gaining ground, and, if one goes outwith Scotland, and mingles with the Christian people of England, and of America, one will fall in with many whose views regarding the Second Coming are pre-millennial.

Holding, as we do, the erroneousness of pre-millennialism, it gave us great pleasure to have quite recently, through the kindness of a friend, made the acquaintance of a little book on the Second Coming of Christ, by Dr. M’Knight of Wilkinsburg, Pa., U.S.A., the full title of which, with the publisher’s name, will be found at the foot of this page. There is not much, to be sure, to be found in Dr. M’Knight’s booklet that may not be found, say, in the late Principal David Brown’s volume concerning the second Coming of Christ. At the same time, Dr. M’Knight, who acknowledges his indebtedness to Principal Brown, and to others, is a writer who takes up his theme after quite an independent fashion, and his brochure, which is spiced throughout with not a little good-natured humour, is eminently readable. And, moreover, one may read M’Knight’s booklet in little more than an hour, whereas, the ordinary reader, in order to an intelligent reading of Brown’s book, would find it necessary to devote some days to a perusal thereof.

Let me summarise a booklet which I should like to recommend strongly. To begin with, in order to bring out the exact state of the question, our author points out that some exegetes hold “that Christ will return to the world at least a thousand years before the end of time, and that He will establish a terrestrial

* “The Second Coming of Christ: is it Pre-millennial?” By R. J. G. M’Knight, Ph. D. Wilkinsburg, Pa., U.S.A., 10 cents a copy (5d.).

kingdom; that the Jerusalem of Palestine will be the seat of His government, and that there the throne of David will be re-established; that upon this throne Christ will sit in visible, bodily form, and He, together with those of the saints who shall have been raised, will reign over a world peopled by men who are still in the flesh, and who continue to follow the usual pursuits of mankind, and finally, that this earthly reign of our Lord will continue for a thousand years, or for a millenium.” Others, however, who believe just as firmly as those former in the fact of the Second Coming, hold “that Scripture teaches that the Second Coming will mark the end of time, that the millenium and all other events which concern the earthly existence of man shall have then passed into history, and that the purpose of His coming will be to give to every man according as his work shall be.”

These, it is pointed out, are the two main divisions into which the opinions of Christians regarding the Second Coming become divided, and the question therefore arises, “Which is the true view?” Dr. M’Knight, by way of answering this question, antagonises the first view and supports the second. In the main, however, his brochure consists of a trenchant criticism of the pre-millennial view. It is pointed out that the view here antagonised is Judaic, and not properly Christian, in origin; that although for some reason that view gained very considerable currency in the early sub-apostolic period of Church history, even then it never came to form a part of the general creed of the Church; and that at the Reformation period of Church history the great Protestant confessions expressly condemned pre-millennialism. As to the direct biblical warrant of pre-millennialists, it is pointed out that, by their own confession, their sheet-anchor is Revelation xx. 4-6. Post-millennialists interpret this passage, however, as being figurative in sense, whereas pre-millennialists attempt to take the entire passage literally. Dr. M’Knight is, we think, very successful in his undertaking to show that the figurative interpretation is in perfect harmony with the analogy of the Christian faith, as expressed in every other place of Scripture, whilst the literal sense is obviously not in such a harmony, and in fact simply breaks down—even in the hands of pre-millennialists themselves—when they wish to avoid the plainly absurd.

In the remainder of his booklet Dr. M’Knight dwells on the revolting consequences of a consistent pre-millennialism. The unity of believers, as constituting one body, is, by virtue of this teaching, broken up; the awesomeness of the Great Day of a general judgment is dissipated into fritters; the abolition of material sacrifices—prefiguring the one Great Sacrifice—is incomplete; the present dispensation of the Gospel is robbed of its glory; and, naturally, the Christian outlook becomes in the main pessimistic.

The impression, in a word, which a perusal of this brochure makes upon one’s mind is that, in whatever way the word of

prophecy concerning Christ’s kingdom and Coming find fulfilment, it will not be in the sense of pre-millennialism.

And yet one would like to own that pre-millennialism has done some service in the emphasis which its upholders have always put on the fact of the Second Coming. At least, let it be said that there is need of a word of warning lest, when we rightly oppose pre-millennialism, we go to an opposite extreme of failing to give to the Second Coming that place in our thoughts and affections which it evidently occupied in those of the Apostles and the Apostolic Church. It is quite plain that the Apostles taught the Church not to rest in any event, short of Christ’s Second Personal Coming, as the consummation of their hope. Nor, if we regard the blessedness of believers, need we wonder at this attitude of soul towards the Second Coming.

(1) Christ is the direct and immediate object of the believer’s faith and love, and that although he has never seen Him save in the looking glass of the Gospel. But would it not be much better to see Him face to face, see Him as He is? Yet it is certain that, be the prosperity attending gospel preaching here below what it may, it will always be a case of a believer’s beholding his Beloved only darkly as through a mirror here, and not at all face to face. The Second Coming will bring them face to face.

(2) The Second Coming means more to believers than even their departure at death, so as to be with Christ. For this reason: It is something unnatural for human beings to be in a disembodied state. Christ is the Saviour of our bodies as well as of our souls. But our bodies He will not save until the Second Coming; nor can we, before then, realise fully what is implied in our adoption; therefore, says He, “we wait for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (1 Cor. xv. 42-3; Phil. iii. 21).

(3) At Christ’s Second Coming believers will have an experience of the power of the Holy Ghost which will be entirely new to them. In connection with a preached gospel the Holy Spirit quickened their souls in time. They came to know him, and as they knew Him they loved Him. But although in virtue of their union with Christ in time, the Spirit (or spirit?) in them is life, yet their bodies have not yet experienced the Spirit’s life-giving power in the same way. The day, however, is awaiting believers, and that is the day of Christ’s Second Coming, when the same Holy Spirit that dwelt in them in respect of their soul in the world, will quicken their mortal bodies; and although one would like to guard against saying anything that would seem to deify a creature or to obliterate the essential distinction between the Creator and the creature, yet there is a true sense in which it may be said that the Holy Spirit will, from the day of Christ’s Second Coming and for evermore, be the life both of the souls and bodies of the saints. Is not that an additional reason why we should desire the Second Coming?

(4) It is not until Christ comes again that, in the full sense of

the expression, believers will begin to receive that exceeding and eternal weight of glory which consummates their happiness. All these things, and others besides, make the Church long for the Second Coming, and yet it may not be amiss to say that, just as Paul was in a strait betwixt departing (at death) in order to be with Christ, and abiding in the flesh for the Church’s comfort, so the Church, as a whole, is as yet in a strait betwixt longing for the Second Coming and looking for more fruit of His death appearing in the world. They (I mean those who are not pre-millennialists) know that when the Second Coming becomes a fact there will be no more conversions, no more translations from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. On this account they reckon that the long-suffering of the Lord, in the sense that His Coming is not immediate, means salvation. They would like to see a greater fruit of Christ’s death than they have yet seen. And their desire will not be disappointed. I hold it, in fact, as a matter of private judgment, that, like as Christ Himself will be satisfied with the fruit of the travail of His soul, so also, ere Christ come again, will His Church be; and that, like as Abraham died satisfied with days, so the Church will end her course in time satisfied with results.

J. R. M.

The Diary of Dugald Buchanan.

(Continued from page 190.)

GLORY to Thy holy name, for a revelation of Thy will in the blessed Bible. I bless Thee that my lot has fallen in this land where the way of salvation is recorded; and that I was born of such parents as gave me education; and that it has been sanctified. I bless Thee, who hast made me content with the portion of this world’s goods allotted me. I have Thyself as my portion and exceeding great reward, therefore I cannot want; all Thy divine attributes are engaged on my side to render me completely happy in time and in eternity.

O my covenanted God, all things come of Thee, and of Thine own have I offered unto Thee this day, for I am Thine by creation and redemption; therefore I plead for the sake of Christ that Thou wouldst accept of this offering, and forgive anything that is amiss in this transaction. I believe that, what Thou hast done for me, and in me at present, and at other times, is ratified in heaven from eternity, and stands upon an infallible foundation, more sure than the covenant of works, because it is founded upon better promises which cannot be broken. O my God, save me from taking the very least encouragement to sin because of the stability of Thy covenant. O let it be a never-failing spring of comfort unto me all the days of my life, and at the hour of death, that I may rejoice in Thee as my covenanted God in Christ both in time and through all the ages of eternity. And in confirmation

of this my assent and consent to all the terms of the covenant, I do subscribe it with my hand, heart, and soul; and that God is true in the record that He hath given of Christ, I set to my seal that there is life in Him and nowhere else.

DUGALD BUCHANAN.

At the Cave of this Rock,
6th August, 1743.

Before I left this place, my closed lips were opened, and my mouth filled with the high praises of my God; my chains and fetters fell off, and I was set at liberty. O that was a sweet day unto my soul, when I sat in the cave of the rock, and the Lord proclaimed His name in Christ, and made all His goodness to pass before me—”The Lord, the Lord God merciful and gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin” (Exodus xxxiv. 6). The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper was to be dispensed next Sabbath at the port of Monteith, and I went there to receive the seal of the covenant; and when at the table, Mr. S—h served, and proposed the following questions to the communicants: “Have you,” said he, “broken your covenant with death and hell, and joined yourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant never to be forgotten? Have you given your consent to this method of salvation by Christ Jesus? What think you of it? And how do you love it? Is it all your salvation and all your desire? How are you pleased with the laws of it? What love have you to the surety of it?” In short, he went through all my exercises, and I found my heart giving consent to all that I had written on that day. “Well,” said he, “if this be your case, viz., that you have laid hold upon God’s free and gracious covenant, I may freely give you the seal of it, wherewith you shall be sealed to the day of redemption.”

So I received the seal of the everlasting covenant, and, before I arose from the table, with what grief, joy, and wonder, did I behold my dear Redeemer bruised under the Father’s wrath, which justly belonged to me, and also stretched out upon the cross, grappling with the powers of darkness, and coming off a Conqueror, having received His elect, and me in particular, and came away having my soul satisfied as with marrow and fatness.

On the Sabbath evening I heard a very comfortable sermon from Ps. xviii. 14. The minister shewed part of the believer’s happiness in having God to be his God, etc. After that I went to Kilsyth, where the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper was a-celebrating, and had many meditations by the way. On Sabbath morning I heard Mr. Robe preach the action sermon from Rev. i. 17, 18. I never felt more of the power of God than I did on that occasion. I hope some plentiful drops of divine influence fell upon my parched soul. I might, indeed, call that place a Bethel. I said in the meantime, O Lord, it is good to be here.

I thought that I could dwell in that place all my days, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to rejoice in His holy temple.

I rejoiced to see the conquering Redeemer making a willing sacrifice in the day of His power. I was likewise filled with joy after I came out of the kirk, when I saw those who were clothed in scarlet lying on their faces on the ground at the foot of the Almighty King of Zion weeping and making supplication without being ashamed of it before others. I rejoiced no less at the door of utterance which was granted to the ministers of the gospel. In short, I came away from this place rejoicing that the kingdom of Christ was advancing, and the kingdom of Satan falling like lightning from heaven. Afterwards I reviewed my whole exercises from the day in which I was first awakened to that moment, and saw that the foundation of my peace was built upon the Rock of ages; and then with the foolish virgins fell asleep for sometime till the Lord sent a messenger of Satan to buffet me. He suffered my corrupt nature to come alive again so that I became in my own eyes a sink of all abominations. I found by sad experience the truth of that Scripture, “The carnal mind is enmity against God.”

I was brought to think that all my former experience was a delusion which now became a terror to me, and so great was the strength of this temptation that it made me both ashamed and afraid to pray. Oh the terrible confusion my soul was in! but I endeavoured to still an accusing conscience from the Scriptures of truth, and then had an answer from several passages that I was converted. John i. 12; Romans viii. 30. Then I said, Can such a power of sin be upon any person who is converted, as I find in my heart? Sometimes I would wrestle with God for His grace to subdue my sins, and at other times would refrain from prayer through a sense of real guilt. I endeavoured to take some directions to myself which the Lord enabled me to give others formerly, but I could not. I may say that I underwent greater trouble by this discovery of my own heart than at my first awakening. I received a letter from a Christian friend to whom I had communicated part of my case, which, by the Lord’s blessing, was made useful to me by shewing me some of my mistakes; I shall therefore quote a passage of it here.

“I sympathize with your case. These things and much more of the sort, my own perverse heart has given me too much experience of; if it were not so with us, perhaps we would not be so readily convinced that we owe all to the grace, not that is in us, but to that which is in Christ Jesus, and to the daily and continual supply from Him. When one seems to be convinced that he has all from the Lord, yet he may be less convinced that even grace, as in himself already, received from the Lord, cannot do his business, but that he must fail if he be not continually receiving new supplies from the stores laid up in Christ, and from thence drawn out through faith wrought in him

by the Holy Ghost: Which persuasion keeps a sinner humble, and in continual dependance on the Lord, in the exercise of faith, and which every moment’s experience makes him thus to see to be indeed precious faith.

“I will not say any more upon this, my dear friend, but consider 2 Cor. xii. 7, 8, 9, 10. Though we have not that abundance of great revelations which were bestowed on Paul, yet our little allurements tend to humble us and keep faith in exercise. Paul had the thorn sent to him, and it sent him to God. And God’s answer was the sufficiency, not of anything of, or in Paul, but of the Lord’s own grace. He saw the reason why the thorn was sent unto him, namely, that he might not be too much exalted by what had been bestowed upon him. Had Paul then recourse against this thorn to anything that had been bestowed upon him? No; that would not have been like taking it as sent, that he might not be exalted. But what did he do? he besought the Lord thrice against this thorn, and got this answer; that the ‘Lord’s own grace was sufficient for him.’ He was still weak after all he had already received. But it was the strength of God, the power of Christ, that was to rest on him, and to carry him forward.”

When I read this letter, I saw my fearful error in restraining prayer before God, and His design in sending such a thorn. At the same time the Lord rebuked Satan, and strengthened me to overcome my sins, that had sung so many triumphs over me of late. The reasons or cause for which the Lord sent this grievous and sore trial, were the following:—

First.—To reprove me for my sloth and security, “thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee,” etc. (Jer. ii. 19). It was as if the Lord should say, Since the wickedness and backslidings of others did not serve to correct thee, thine own wickedness shall do it. Thou hast seen what David suffered for his backslidings, and how I made him to roar all the day long for his sins, yet this did not serve to correct thee, therefore thine own wickedness shall do it. “Know, therefore, and see, that it is an evil thing and a bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God.” And, indeed, I was made to know the bitterness of it; yet, alas! how soon is it forgot; so that I have still to learn the same lesson of watchfulness. Secondly.—The Lord sent me this trial for my uncharitable thoughts of those who had been tempted and overcome. Therefore, the Lord showed me that I had no strength of my own to withstand the temptation, more than others who were overcome.

* [I observed that a man’s trials or temptations are often in proportion to the grace received. Abraham had great faith, and it was greatly tried. The Apostle Paul had great revelations, and

* Passages between brackets indicate that these are omitted in the Gaelic translation.

he had a messenger of Satan sent to buffet him; the Lord gives no grace to any person to be idle, for to whomsoever He giveth fine gold He trieth well (Rev. iii. 18).

Then I learned the great danger of unwatchfulness, for by it I am exposed to every snare of the devil, who is restless, seeking an opportunity to entangle me into some snare or other.]

I never began to sport with a temptation to sin, but I was thereby overcome and wounded. Proverbs vi. 27, 28. From hence I see more of the depth of Satan, how he uses all his endeavours to allure and draw me to the ways of sin and folly, and whenever he has gained his point, immediately turns accuser. O the unsearchable windings of the old serpent! And O the unsearchable wisdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, who can make the deceits of Satan turn out for the good of His people!

I see the only way to overcome temptations is to resist the very beginnings of sin in the heart. Sinful thoughts harboured there with delight have sometimes led me captive to sinful actions. “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

About the beginning of March, 1744, the Lord began to restore my peace as a river after my long trouble since the first of November, 1743. He shewed the holy end He had in suffering me to be tried with such temptations, and that there was “a need-be” for everything which had befallen me.

But I observe, that no sooner one trouble goes than another comes in its room, and perhaps greater than the former. But blessed for ever be the name of the Lord, who, with the temptation, makes a way to escape. The Lord shewed me unspeakable comfort from these Scriptures anent my approaching troubles: “Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. Be careful for nothing,” etc. (1 Peter i. 7). And in Psalms iv. 6, “Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust in him and he shall bring it to pass. The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me. But my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

14th March.—When I was at morning prayer I had more than ordinary sense of my wants, and also of the difficulties of a present life; but I was wonderfully refreshed from the above Scriptures, and the Lord helped me to gather all my wants both spiritual and temporal, and cast them upon Himself; whereby I found my spirit as sensibly eased as if I had gotten a heavy burden cast off my body.

When I went to work in my lawful calling, my spirit at the same time was rejoicing that I had got all my cares cast upon Christ as upon a faithful creator; and while musing upon these things, the fire did not burn afresh in my breast, which forced me to cry out, How great is the pleasure of religion! how sweet is it to cast all my care upon God! how good is it to believe that God careth for me! These thoughts made me work cheerfully at my lawful calling wherein I was placed.

My anxious cares were taken away, for I believed that the Lord would perfect that which concerned me in every way, and bring it to pass in the way which would tend most to the advancement of His own glory and my good.

I saw that whatever the Lord had promised to His people, He had also appointed means for obtaining. Then I saw that when I was under trouble, it was my duty, as a reasonable creature, to find out the means which God hath appointed for the accomplishing of such an end, or relieving from such a burden, etc. So that when I am found in the practical use of those means which God hath appointed to further my spiritual or temporal happiness, although the thing wherein I am labouring or avoiding should fall out contrary to that which I had designed or expected, I have real peace and comfort, especially as I had committed such a matter to the Lord, and was not negligent in the use of the means appointed by Him. Here is my peace, to be still in the use of means, looking to the Lord to give what issue He pleaseth (Ezek. xxxvi. 37).

How sweet is it to be making every day one bundle of all my cares and casting them over upon Christ, when faith can read these words, “He careth for me.” Blessed be God that the government is set upon His shoulders.

I think it would be impossible to bear my crosses and troubles, unless the Lord had shewed me something of the mystery of providence revealed in that word, Romans viii. 28, “We know that all things work together for good to them who love God, who are the called according to his purpose.” I find that Christ’s yoke is easy and His burden light, so that I may say, that I have neither crosses nor afflictions. Although it may seem strange, yet it is true, and all the reason I can give for it is the view that God hath given me in the passage just mentioned in the eighth of the Romans.

Whenever I meet with a cross I renew my submission to His will, but can never declare the pleasure my soul findeth in this exercise. I think that, though religion had no reward in a future state, I would not exchange the sweetness of it in the meantime for anything in the world.

[Now, when I find these very crosses and troubles which were wont to make me complain, become sweet and easy, it affordeth just ground of praise and thankfulness to the Lord, who hath bestowed such an unspeakable mercy upon me the chief of sinners. Therefore, since I believed that it is the sufferings and afflictions of the Lord Jesus Christ which make satisfaction for sin, and that God never afflicts His children but in a way of chastisement and not of satisfaction, I am resolved to be at the disposal of His infinite wisdom. But if He in love defers my chastisement, I will praise His name, and if He in faithfulness afflicts me, I will endeavour to praise His name. “He is the Lord, let him do unto me what seemeth him good,” and,

whatever He is pleased to do, I will be satisfied. I am not anxious how these things come to pass; but all my care is how to be found prepared for either of these which God may please to send. “Thy will be done.”

1st May, 1744.—I have been long in doubts about perfect freedom from sin, which now, in a great measure, are cleared up. At this time the Lord kindled vehement desires in my soul after holiness of nature and conformity to the image of His dear Son. I groaned in this tabernacle, being burdened with corruption, and said, “O that I had wings like a dove, then would I flee away and be at rest.” I can freely say that it was not any trouble that could befall my body or injury done to my name in this state which made me wish to depart, but a real desire to be free from in-dwelling sin and corruption; but when I took a view of the universal corruption of my nature, and how deeply sin was rooted in every faculty of my soul and member of my body, my heart began to fail, and I said, How shall such a body of sin and death be destroyed, or how can I think of perfect freedom from it in another world? How can I think that my heart will be so fixed on God as not to have one wandering thought through all eternity? How can I believe that I shall serve God for ever without weariness? No, I could scarcely believe it. Sometimes I considered the almighty power of God, which could make new heavens and a new earth; then I said, Why not new natures, new bodies, and new spirits also? Then the Lord convinced me of the certainty thereof, and kindled my desires more and more after the enjoyment of it. Oh! how sweet was my meditation on the beauties of holiness. The following Scriptures were sweeter to my taste than the honey-comb:—Isaiah xiv. 3, 4, “And it shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve, that thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!” Even so I will say in a scriptural sense, When the Lord shall make me enter into an eternal rest in Himself, how hath the devil ceased? how hath my unbelieving heart ceased? how hath the tempting world ceased? how have the secret springs of sin in the heart ceased? how hath all weariness in the service of God ceased? how hath secret love to sin ceased? how hath everything that is contrary to a holy God in the creature ceased? Eternal thanks and praise to God, who hath made us partakers of the divine nature and translated us out of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son. This was a sweet declaration in Isaiah lxv. 17, 18, 19, “For, behold, I create new heavens, and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people; and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.”

Here an objection of my mind was answered to the full: former things shall not come into my mind, for I was afraid that the remembrance of former evils would either breed shame or fear again; but glory to God, that former things shall not come into my mind.

The next Scripture was, “For our conversation is in heaven, from whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile bodies,” etc.

Here is a change indeed, to be made on a vile body! I lose my thoughts on this wondrous change. O! almighty Redeemer, who can subdue all things to Thyself, hasten the day in which it shall be done. Praise to God, who hath wrought in my heart the faith of this resurrection by His Holy Spirit, and hath given me good hope through grace of a part in the first resurrection. With what joy and delight do I read that passage in 2 Cor. v. 7, 8, “For we walk by faith, and not by sight: we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and present with the Lord.” Absent from this body of clay which is such a clog on my spirit in Thy service, absent from these eyes which have carried my mind after a thousand vanities and unclean objects. O! that I may be enabled to labour, so that, whether present or absent, I may be accepted of Him; absent from the flesh wherein I am kept as in a prison, so that all I can do is only to look out at the windows of my prison-house. O! when shall they be darkened? O! when shall I appear before God, in whose presence there is perfect freedom from sin and fulness of joy, and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore? May the day break and the shadows flee away! Amen. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!

For some time after this the Lord gave me great light of mind and warming of affections. I rejoiced much at the undiscovered mystery of godliness which I believed would be fully revealed in due time; and the Lord shewed me greater things than ever from the passages of Scripture above mentioned.

(To be continued.)

SINCE my spiritual appetite hath been so much weakened by the influence of airy trifles, let me feed the oftener on Christ. O to have my whole heart filled with His fulness! He will have all of me, or nothing. Satan, indeed, pretends to be more social, and to be ready to accept of a part; but it is merely because he knows, that if he get part, God, his rival, will have nothing at all.—John Brown.

O THAT river of redeeming Love, which issues from Jehovah’s heart! that river of Blood, which springs from Calvary! that river of Life which flows from beneath the Throne of God and of the Lamb! that river of Gospel Truth which proceeds from the Spirit of all grace! These, these, are the rivers that refresh the City of our God, in heaven or in earth.—John Brown.

Kitty Smith,

OR “THEY THAT SEEK ME EARLY, SHALL FIND ME.”*

CATHERINE SMITH was a native of Pabay, a small island in Loch Roag, where dwelt seven families. From their insular situation and poverty, it was not in the power of the parents to educate their children; but little Kitty is an example of the truth that all God’s children are taught of Him, for when only two years old she was observed to lay aside her playthings, and clasp her little hands with reverence during family worship; and at the age of three she was in the habit of repeating the 23rd Psalm, with such relish and fervour as showed that she looked to the Good Shepherd in the character of a lamb of His flock. Her parents taught her also the Lord’s Prayer, which she repeated duly, not only at her stated times, but often in the silence of night. She frequently pressed the duty of prayer, not only on the other children, but on her parents, and she told her father that, in their absence, when she would ask a blessing on the food left for the children, her brothers and sisters would mock at, and beat her for doing so. At another time, when she was probably about six years old, she was out with her companions herding cattle, when she spoke to them of the comeliness of Christ. They, probably to tempt her, said He was black. She left them, and returned home much cast down, and said, “The children vexed me very much to-day. I will not go with them, for they said that Christ was black, and that grieved my spirit.” Her parents asked her what she replied to that. “I told them,” she said, “that Christ is white and glorious in His apparel.”

It is probable that Kitty was sufficiently enlightened to discern the moral comeliness of the gracious Redeemer, while her thoughtless comrades did not extend their ideas beyond personal beauty. They would have said anything that might produce the effect of provoking their playfellow, whose more intelligent spirit grieved for them that they “saw no beauty in Him,” whom her soul loved, “that they should desire Him.” Perhaps no Christian character is truly confirmed in faith and patience, without some trial of persecution, which both shows to the heart its own corruption, by the irritating effects of gainsaying, and affords an opportunity of proving that we are not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. This dear child had her trial adapted to her age and sphere, and came forth on the Lord’s side holding fast the Word of Life, in as firm a way as a much more experienced Christian might have done.

The Rev. Dr. Macdonald of Ferintosh having preached in the parish of Uig, Kitty’s parents were among the many who went to hear him. On their return they mentioned what he had said

* Extracted from “History of Revivals of Religion in the British Isles.”

about the formality of much that is called prayer, and the ignorance of many as to its spirituality; they stated, according to their recollection of the sermon, that many had old useless prayers, and greatly needed to learn to pray with the Spirit. The child observed this, and two days after, said to her mother, “It is time for me to give over my old form of prayer.” Her mother replied, “Neither you nor your prayers are old;” but she rejoined, “I must give them over, and use the prayers which the Lord will teach me.” After this she withdrew to retired spots for prayer. At one time her younger sister returned without her, and on being asked where she had left Kitty, she said, “I left her praying.” Her father said that he had often sat up in bed listening to her sweet young voice, presenting this petition with heartfelt earnestness, “Oh, redeem me from spiritual and eternal death.”

From the remoteness of her dwelling, Kitty had never attended any place of public worship—but the Sabbath was her delight—and often would she call in her brothers and sisters from the play in which they were thoughtlessly engaged, asking them to join in prayer and other devout exercises, and warning them, that if they profaned the day, and disliked God’s worship, they must perish. Her mother observing the intent gaze with which she looked on a large fire, enquired what she saw in the fire? She replied, “I am seeing that my state would be awful if I were to fall into that fire, even though I should be immediately taken out; but wo is me, those who are cast into hell fire will never come out thence.” Another day, when walking by the side of a precipice, and looking down, she exclaimed to her mother, “How fearful would our state be if we were to fall down this rock, even though we should be lifted up again; but they who are cast into the depths of hell will never be raised therefrom.”

One day her mother found her lying on a bench with a sad countenance, and addressed some jocular words to her with a view to cheer her. But the child’s heart was occupied with solemn thoughts of eternity; and instead of smiling, she answered gravely, “O mother, you are vexing my spirit, I would rather hear you praying.” In truth, eternity was very near her, and the Spirit of God was preparing her for entering it. As she got up one morning, she said, “O, are we not wicked creatures who have put Christ to death?” Her mother, curious to hear what one so young could say on such a subject, replied, “Christ was put to death, Kitty, long before we were born.” The child, speaking with an understanding heart, said, “Mother, I am younger than you, but my sins were crucifying Him.” After a pause, she added, “What a wonder that Christ could be put to death when He Himself was God, and had power to kill every one; indeed, they only put Him to death as man, for it is impossible to kill God.” She used often to repeat passages from Peter Grant’s spiritual songs, such as, “It is the blood of the Lamb that

precious is.” When she came to the conclusion of the verse, “It is not valued according to its worth,” she would in touching terms, lament the sad truth, that His blood is so lightly thought of. Being present when some pious persons spoke of those in Rev. vii., who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, she said, “Is it not wonderful that, while other blood stains what is dipped in it, this cleanses and makes white?”

Murdoch MacLeod being engaged in the valuable duties of a Scottish elder in the little island of Pabay, Kitty wished much to hear him, but from bashfulness was ashamed to enter the house where he was engaged in worship; she therefore climbed up to the window and sat there till all was over. Being asked what she had heard, she said she was amazed to hear that Christ offered Himself as a Saviour to many in our land who rejected Him, and that He was now going to other and more remote quarters to win souls. She then added with the pathos of a full heart, “O, who knows but He may return here again?”

Soon after she had completed her seventh year, she was attacked by that sickness which opened her way to the kingdom of heaven. When her father asked whom she pitied most of those she would leave behind, she replied that she pitied every one whom she left in a Christless state. She suffered much from thirst during her illness, and her mother, reluctant to give her so much cold water as she longed for, fell upon the evil expedient of telling her that the well was dried up. The following day, when she saw water brought in for household purposes, poor Kitty’s heart was grieved, and she said, “O, mother dear, was it not you who told the great lie yesterday, when you said the well was dry? O, never do so again, for it angers God.” During her illness she was enabled almost literally to obey the command, “Pray without ceasing,” and was often interceding with the Lord to look down and visit her native place. On the morning of her last day on earth, her father said, “There is reason for thankfulness, that we see another day.” Kitty opened her eyes and said, “O, Holy One of Israel, save me from death,” a petition often used when in perfect health, and evidently referring to spiritual and eternal death. Throughout the day she was generally silent, when her father remarked, saying, “I do not hear you praying as usual,” to which she replied, “Dear father, I pray without ceasing, though not because you desire me to do so.” In her last moments she was heard to say, “O, redeem me from death.” Her father, leaning over her, said, “Kitty, where are you now?” To which the reply was, “I am on the shore,” and immediately her soul was launched into the great ocean of eternity. In December, 1829, this lowly child was carried from her poor native island to the blessed region where the redeemed of the Lord find their home, and her name has left a sweet perfume behind it. “The memory of the just is blessed” (Prov. x. 7).

The late William MacLeod, Borraig, Glendale, Skye.

WE regret that no notice was taken before now in the magazine of the death of Mr. William MacLeod, elder, Borraig, Glendale, which took place on 27th June, 1914. He was born in the year 1830, and thus lived to the ripe age of 84 years.

The Lord uses the ways and means He sees proper to awaken sinners, and it was, at the age of 46, while laid aside with a bodily ailment, that William was brought to realise that he was a lost sinner. In this state of mind he continued, seeking peace with God and his conscience on the terms of the covenant of works, until convinced that “by the works of the law there shall no flesh be justified in the sight of God.” When the Lord’s time came to deliver him from his bondage, He revealed Himself to him in the vision Jacob saw at Bethel—”A ladder set up on earth and the top of it reaching to heaven.” In this vision he got a faith’s view of Christ in His finished work, and was enabled to cast his guilty soul upon Him. The authority of God’s Word was to William an end of all controversy, and the treatment which that Word received at the hands of the “Higher Critics” was a source of great grief to him. He therefore hailed with pleasure the Free Presbyterian Church, and willingly threw in his lot with and remained a loyal member and office-bearer of that body until his death. He based his authority for taking this step particularly on the 8th chapter of Romans, and, strange to say, this was the chapter he wished to be read to him shortly before he died.

He was much concerned about the low state of Christ’s cause, and seldom did he engage in prayer but this would be the substance of his petitions. We often admired his diligence to be at the means of grace, and the efforts he made on stormy, wintry days to cross the hill to be present in the house of God.

He was evidently much harassed by “the enemy” for some time before he died, but the Lord lit his candle so that it did shine full bright, and the last words that could be understood from him were “Christ has made the way clear by His blood.” Like all our congregations, Glendale has suffered in the removal by death of those who were valiant for the truth, for, of the five elders ordained with William, only one now remains.

We are sorry to add that, since her husband’s death, Mrs. MacLeod was also taken away; we believe, to be forever with the Lord. She was a woman of a gentle, loving, quiet disposition, and highly respected among the people. Both will be sadly missed in the congregation. May the Lord raise up others to take the place of those who are called home! We desire to express our sympathy with the members of the family in their double bereavement.

N. M’L.

Praise—Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon.*

PSALM CXXXVIII.

VERSE I. “I will praise thee with my whole heart; before the gods will I sing praise unto thee.”

We cannot be too much occupied in the praises of God. He rightly deserves all the thanksgivings we can bring to Him. It is the great engagement of heaven. Let us begin the music here. If we would be heavenly-minded on earth we must be filled with the praises of God. Notice how David resolves that in praising God it shall be done heartily. “I will praise thee with my whole heart.” If there is ever a thing that ought to be done enthusiastically it is the praising of God. I cannot bear to hear God’s praises chirped out elegantly by polite people, as if they were ashamed of what they were doing, or to see a mass of pipes and bellows left by itself to blow the praises of God by machinery, instead of men and women praising Him with their heart. Oh! how acceptable it must be to God to hear the heart speak. As for the tongue and voice, however sweet their sound, there is little in it. It is the heart. Soul-music is the soul of music. “I will praise thee with my whole heart.” See how bold the Psalmist is about this. “Before the gods,” he says, “will I do it. Before the angels, before the kings and great ones that think themselves little gods, I will speak to the honour of Jehovah’s name. Aye, and in the idol temples, where their worshippers will be greatly wroth about it, I will praise thee with my whole heart. Before the gods will I present praise unto thee.”

1. “I will worship toward thy holy temple”—

That was God’s way of worship. In the old times there was the shrine of God: there was the one altar which would render praise acceptable. David takes care to render praise to God in God’s way. And that is a great principle in worship—to avoid will-worship and to endeavour to present sacrifices such as God prescribes. “I will worship toward thy holy temple.”

What blessed reasons are here given for praising. “I will praise thee for thy loving-kindness.” Is not that the grandest word in any language—loving-kindness? It is a compound of perfect sweets to make up a yet more perfect sweetness—kindness and love mixed together. A marvellous blend! Loving-kindness! “And for thy truth”—thy fidelity—thy faithfulness to thy word. Loving-kindness gave the promise, but truth takes care to see it fulfilled. “So will I praise thy name.”

1. “And praise thy name for thy loving-kindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word”—

That is, “Thy word of promise—thy gospel, which thou hast

* We reprint this Exposition at the request of a friend, and by permission of the Publishers, Messrs. Marshall Bros., Ltd., 47 Paternoster Row, London, E.C.—Ed.

applied with power to my soul. Thou hast made it to seem lustrous beyond anything else I have ever seen of thee, O my God; therefore will I magnify thee because thou hast magnified thy word.”

2, 3. “Above all thy name. In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenest me with strength in my soul.”

Ah! this is what ties a man to praise. Answered prayer is sure to lead us to adoring gratitude. Notice that he says that God answered him not by taking away his trouble, but by strengthening him with strength in his soul. You see it does not matter whether He takes away the load or strengthens the back to bear it. And that is often the method by which he answers His servants’ cries. Not strength of body—perhaps he would have liked that—but strength of soul. And oh! when the soul is strong bodily weakness is but a very small drawback. Nay, the weakness of the body may sometimes tend to illustrate the more the greatness of the power of God. Let us read that verse again, for some of us can set our seal to it. “In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenest me with strength in my soul.”

4, 5. “All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O Lord, when they hear the words of thy mouth. Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord: for great is the glory of the Lord.”

David was a king, and kings would learn from him. You and I are not kings, but we may exercise a very beneficial influence in our own circle of acquaintances if we make bold to praise God when others can hear us. Let us speak well of His name. Wherever we go let us have a good word for our Master. When others want to know what sort of God we serve, may they gather it from our holy joy and exultant confidence at all times.

1. “Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly; but the proud he knoweth afar off.”

A glance of them is quite enough for Him. He has no wish to know any more about them; He so hates them. Nothing can separate God from a soul so much as pride. It is that which causes the rejection of the Gospel. Men will not have the humbling Gospel, the sinners’ Gospel. They are too fine, too good, too lofty, and so they do not want God; neither does His soul desire them. “For the proud he knoweth afar off.”

1. “Though I walk in the midst of trouble thou wilt revive me”—

He was a king, but he had his trouble. A throne is not a place wherein we can shelter ourselves from trial. “Though I walk in the midst of trouble”—like a man that is to rush through a fire—”yet I shall be safe,” saith he, “for thou wilt revive me—give me new life. When it seems as if my life would be destroyed thou wilt quicken me again.”

7, 8. “Thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me. The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.”

Note the confident spirit that runs through all this. There is a childlike trust in God, and there is a gladsome praise of God for what has been already received at His hands. Oh! for more of this spirit—the spirit that makes music to the Lord for the past and trusteth Him for the present and the future.