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النشر الإلكتروني

THE

Spiritual Magazine ;

OR,

SAINTS'

TREASURY.

There are Three that bear record in heaven, the FATHER, the WORD, and the HOLY GHOST: and these Three are One."

<< Earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints."

1 John v. 7.

Jude 3.

APRIL, 1827.

(For the Spiritual Magazine.) CONSOLATION FOR MOURNING SAINTS.

" And the days of thy mourning shall be ended.”—Isa. lx. 20. BELIEVER in Jesus! how blessed a consummation is this after all ́ thy buffetings from Satan, and conflicts with thine enemies. And after all the storms thou hast experienced in thy passage homeward, when thou hast stemmed the last tide of corruption, and art secure from every invading billow, in the haven of everlasting love, how delightful is the thought, that thou hast safely outrode the threatening tempests which have assailed thee, and art now for ever at rest! Yes, to the heaven-bound traveller, infinitely more welcome will be this long-anticipated period, than rest and quiet to the weary soldier after his long campaign of arduous toil and warfare; and after the cessation of his hostilities, more unspeakably refreshing will be his enjoyments, than those derived from the most successful earthly combat, though it be connected with an achievement of the most exalted honours. The honours of the saints are infinitely superior in their nature, and superabundantly transcendant in their glory to all the joys of sense; for, when the trophies of redeeming grace are indulged with the music of their Saviour's love, conveyed by gentle whispers to the soul, through the ear of faith, it is then " the winter seems over and gone;" it is then the spring-like notes of the "turtle dove is heard in the land:" and, what combination of sounds vibrating from the most captivating strains, can equal its melody? Its influence-oh! how unspeakably exhilarating and welcome! its effects, how truly desirable, salutary, and cheering! Is the gift of rich grace to be desired more than every exterior blessing? Oh, how supremely inestimable is its gracious VOL. III.-No. 36.

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giver! Surely in the contemplation of him, we lose sight of his very gifts; in the enjoyment of his favours we are enamoured-we are swallowed up, and lost in the profound and delightful mystery. Yes, in him who bore our sorrows, and sustained our griefs, who atoned for our sins, and ransomed us by blood, we have a perfection of majesty and beauty concentrated; for from Jesus beams forth ineffable glory; and in him we behold all the infinite and unfathomable perfections of Deity, blended with humanity. For us he suffered. What a sublime contemplation for our faith is this! Glorious indeed, past expression is the truth, in its design, nature, and end; and here, let us pause, be silent, and adore.

There is something truly precious and consoling to the minds of the redeemed couched in the declaration of John when in the Isle of Patmos. Listen, O believer, to the gladsome tidings, and exult in the happy intelligence: "God shall wipe away all tears from thine eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away." Then it may be said, the days of thy mourning are ended. It will soon be said of us by our successors, as we have before repeated of our brethren in the church triumphant, who have stemmed the tide of death, and entered the pearly gates of glory a short time before us— "Once they were mourning here below,

And wet their couch with tears;
They wrestled hard, as we do now,

With sins, and doubts, and fears."

The matter contained in our subject may have a prophetical allusion to the church militant, after the dispersion of the Jewish types and shadows contained in the ceremonial law, which is now abrogated by a better covenant. No doubt I think can be entertained on this point, after a mature and deliberate perusal of the context. But, I am also of opinion, that in this prophecy, a special reference is made to the eternal sabbath of rest (which is already dawning,) when the saints shall for ever rest from their labours, and enter into the of their Lord, no more to go out for ever. I shall therefore 1st. Delineate the character interested in the declaration. 2ndly. Shew the causes of their sorrow, and glance at some of the things which excite it.

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3rdly. Enquire into the blessedness arising from the certainty of its speedy termination.

Under my first proposition, I shall describe the true state and condition of every unregenerate man, to evince that the sorrows they experience are essentially dissimilar to those experienced by the righteous, which terminate in joy and peace; and, then, describe some of the genuine features in the real saint, to prove that such only are interested in eternal life manifestively; and that all spiritual mourning must proceed from a principle of newness of life imparted, which is of divine origin, and the sole product of supernatural influence.

That it is natural for man to mourn from causes independent of

illuminating grace, needs no argument to demonstrate. A very superficial view of things, as they really are, will supersede the necessity of adducing proof. The weighty curse denounced against our first parent, as the inevitable result of apostacy, was universal: none of his posterity ever escaped its devastation at the awful period of man's transgression, the gloomy shades of midnight darkness eclipsed his pristine glory; and guilty man, bereft of every vestige of the fair image of his divine Creator, lies entombed in the grave of spiritual death, without the remotest hope of human recovery. In this state of corruption he unconsciously wallows; and is literally and truly a pestilence walking in darkness. From sin springs his every action. His body, alike doomed to death with the soul, is but a funeral bier to convey it to its destiny. How alarming, indeed, must be the summons that awaits to usher him into the hopeless state appointed for the finally impenitent, from whence is no redemption.

And, what are the fruits of sin? briers and thorns spring up, and retard his footsteps. He is born to tribulation-he reveals early evidence of his guilt; for he enters the porch of life weeping, as though conscious of his state; his days, so admirably compared by an inspired person to a span, are spent in an unwearied prostitution to the shrine of vanity; and his whole life is frittered away in conceiving endless projects and in fruitless endeavours for the attainment of sensual aggrandizements; which, even supposing the possibility of a full attainment equal to the summit of his wishes, they are at best but transitory, and in the issue will beget the bitterest sorrow.

His

Disappointed hopes, blighted expectations, and a tissue of temporal bereavements, are the constant attendants on his wild career. hopes of obtaining permanent good, or substantial happiness from creature comforts, must in the end inevitably prove delusive. And, though disappointment succeed disappointment in his efforts to accomplish the climax of his wishes; still, ever restless as the ocean, he bends his footsteps onward to gain the alluring shore with an unwearied assiduity; while his bold imagination propels him forward with the full determination to surmount every obstacle opposed to his course, and to obtain the airy phantom of his pursuit, whatever be the cost.

It must be admitted that some men are less aspiring after worldly honours, and the sensual gratifications of this life than others; and in their labours to attain them are more daunted, and less persevering than others; it is also equally true that some are more moral in their outward habits than their companions; but these may arise, in the first case, from peculiarity in the constitutional structure; and, in the other case, either from ancient prejudice, the early influences of education, and the force of suasion, or, from natural propensities interwoven in their constitution: but these blessings (for blessings they doubtless are,) must ever be ascribed to the mere restraint of an almighty power which bounds them. The principles of the one are precisely the same as in the other-the stock of Adam, and all its

branches are equally corrupt. If some of the branches proceeding from this corrupt root are only suffered to bud in vice, the mercy must be ascribed to the restraining hand of God which impedes their wishes, and resists their native inclinations. If he be not permitted, like the criminal malefactor ignominiously to terminate his course, after an arrival to the full bloom of wretchedness and open vice, and thus to become an open spectacle to men and devils, and a monument of God's avenging wrath; surely he is highly favoured, and is under the deepest obligation to his benefactor, while he has nothing of his own but shame and sorrow.

The mind of man is unfolded in his actions; and, whatever be his professions to the contrary, it is ever grasping after some supposed bliss; nor can it rest content without the ideal good. Should he grasp it, the very principle which at first conceived the object of his vain ambition, from its progressive influence on his inclinations, leaves him still a wretched victim to further anticipations; so that while he is the constant votary of happiness, he never realizes the object of his enterprize, the possession of which he apprehends to be the only thing wanting to render life happy, and smooth his passage to the tomb. Who can survey the inch of time comprehended in the three-score years and ten of life, and deny the foregoing proposition? the axiom is too obvious-its experience strikes home; it reaches every heart; and every man of conscious integrity must subscribe to truth so incontrovertible. Yes, while he lives he marches onward to the tomb fully arrayed in the grave clothes of mortality; and, though he knows it not, he is incarcerated in the gloomy dungeon of guilt and black despair, and only lives to mourn. Seeing that he is involved in the deepest thraldom of misery, without a well-founded hope beyond the grave of deliverance from its cruel pangs, it is no matter for surprize that he should sorrow, 1 Thes. iv. 13. Dark as the shades of this picture are, this estate is the lot of all men; the rich and the poor; the wise and the illiterate; the honourable and the lowly; the noble lord and his humble vassal; the illustrious prince and the meanest peasant. And indeed, in this point of view, the godly as well as the ungodly are born to trouble: yet there is a path of sorrow, peculiar to the sanctified, that " the vulture's eye hath not seen," the termination of which is unspeakable joy and peace; while, lamentable to the wicked is the fact, their sorrow is only worldly, and worketh death. The latter class mourn not over sin, for they love its influence, and are dead therein; they sigh not after holiness, for they are both ignorant of their need of such adorning, and the value of it: in fine -they are wholly and totally unconscious of the nature and worth of spiritual desires; and as to the most distant spiritual perceptions, they are completely benighted. This is the inheritance of the saints, and only to them is it imparted at regeneration.

And, what a solemn thought! if man, born in a state of spiritual death, be amenable to the wrath of God, dying unrenewed and unregenerate, the days of his mourning here are but the first buddings of

his misery, and the preparatory fruits of an endless state of woe hereafter; for "the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." Such then are not the blessed mourners included

in our subject.

I conclude from the foregoing premises, that the regenerate, in whom the heaven-born principle of grace has been implanted, are the only subjects the passage before us refers to; true contrition of heart is produced by divine operation, and can only flow from the newly begotten principle of life. From this source proceeds his sorrow on account of sin; and his sighs and tears are evidences of light and life, to which he was once an utter stranger. He is now introduced on a new stage, and every thing around him is strange and astonishing. He sees and feels himself to be a sinner in its truest light. The law seizes him-his conscience, alive to every accusation, torments him; he flies to Sinai for relief, and is appalled by its dreadful thunders; he weeps sorely-but this is legal sorrow. At length, being tried, cast, and condemned, he seeks refuge at the cross, and there he drops his burden in the sepulchre; there he receives a gracious look of love from Jesus, which seals his deliverance sure. then, with tears of joy and gladness sings with the poet

"More happy, but not more secure,

The glorified spirits in heaven!"

He

Is the divine implantation of grace the fruit of rich, free, eternal, and discriminating love? Oh, how greatly enhanced in value is it to its possessors! Moreover, what a striking contrast is manifest between the sorrow of the world, and that of the christian. The heir of glory sighs for mercy, and rejoices in a knowledge of its attainment; he laments over the burden of carnal nature, he weeps over contrarieties within him, and foes without, though by faith he beholds them for ever vanquished in Christ. He weeps-but his tears are precious drops laden with promised joys of a lasting and unfading kind; and being the product of infinite love, they are pregnant with all that is truly blessed and divine. As to the sorrows of the world, they are only sensual, and tend to death. Truly it may be said, "here is the finger of God." And in reply to the important query, "who hath made thee to differ?" how sweetly may it be responded" the wind bloweth where it listeth, thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit!" But

Secondly. Sin is the hydra-headed monster from whence issues every description of sorrow. To this sad fountain of disease and misery, may be traced the pangs of a guilty conscience; and all the tormenting remorse, which is the natural consequence of a departure from the paths of peace. The conscience is a faithful monitor; it often reminds the sinner of his guilt, and rings in his soul the awful knell of a fearful hereafter; but carnal and dead he still remains, save to the legal terrors such peals excite within him: and, this repose

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