point out errors or defects in our periodical, or in our management of it. And when these errors are pointed out, not in a spirit of censoriousness and angry rebuke, but in meekness, tenderness, and affection, we hope we may acknowledge whatever our conscience condemns as amiss, and as far as lies in our power correct or avoid them for the future. Whatever is not imbued with the spirit of the gospel, and not spoken in love, will but lead to contention and vain jangling. Strife, personalities, and a wrangling spirit we ever wish to avoid, knowing they are no part of that wisdom which is from above; nor is it our desire to expose and point out the infirmities and failings of good men, lest we touch the apple of God's eye. Hatred stirreth up strife, but love covereth a multitude of sins." And we would rather be companions with Shem and Japheth, and inheritors with them of the blessing, than imitate the conduct of Ham. Our circulation continues to increase; and were there no other motive, this would almost keep us at our post. As far as we know ourselves, our motives in continuing to conduct the Gospel Standard are for the glory of God and the good of his people. We derive from it little else but toilsome labour, anxiety of mind, obloquy from enemies, and sometimes reproach and censure from professed friends. Our only reward is the belief that the Lord has blessed, and continues to bless, our pages to the souls of his dear family. We have no other aim, we seek no other reward but this; and it is a sense of this in our conscience which enables us still to persevere in a toilsome, anxious, invidious task, whence we have reaped, for the most part, little else but things painful to the flesh. These things, however, we may in our right mind consider to be favourable marks, and to show that the Standard is a living work. Were there no enemies to oppose it, no slanderers to revile it, were there no trials connected with the Editorship, did it like a gallant, welltrimmed bark float down the stream of general approbation without an adverse breath to stop its course, well might we suspect it was not owned and blessed by the Spirit, well might we fear lest it were not a witness for God and his truth. It is with books as with ministers; "Woe unto you when all men speak well of you." Every work, as well as every preacher, that opposes the kingdom of darkness will be, must be, hated and opposed by the Prince of darkness. "Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake." (Matt. v. 11.) But it may be said, "Yes, but some good men have spoken against the Standard." Is that anything new? Luther spoke against Calvin, and called him a devil. Did this prove Calvin such? Huntington cut off Brook as a hypocrite. Did this make Brook one? The Corinthians doubted Paul's call to the ministry, so that he had reason to say, If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you; for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord." (1 Cor. ix. 2.) Did their doubts and suspicions prove Paul was not an apostle of Jesus Christ? The Galatians would once have plucked out their eyes and given them to Paul, and then turned and forsook him. Did this prove there was any change in him as regards divine things? What minister of Jesus Christ has not seen warm friends become bitter foes? What gospel church has not found its greatest troubles arise from the perverseness and frowardness of those whom they could not cut off as altogether destitute of grace? Who wounded most our dear departed friend Gadsby, and, as the poor old man said, well nigh broke his heart? Some whom, with all their treatment of him, he still believed were partakers of grace. Hart has expressed to the life the path of the Christian, "From sinner and from saint What spiritual reader of our pages cannot from his own painful This witness is true?" experience say, 66 But is there no profit springing to us out of these things? Yes; much every way We are thus taught several important lessonslessons to be learnt in no other school. 1. We learn to avoid everything which may afford just cause for censure. Snarling detractors will have their bark; and like dogs that bay the moon, will bay the louder the more brightly that she shines. May we, like the silver queen of night, still hold on our calm way, unmindful of the howlings beneath; and may clouds and darkness never dim our face to please those whose enmity nothing could appease but our total eclipse, or our being for ever blotted out. These we must leave to bark on till hoarse or weary, but just cause of censure we hope, if pointed out, to correct or avoid. 2. We learn to cease from man, and not to desire or expect the applause of the creature. Few snares are more subtle or more strong, few baits more suitable to the pride and vanity of the human heart, than applause. towns in this kingdom which could not furnish one or more specimens of ministers so accommodating as to hold forth free grace in the morning, and free will in the evening; so that, but for the same face, voice, and general appearance, a stranger who attended both services, might think that two different preachers occupied the same pulpit. Such duplicity and double dealing are not justly chargeable at our door. Our trumpet may give but a feeble tone, some of its notes may not rise so high or sink so low, its keys may not be so numerous or so nicely fitted, the fingers may be more tremulous, and the breath less full and sustained than we could wish, yet it cannot be justly said not to give a certain sound. Whatever be the faults, deficiencies, errors, imperfections, short-comings, and infirmities of our periodical, (and in all these points, as attaching to all human words and works, we are willing, as far as they are discovered to our conscience, to plead guilty,) cautious concealment of our views in divine things cannot, we believe, be justly laid to the charge of the Gospel Standard. We have never yet babbled a mingled dialect, half in the speech of Ashdod and half in the Jews' language; (Nehem. xiii. 24 ;) and it is our desire, if the Lord graciously enable, ever to speak the pure language of Canaan. What we feel that we chiefly want is, more depth and power, more savour and unction, more variety and originality. We would not, if we had our will, have one unfruitful, unprofitable page. All should resemble what we read of the bride, "Thy teeth are as a flock of sheep which go up from the washing, whereof every one beareth twins, and there is not one barren among them." (Song vi. 6.) But it is, perhaps, rarely considered by our Readers, how much we are in this matter, humanly speaking, dependent upon our Correspondents. The power of selection or rejection out of a numerous pile of communications, is almost the only thing strictly and perpetually connected with our Editorial office. It may be sometimes complained, that this piece is confused and unconnected, or that communication dry and unsavoury. A Letter may be objected to as poor and meagre, or an Obituary be thrown down upon the table with a yawn and an expression of astonishment, "How could the Editors insert such a superficial piece as that?" Admitted, freely admitted. We do not object to, nor quarrel with the complaint. It has probably passed our own lips before it ever escaped yours, complaining Reader. We would gladly remedy the defect. Can you assist us to do so? Suppose you, who see so many faults in the Standard, were to favour us with a savoury, unctuous piece of your own. Of course, it would be free from all the defects that you freely censure in other communications. The doctrine would be sound and unexceptionable, the experience deep and savoury, the language powerful and expressive, the arrangement distinct and clear, and the whole a masterpiece of divine eloquence. There are some men, and good men too, who never speak of others but in the language of censure and complaint. They have eyes of eagles to see the bad, and eyes of moles to perceive the good. In this they resemble people whom one sometimes meets with in the world, whose eyes seem formed to see hidden defects at a glance, but to overlook the most striking beauties. Show such persons a large and costly mirror, "Ah! but don't you see," they reply, "that speck in the corner, or that fly-dirt just in the centre?" So it is with these good men, whom one is generally for peace sake obliged to love at a distance. Let them hear a minister of truth. Their ears are open to hear, and their memory retentive to retain, the least word that sounds amiss; and if they cannot find an awry expression, they will twist any that varies from a right line to make it crooked. Their ears, like sieves, let all the sound grain fall through to retain the chaff. A sneer, a slander, a lie against a good man, their memories are of wax to receive, and of stone to retain. Tell them of any action in which others see the grace of God, they are ready in a moment to put it down to some carnal, selfish motive; show them a person to whom his ministry has been blessed, ifs" and buts fall from their lips like leaves in Autumn. Such men are never satisfied but with their own doings and performances; and apart from the exquisite gratification derived from the contemplation of self under all its varied hues and admired shapes, 66 "Their only pleasure is to be displeased." Such objectors and such complainers it is hopeless to attempt to satisfy or please. They must still go on grumbling and complaining through life, attempting (vain attempt!) to set themselves up on the downfall of others, congratulating themselves upon their freedom from all speck or blemish, and in the pride of their hearts thanking God that they are not as other men,-nor even as this Standard. But whilst we are hopeless to satisfy such as these,-whose greatest disappointment is, first, to have nothing to find fault with, and secondly, to get no one to listen to their complaints, we desire ever to lend a listening ear to those, who, in the spirit of the gospel, may point out errors or defects in our periodical, or in our management of it. And when these errors are pointed out, not in a spirit of censoriousness and angry rebuke, but in meekness, tenderness, and affection, we hope we may acknowledge whatever our conscience condemns as amiss, and as far as lies in our power correct or avoid them for the future. Whatever is not imbued with the spirit of the gospel, and not spoken in love, will but lead to contention and vain jangling. Strife, personalities, and a wrangling spirit we ever wish to avoid, knowing they are no part of that wisdom which is from above; nor is it our desire to expose and point out the infirmities and failings of good men, lest we touch the apple of God's eye. Hatred stirreth up strife, but love covereth a multitude of sins." And we would rather be companions with Shem and Japheth, and inheritors with them of the blessing, than imitate the conduct of Ham. 16 Our circulation continues to increase; and were there no other motive, this would almost keep us at our post. As far as we know ourselves, our motives in continuing to conduct the Gospel Standard are for the glory of God and the good of his people. We derive from it little else but toilsome labour, anxiety of mind, obloquy from enemies, and sometimes reproach and censure from professed friends. Our only reward is the belief that the Lord has blessed, and continues to bless, our pages to the souls of his dear family. We have no other aim, we seek no other reward but this; and it is a sense of this in our conscience which enables us still to persevere in a toilsome, anxious, invidious task, whence we have reaped, for the most part, little else but things painful to the flesh. These things, however, we may in our right mind consider to be favourable marks, and to show that the Standard is a living work. Were there no enemies to oppose it, no slanderers to revile it, were there no trials connected with the Editorship, did it like a gallant, welltrimmed bark float down the stream of general approbation without an adverse breath to stop its course, well might we suspect it was not owned and blessed by the Spirit, well might we fear lest it were not a witness for God and his truth. It is with books as with ministers; "Woe unto you when all men speak well of you." Every work, as well as every preacher, that opposes the kingdom of darkness will be, must be, hated and opposed by the Prince of darkness. "Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake." (Matt. v. 11.) |