beauty; his blessed feet have trodden | as a pledge of its complete and glorious its sin-polluted surface; his bitter tears redemption. Beloved, we do believe and precious blood have fallen upon, and that this world is so precious to Jesus, hallowed it for ever. Yea, He has even that it is his purpose and his pleasure taken a portion of it into indissoluble to make it the very glory of the uni union with Himself, and carried it, in verse. his human body, "made of the substance of his mother," up to his throne, as a tie to bind Him for ever to this earth, and Liverpool.

To be continued.

M. M.

A QUEEN.

(Continued from page 83.)

"And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to prove him with hard questions."-1 Kings x. 1. THE queen of Sheba heard of the fame I tell whence it cometh, and whither it of Solomon concerning the name of the goeth: so is every one that is born of Lord, we are told. It was not merely the Spirit." That led our queen to seek the desire to see the glory, to admire the face of him who was so pre-eminently the riches, or to hear the wisdom of a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Solomon, as a great and wise monarch, yet in all his glory, Solomon was but a that induced the queen of the South to faint shadow of Him who came to deundertake the long and laborious jour-clare the name of the Lord as no mortal ney to Jerusalem. True she had, in some way or other, heard of the fame of Solomon; but it was not this fame exclusively that had induced her to leave her palace, her kingdom, and her country, for a long period, in order to accom-give unto Philip that glorious assurance, plish the arduous pilgrimage. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father."

She had heard of his fame in connexion with a subject which, no doubt, by the mysterious influence of that Spirit, whom as yet she knew not, nor comprehended, had been impressed on her mind with such a weight, and stamped with such an importance, that she could not resist it. Aye, my beloved friends, it is indeed a mysterious and (God be praised!) an irresistible impulse which animates and influences the soul, when the Lord the Spirit begins to unfold to it something of the power, and the glory of things which as yet have remained disregarded, unknown, unsought; things, in fact, which frequently have been the object, not of desire, but of aversion and disgust. No, we may be fully persuaded, I imagine, that it was not the fame of Solomon in the abstract, that proved such a powerful attraction to the queen of the South; it was the name of the Lord which she desired to know; it was (can we doubt it?) that wonderful, powerful, irresistible influence of which our blessed Saviour says, "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not

man had ever done; of Him who declared, that a greater than Solomon was here on this earth; who, though He was despised and rejected of men, a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, could

There were probably many who had come to Jerusalem in consequence of having heard of the fame of Solomon many, undoubtedly, had been attracted by what had been told them of that great King who had succeeded his father David, and who was endowed with worldly riches, and heavenly wisdom. But the queen of Sheba sought more than this; she had "heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord."

We all know that this name was at. that time revealed in a peculiar way among the children of Israel. In their laws and their customs-in their history, their religious rites and ceremonies, the name of the Lord was proclaimed as it had not yet been the case among other nations. He hath not dealt so with any nation; and as for his judgments, they have not known them." To know the name of the Lord, as had been revealed among the Israelites, was all the desire of the queen of Sheba; she had heard of the fame of Solomon concerning that name, and to Solomon she would, and must go.

66

Many sought Jesus, the true Solo- ! unto you, "ye seek me, not because ye mon, when He was upon this earth; but saw the miracles, but because ye did eat few there were-and alas! few there still of the loaves, and were filled." Thereare-who, with Philip, can be satisfied fore saith the heavenly Solomon to them with nothing less than what is implied in and to all who seek Him merely from cuhis request to the Saviour, "Show us the riosity, for bread, or for honour, "The Father, and it sufficeth us." This is queen of the South shall rise up in judgof a truth that prophet that should come ment with this generation, and shall coninto the world," exclaimed many a voice; demn it: for she came from the utterbut they did not all seek Jesus concern- most parts of the earth to hear the wising the name of the Lord, which He dom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater alone could reveal unto them. The Lord than Solomon is here." Himself declared, "Verily, verily, I say (To be continued.)

Cologne.

MY DEAREST G

TALK BY THE WAY.

I have been privileged for a few | for the express purpose of displaying minutes this morning, to enter Gethse- his wisdom, grace, and power. All the mane, and there to have fellowship with glories of redemption are brought forth my suffering Lord. in connexion with the fall. In no wayI felt the force of your remarks on with reverence we speak it-could JehoSabbath evening about our little time-vah have so manifested his sovereignty. bubbles; and nothing do I ever find so This brings me, beloved G., to touch calculated to divert one from them-and upon ground which you know has cost to regard them in the light in which you me no small amount of anxiety, and in represented them-as when enabled by reference to which the desperate infidelthe Holy Ghost to contemplate a preciousity of the human heart has struggled for Christ, in His undertaking, sufferings, death, and triumph.

given in the 9th of the Romans, " Nay, but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus ?"

the mastery. It is God's sovereign choice of his people, and by an equally In proportion as I think upon eternity, sovereign and indisputable act, passing and the value of immortal souls, I love by the vast majority of the human race, to meditate upon those glorious transac- and leaving them to all the hapless contions to which also you alluded, when sequences of the fall. Against this the Jehovah, in his Trinity of Persons, sat mind of man naturally must rebel; but in counsel. Before "the morning stars I ever find a measure of relief both to sang together, or the sons of God shouted the carnal insinuations of my own base for joy," I see the glorious plan of sal- heart, and the remonstrances of ungodly vation mapped out. There sit in coun-men, in the language of the Apostle, as sel and deliberation the Three adorable Persons in the One undivided Jehovah; and I hear them exclaim, “Let us make man in our own image." But how shall that creation most redound to the Divine glory? Here is the momentous question. And in relation to it I dare not overlook nor undervalue the fact, that Jehovah, in the after-development of his mind, never lost one iota of his power, or sacrificed a particle of his dominion. Awful as was the fall, and deep and fatal as was the vortex into which by sin man was plunged, yet the purposes of Jeho vah were not in the least wise frustrated. Nothing happened, or could happen, which He did not foresee, and for which He was not prepared. On the contrary, the fall was "according to his determinate counsel and foreknowledge," and

In support of this testimony I may mention that of the patriarch, who, in reference to one mighty exhibition of Divine sovereignty, exclaims, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right ?"

Again, as it is only by faith-and that faith of the Lord's own operation-we can recognize his authority, submit to his power, and acquiesce in his dispensations-so it is alone by faith we can stand and gaze upon the threshold of these mysteries, in the fullest possible persuasion that God, in his own time will justify Himself, and vindicate his own honour. Man taketh upon himself

to accomplish that which Jehovah as yet of sin. What a change! how desperate has not condescended to do-namely, | the circumstances into which he had to open out and explain that which Je-fallen; and yet how speedily do we behovah has intended should remain a mys-hold the opening out of Divine love. tery until He shall deign-and that only In anticipation of the renewed assaults in the light of eternity-to interpret. of him who now becomes the accuser But there is one thought-and which of the brethren," Jehovah begins to unI consider it to be the province of faith fold the glorious mysteries of redempto entertain-namely, that as his own tion. glory was Jehovah's object in the creation of man, so the eternal wonder of the redeemed will be, that they-feelingly the most depraved, and the most unworthy-should have been eternally chosen as the objects of that redemption, whilst such multitudes were passed by.

Does not this, dearest G., even now furnish us with material for adoring wonder and admiration? Those words of Dr. Watts will, I think, never lose their sweetness with me

Why was I made to hear thy voice,
And enter whilst there's room,

Whilst thousands make a wretched choice,

And rather starve than come?

"Twas the same love that spread the feast,
That sweetly forced me in;
Else I had still refused to taste,
And perished in my sin.

If these are
our sensations now,
blinded as we are by sin, wedded as we
are to the creature, and engrossed by the
vanities of this poor dying world; what
will it be, when eternity dawns, and in
its light we behold the opening out in
astounding review the watchfulness, and
the grace, and the power, that were ex-
ercised on our behalf, amid the myriad
unseen and unsuspected dangers through
which we were passing? Oh, how true it is
that "

we know but parts of his ways;" that even with regard to the methods of his Providence, and the dispensations of his grace, we see "but through a glass darkly." How will it be seen, in after day, that there was a needs-be" for every cross and every care; a "needsbe that we should be in heaviness through manifold temptations."

And there are, my Brother, one or two thoughts in reference to this disclosure which I conceive are worthy of our special attention. Observe it is recorded that Adam and Eve "heard the voice of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day; and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden." A very sorry hiding-place from the eye of Omniscience, you will say. But I venture to think, that, though they "heard his voice," they no longer beheld his Person. Whatever their fall, subsequently He veiled his glory, indalgence in this respect prior to the His voice was heard, but no longer could He be seen. Moses, as you will remember in after-day, exclaimed, "I beseech Thee shew me thy glory."

Jeho

vah answered, "Thou canst not see my face, and live." He could no longer be seen, nor apprehended but through and by a Mediator. And in what a glorious way does his grace appear in reference to the announcement of that Mediator. For be it remembered, that, so intensely was his heart set upon his offending ones, and so sovereign did his grace even in that early day appear, that whilst he pronounced upon the serpent his doom, he published salvation by Jesus before He declared all the hapless consequences of the fall. Oh, how was a Father's love, his pity and condescension, thus graciously manifested. And can we question for a moment that faith was given to Adam to "behold the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world ?" Both the skins with which he and his wife were clothed, and the offerings of which we read in the next chapter, clearly indicate his observance of sacrifice in all his

But having in our contemplations witnessed in eternity past the plan of re-approaches to Jehovah. And by the demption, and the drawing up of the ancient covenant, in which each Person in the adorable Trinity bound Himself to fulfil his several conditions, we pass onward into time, and there behold man in his purity as coming forth from the hands of his Creator, and man under curse and condemnation, the effect and consequence

sword which kept the way of life, are we
not taught that the heart of Jesus must
be pierced, and that Divine justice must
be satisfied, before access could be had
to that new and living way which our
most glorious Christ opened up?
F. G. P.

(To be continued.)

CHILDREN OF PROMISE, AND ISHMAELS.

IN writing to the Galatian Church, the | even when Ishmael was born. But do Apostle distinctly marks the existence of we not often find believing men acting mere formalists amongst them; men in a similar way in the Church, by the whose religion consisted in a slavish manner in which they preach the Gospel? obedience to "weak and beggarly ele- They profess to regard regeneration as ments;" and who by their plausible peculiarly the work of God, wrought by ways and words "bewitched" the breth- the powerful operation of the Holy Ghost ren, leading them to the folly of seeking in every elect vessel of mercy, each and to add to the cross of Christ, as if, hav- all having been "chosen in Christ before ing begun in the Spirit, they could be the foundation of the world," and "premade perfect by the flesh. Now this is destinated to the adoption of children." a way of wounding the brethren that is And they also believe that the Redeemer common at this time as well as then; must "see of the travail of his soul," nay, it was an old plan, for the Apostle and "see his seed;" that none given to refers to the ancient history of Isaac Him by the Father can be lost; but the and Ishmael, declaring it to be an "alle- Lord will so work, that all who are orgory." The "mocking" (Gen. xxi. 9) dained to eternal life shall believe; yet of the former by the latter was doubt in his own fixed time. Still perhaps less with reference to the promise of weeks and months pass away, and none God; even as still, those who through seem to believe our report. We are grace are led to lean upon the Lord Je-ready to faint, and to say, "I have lasus Christ for a complete and finished salvation, are "mocked" by others, who regard heaven as a place to be won by the exercise of some power inherent in us: for however they may word it, calling it a grace common to all, &c., yet this is the teaching of multitudes.

Now the Apostle says in Gal. iv. 24, "Which things are an allegory;" or (as has been said), a cluster of allegories (aλλnyogovueva). Much allegorical instruction may be drawn from the recorded facts concerning Isaac and Ishmael; for the circumstances concerning their birth as well as life, have their counterpart in the visible Church of Christ.

I shall not dwell upon what St. Paul himself says about Mount Sinai and Jerusalem; but I think we may see in the account given in Gen. xvi. and elsewhere, much that is a picture of what is continually occurring in the Church of God.

Thus Isaac was the child of promise; God had absolutely promised Abraham that he should have a son (Gen. xv. 4). Time, however, passed on, and the promise remained unfulfilled; the probability (judging after the manner of men) becoming more remote. At last we see faith began to waver, and an expedient was formed (not pointed out by God), whereby Abraham might have a son, but not by his wife; and Ishmael was born. Now we are ready enough to pronounce this conduct to be wrong, and see that God's promise still remained in abeyance,

boured in vain-I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain." As Abraham waited for the child, so do we for "the children of promise" (Gal. iv. 28).

And then we are apt to "confer with flesh and blood;" and as the patriarch listened to the suggestions of Sarah, so do we give heed to the thoughts of a deceitful heart; or "the prudent advice" of some persons near us. Our preaching must be smoothed so as to please men; offensive doctrines must be kept back the sovereignty of God, and utter nothingness of man, must not be so insisted on; and we must try to win men by leading them to suppose that they can begin their own salvation; and that if they will only do something, the Saviour (they should call Him the Helper) will assist them, or the Holy Ghost come to them. In fact, as Abraham left Sarah for Hagar, so are we tempted not to trust to "free-grace" alone, but rather seek through carnal "free-will," to make converts.

Now this I believe is often done; and the result is the birth of many an Ishmael. Numbers are thus added to the Church, of such as will never be saved in spite of their professions. They are not "born again of God by the incorruptible seed of the Word," therefore they are not "children of promise." Their faith (or religion) "stands in the wisdom of man, and not in the power of God." And they have nothing to do with the inheritance. "The son of the

bondwoman shall not be heir with the child of God-" He that is born after son of the free woman" (Gal. iv. 30). the flesh persecuteth him that is born And (to carry on the allegory), as Ish-after the Spirit." The professor hates mael's "hand was to be against every and ridicules the inward holiness and man, and every man's hand against him spiritual experiences of the true saint, (Gen. xvi. 12), so is it here. These pro- regarding such things as marks of fanatfessors converts of a free-will system icism and folly. stand midway between the Church of God and a profane world. Their hand is against both, and they are attacked by both. They speak against the open profligacy of the outward world, while they receive their scorn in return. Andquailing under the clear testimony of the

Ch, for grace ever to realize that "He is faithful who hath promised;" clinging firmly to the word of God, "being fully persuaded that what He has promised,. He is able also to perform."

April 7, 1856.

ALIQUIS SECUndus.

BRIEF NOTES ON THE LORD'S PRAYER.

THY KINGDOM COME.-MATT. VI. 10-13.

BY THE REV. J. KNAPP, INCUMBENT OF ST. JOHN'S, PORTSEA.

May the Good Spirit overrule and bless, while we enquire briefly.

I. The NATURE OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM.

How important it is, that we should | wherein Christ is acknowledged as King, have a right understanding of what we but in which all the members are not. pray for. Of how many professors may really and truly the subjects of a divine it not justly be remarked, "They know life. In no Scripture that I am aware not what they ask." I am persuaded of, is the phrase "kingdom of heaven this is the case with many who repeat applicable to the Church of God in a trithis prayer-they are absolutely ignorant umphant state. Thus (e. g.) in Matt. of that kingdom, the coming of which xvi. 19, Peter and the apostles are inthey profess to desire. vested with the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Matt. xiii. 24, In the kingdom of heaven, we are taught, there are tares as well as wheat. Matt. xiii. 47, The kingdom of heaven is like a net filled with good and bad fish. in Matt. xxv. 1, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto ten virgins, some wise and some foolish. This term, kingdom of heaven, points to the Gospel dispensation, to the mixed condition of the Church below, and to its gradual, though almost imperceptible growth; as is set forth in Luke xiii. 19-21, in the parables of the mustard-seed, and the leaven.

II. The IMPORT OF THE PRAYER.
1. The NATURE OF CHRIST'S KING-

DOM.

The term kingdom in the New Testament, is used in many and distinct senses; and although one kingdom in principle, may ever be referred to, still various phases of development, and distinct stages of manifestation, are from time to time introduced to us.

When the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, his cry was, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. iii. 2). Our blessed Saviour in his public ministrations proclaimed the self-same truth (Matt. iv. 17). When the disciples were sent forth, they were commissioned to make a like announcement (Matt. x. 7).

r

And

In this sense, sometimes, the term kingdom of God is used, but very seldom, as for instance Matt. xxi. 43. Although the term kingdom of God is. analagous to kingdom of grace, it is very evident that the above Scripture refers to the outward Church, and to the outward Church alone. Only in this sense can it be understood that the kingdom of God could be taken from the Jews and given to the Gentiles.

2. The KINGDOM OF GRACE.

If all the passages wherein this phrase, kingdom of heaven," are carefully studied, I think it will be evident that this kingdom is a visible kingdom, and that it refers to the outward Church :-a This is altogether distinct from the Church wherein a Gospel profession is kingdom of heaven, inasmuch as while made, and Gospel privileges enjoyed; the latter contains subjects, who render