him, if hearty, is the evidence that he is engaged for us. Let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.

Fourth. Fellowship embraces joint communication. Jehovah communicates to the sinner his spirit, and the sinner surrenders to Jehovah his body, soul, and spirit. The Lord communicates to the soul grace, light, and comfort; and the soul communicates to the Lord its fears, desires, and praises. The Lord communicates to the soul strength, holiness, and peace; and the soul renders to the Lord grateful acknowledgements, loving obedience, and hearty thanksgiving. The sinner brings to the Lord his sins, poverty, griefs, and woes; and the Lord bestows pardon, riches, relief, and consolation. The sinner sees Jehovah in Christ, and Jehovah sees the sinner in Christ. The Lord says, "I have loved thee, and therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee." The sinner says, "I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplication." The Lord

says, "Thou shalt no more be termed forsaken; but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, my delight is in her." The soul says, "I have said unto the Lord, thou art my Lord, my goodness, my fortress, my deliverer, my

shield, and my high tower. I will love thee, O Lord, my strength." Jehovah says of Christ, "Behold my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth;" and the sinner says, "My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand; his mouth is most sweet, yea, he is altogether lovely." The Lord delights in his people, and his people delight in him. The people are the portion of the Lord, and the Lord is the portion of the people. The Lord is all to the people, and the people are all to the Lord. They have fellowship one with another.

love.

us."

Fifth. In fellowship there is sympathy experienced and manifested. Love begets We love him because he first loved When the soul is grieved, the Lord feels. His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel, Judges x. 16. When the Lord is dishonoured, the believer grieves; when God is glorified, the Christian is made glad. The head and members mutually sympathize with each other, and real friends sympathize with each other also. The concerns of the Lord are merged in the concerns of his church, Deut. xxxii. 26, 27. Oh what wondrous grace ! Jehovah sympathizes with, and feels for, sinful dust and ashes!

He calls us to fellowship with himself by his gospel; fits us for it by the new creating power of his Spirit; and brings us to the enjoyment of it to the praise of the glory of his grace. But do I live in fellowship with God? Have I a spiritual knowledge of him? Am I in friendship with him? Am I engaged to him? Are my interests his ? And are his interests mine? Do I communicate to him my sorrows, my cares, my desires, my praises, my troubles, and my all? Do I receive his Spirit, his grace, his comforts, his love, his word? Do I sympathize with him? is that grief to me, which is represented to grieve him? Do I walk in the light as he is in the light, and find the blood of Jesus cleanse me from all sin? 1 John i. 3-7. If so, then assuredly I am a happy character. But if I know nothing of these things, THEN, (O awful!) THEN my religion is a dream, a fancy, a delusion. All believers are called to the fellowship of the Son of God, 1 Cor. i. 9. They have communion with the Holy Ghost, 2 Cor. xiii. 14; Phil. ii. 1, and are only happy as they can say to those who profess Jesus around them, "Have fellowship with us, for truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus

Christ," 1 John i. 8. But perhaps some may read this paper who cannot say they have fellowship with God thus: but are you seeking it? are you thirsting for it? is it the desire of your soul? If so, remember we were all but seekers once; time was when the most favoured saint could only say, "O that I did but know, love, and live in fellowship with Jehovah, Father, Son, and Spirit!" To you I say, yet not I, but the Lord, "Seek, and ye shall find; ask, and ye shall receive; strive, and ye shall enter; call, and ye shall be answered, for I wait to be gracious." Give not way then to despondency, but look to the Lord, and you shall be lightened, and be delivered from all your fears.

Jesus, my all in all thou art,

My rest in toil, my ease in pain;
The medicine of my broken heart,
In war, my peace,-in loss, my gain;
My smile beneath the tyrant's frown,
In shame, my glory, and my crown.

In want my plentiful supply,

In weakness my almighty power;
In bonds, my perfect, liberty,
My light in satan's darkest hour,
In grief my joy unspeakable,
My life in death, my heaven in hell.

ON DESIRES

I FIND much of my religion stands in desires; I often examine myself lest I should rest short of the mark, and it is often the case that all I can find is a desire. I desire to prefer Jesus to all things else, but I cannot actually do so at all times, yet still I desire: I desire to love Jesus with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, to love him so as I never loved anything beside; but often it is only the desire: I desire to prize and enjoy Jesus, not only to use him as a shelter from the storm, a covert from the wind, and a hiding place from my foes; but to find him the banquet of my soul, my dainty meat, my treasure, all things in one: but often I do but desire, for what I would I do not; I desire to HONOUR, GLORIFY, and PRAISE him, in all and everything I do, but often I find I do some things which dishonour him, and other things without even thinking of his glory. I desire to be more and more separated and dead to the world, and increasingly alive to the things of God: but all I find is the desire, I would but cannot.