one to another we do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace, if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will befall us. Now therefore come that we may go and tell the king's household." I remember but very little of the sermon but the power that attended it I trust will never be forgotten: from that all important moment has my soul been knit in a way I cannot describe to my dear friend and pastor Mr. Biddle and although I have been removed again in Providence for this last seventeen years, yet Brockham is a sacred place in my Little history. Brighton. E. J. BUCKWELL. THE EXPERIENCE OF A MINISTER'S SON. [We give the following, hoping it may, under God, be the means of opening a door of usefulness for the writer; who must we believe, remove from his present sphere of labour, owing to the extreme poverty of the place-ED.] DEAR BROTHER BANKS-I am extremely obliged for your very kind communication duly received; and in compliance with your request, I pen a short statement of the Lord's dealings with me, in bringing me from a state of sin and depravity; yea, from a state of legal bondage, into the glorious liberty of the children of God. From a very early period of my life I had serious impressions respecting my state as a sinner in the sight of God. Being the child of God-fearing parents, I had the best of examples placed before me; and my father being a minister, I, with the rest of my brothers and sisters, were constant attendants at the house of God, and frequently, while there listening to a preached gospel, I was melted into tears. The death of my father also mightily affected me and brought me to my knees; but these impressions were shadowy, these were evanescent, they were not lasting; like the early cloud and the morning dew; they passed away, and as I advanced to more mature age, and went more from under the eye of my parents, and into the company of the careless and unconcerned, I seemed insensibly to partake of their minds and their habits, which has since frequently reminded me of Solomon's caution, Prov. x. 14, 15. Yet I could not, like them, give loose to the reins of my lusts, and run into all excess of riot. The remaining force of an early training, and impressions made in favor of morality and virtue, prevented me committing many sins, which otherwise I should probably have fallen into. I was, what some people then termed, a good young man; a young man of good moral habits; but although such were the externals of my character, and which I attribute in a great measure to the care bestowed upon me by my parents, the internal malady of my soul had not been touched; the root of the evil had not been reached, the enmity of my heart to God had not been slain; to the spirituality and holiness of the Divine nature I was an entire stranger, and consequently a Saviour I did not want. But the time was approaching, and the time came, when these matters were clearly revealed to my understanding, and pressed home upon my heart. Having one evening, in the winter season, entered a house where a minister was appointed to preach, 1 remained to hear him; he took for hi stext the 15th and 16th verses of the third chapter of the Revelations. That minister I had seen and heard once before, but to no advantage, either moral or spiritual, but rather disgust; it was different at this time: I have never seen him since, neither am I acquainted with his name; but this I do know, that the truth rolled from his lips into my heart, with such amazing force and power that I trembled from head to foot, and the misery and anxiety of my mind from that hour until the dear Lord was graciously and lovingly pleased to reveal himself to me as reconciled in the person and death of his Son, no tongue can describe, nor mind imagine, but his who has been in a si. milar state; and although upwards of twenty. five years have passed away since then, that circumstance is as fresh upon my mind as it was at the moment. It is never to be forgotten. From this time I was led to associate more closely and intimately with the members and minister of the particular Baptist church at Dolen, in Radnorshire, of which church my father had been the honoured and successful pastor for the term of thirty years, and his father for the last nineteen years of his life. Before this church I stood, and with much trembling and fear faithfully declared the state of my mind, and what then passed in conversation and prayer was blessed to my soul in a most extraordinary manner. As I was relieved of my load and misery, I could say of my blessed Jesus, thou art mine, thou hast done all for me. This was the first time that I saw him in his finished work, the "altogether Lovely." This was a revelation of him by the Spirit, as I am persuaded that no man can say that Jesus is the Christ, but by the Spirit of God. Soon after this, I was baptized, and became a member of this same christian church; and in compliance with the urgent and repeated entreaties and wishes of the minister, the deacons, and members of this church, and in their presence, I made my first attempt to exercise my ministerial gifts. My call to the work of the ministry seemed to the church and the ministers in the neighbourhood at that time very clear, although not, to my mind, as clear as I wished, as I for some time hesitated and fell back from complying with the wishes of those by whom I was surrounded. The various exercises of my mind upon this subject, to pen the whole, would fill a volume; the Lord has enabled me thus far to persevere in the work, and to speak a word to his praise when an opportunity has offered; and there are several now living who can bear witness to the truth from my lips to first went to his people there were only thirty-six members, and the whole of the church and congregation was not more than sixty or seventy, now bers; and that the congregation was more than they numbered above two hundred and fifty mem their souls. I consider the work of the gospel minister to have a greater amount of responsibility attaching to it than any other employment in which a human being can possibly engage. Unless we feel that all our three hundred; thus the Lord had made use of a springs are in him, we are undone. I trem-poor earthen vessel; then he spoke from 2 Cor. ble, and yet I rejoice: "His love in times past forbids me to think He will leave me at last in trouble to sink." With best wishes I remain my dearly be loved brother, yours sincerely, D. EVANS. iv. 7. We had a good time; a full meeting, and REVIEWS, NOTICES, &c. "God is Love; or, the Glimpses of the Father's Infinite Affection for his People." By the author of "The Brother Born for Adversity." London: Darton and Co., Holborn Hill. SHARNBROOK, BEDS.-As you record the progress of God's holy cause in the various departments of Zion, a brief account of what the Lord has done for us in Bethlehem, at Sharnbrook, may be acceptable, About a year ago, the cause here was brought very low, and many thought and said, "It must fall to the ground." The minister, Mr. gious subject, has met with so large, and so We suppose no five-shilling book on a reliRice, being ill and not likely to preach again, a special meeting for prayer was held to ask the hearty a welcome as this volume has done. Lord to appear for his people in sending a man Its sale has been rapid, and its usefulness in among them whose ministry he would own and touching the hearts, in encouraging and combless to their souls. In the month of June, a man forting the souls of many, even of some minisappeared, (Mr. T. Corby, of Ecton) whose ministers of whom we have heard, is, to us, surtry proved a decided success. God's children were fed, refreshed, and strengthened. Zion lifted up her head. Redeemed souls were added to the church; the chapel became filled with attentive hearers, which continues to the present time with evident tokens that the word of the Lord is not preached in vain. The heart-felt language of the people here is, "Great things for us the Lord hath done, In providence and grace." The acceptability of the minister led the people to invite him to the pastoral office, which he accepted and entered upon his stated labours here on the first Lord's day of the present year, with many encouraging prospects. Since then the friends have thought that as the Lord had so manifestly answered their united supplications on the former occasion, and had done more for them than they had either asked or hoped for, it was but right they should appoint another special meeting for thanks giving. A thanksgiving meeting was accordingly held on Monday evening, Feb. 8, 1858, when it was truly cheering to witness the lively sense manifested by them of the Lord's goodness, and the earnestness with which his help and blessing were implored on behalf of his servant, and the people among whom he labours. May their prayers be abundantly answered, is the heart's desire of ONE WHO WAS THERE. KINGSTON, SURREY.-Ebenezer Chapel, Victoria Road, Norbiton, Feb. 9th, 1858. Mr. C. W. Banks preached in the afternoon from 2 Samnel vii. last verse to a very attentive audience, and spoke sweetly of the Lord's blessing resting upon his house which were accompanied with divine power to our hearts. At 5 o'clock nearly one hundred sat down to tea. At six o'clock, a few fancy goods were sold in the vestry, given to the church by a friend for the cause. At halfpast six, the evening service began. Mr. Rayment opened the meeting with a few words of disappointment, as Mr. Banks and Mr Palmer could not be there; Mr. Hazleton engaged in prayer; then Mr. Rayment made a statement of his first finding us meeting together in a room in the Bittoms; of the Lord giving us a desire for a more convenient place to meet in to worship the Lord; how the Lord made a way for us to build this chapel; that Mr. Beard, with the church, wanted it put into the hands of trustees, and hoped some friends would come forward and assist in doing it. Mr. Hazleton, then, after a few remarks, gave us a very interesting account of his own church, over which the Lord had made him overseer and said that six years ago when he humble spirit in which the work has been prising. We think the title; the able and the written, and the new line of thought in which the author has struck out, have had much to do toward giving popularity to the work. Beside this, we know not a reviewer who has not highly eulogised the work; and hence it has been ushered into hundreds of families, yet; yea, we hardly think there can be found and is destined, no doubt, to go much farther more than one section of the visible church who could find any rock of offence in all the twelve chapters which this volume contains; of course we do not include Arians, Socinians, Unitarians, nor any deniers of that unity, coeternity, and co-equality, subsisting in the glorious Trinity of Persons in our ever-blessed GOD; we only include those whose written creed is consistent with the revealed will of heaven; although, by the way, while we so carefully exclude the open deniers of the divinity of Christ, it strikes us very forcibly that among the professing churches Christ in our day there are multitudes who, while they profess to believe that Christ is GOD as much as they believe He was Man; yet they so openly deny the true character of his mission; they FATHER; and so substitute the will of man so indirectly ignore the sovereignty of the for the essential work of the Eternal Spirit, that we fear their condition before a holy God is not one whit better than some we exclude from the pale of the visible gospel church al together; but the Lord is Judge, as well as Lawgiver; and He will save all who, in His name, believe with a faith unfeigned. and with the heart unto righteousness. We shall not here fully describe the people who might not be satisfied with this book; nor can we now lay open all the reasons why they would raise any objection to it; these things may be done in future notices, but, as we have made several attempts to get fairly into the work, and search it as carefully as the spies did the land in olden times; and as in every attempt we could never yet get over the threshold, so now, we find it impossible to do more than give the principal contents of the different chapters; some millions of the ransomed ones, these trusting, in our next notice, to have the door bills have all been sealed, and made for ever opened, and to walk fairly into the several | sure. In these things we are at home; but chambers of this literary house, on the fore- when Mr. Mushett lays before us his sugges front of which is so beautifully written, " GOD tion for "a Godly Cabinet" we pause; and IS LOVE!" In the first and second chapters think of many things which cannot here be we have," The eternity and spontaneousness written. "My kingdom is not of this world," of the Father's love." Chapter III. is headed said the adorable Redeemer himself; and whe"The Father's love as displayed in being His ther it is his wish that he should have true people's God." Chapter IV., "The Fatherly godly men at the helm of our nation's affairs, Character of God considered as a proof of His we know not; but if his own dear people are love for his people." Chapter V., "The love led believingly to pray for it; it will be a good of God as exhibited in the various other rela- sign, but we cannot go into this matter now. tions which He sustains to His saints." Chap. Mr. Mushett has written some very decided and VI., "The love of the Father as unfolded by some very dreadful things in this pamphlet; inanimate emblems." Chapter VII., "The but all the instances of prayer he has recorded love of God as manifested in the mission of are specially belonging to the Church of Christ, Christ to our world." Chapter VIII., "Ex- and had nothing to do with the world. We press and implied assurances of the love of fear this is another specimen of confounding God the Father." Chapter IX., "Declarations things which do most widely differ. from God's own lips of his love for his people." Chapters X. and XI., "God's love to his people, as shown in their seasons of sorrow." Chapter XII., "God's love to his people in death, and in the world to come." We are sorry there is not another chapter or two on the distinct and divine personality, office, work, and witness of God the Holy Ghost, without whose sovereign and saving grace and power, no sinner can possibly say of God, "We love Him because He first loved us." In that great text of Paul's, (Rom. v.) he says, " Hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in the heart, BY THE HOLY GHOST, which is given unto us.' These are the people who, being favoured to see, and being made very jealous for the glory of, every Person in the Godhead; these people, it may be, would grieve with us, that THE THIRD PERSON in the Trinity is, in this book, almost lost sight of, while, most ably and scripturally too, the love of God to his people is declared. But we shall come further into this another day, (D.V.) "United Prayer for a Godly Cabinet Suggested in a Letter to the Right Honourable the Earl of Shaftesbury. By William Mus. hett, Barrister-at-Law. London: Nisbett. The House of Commons, the Cabinet, and the whole body of England's National leaders have been rather violently thrown into commotion; and great changes are again taking place. There is nothing beneath the sun, apart from the everlasting covenant-but is mutable; and passes away. Our "PRIME MINISTER," our glorious Advocate before the Royal Throne in glory, lives for ever. His councils are as sure, as firm, as eternal as himself. All his "bills" have been read the third time; they have every one of them received the Royal Signature; and they are never to be repealed. They were all read secretly, for the first time in the deep thoughts of our Almighty, our all-glorious and gracious FATHERGOD;-they were read, secondly, in the Councils of Eternity, in the Covenant Chambers of Electing Grace, in the presence of the Eternal Three: they were read on earth, by the dear Redeemer himself, when he took upon him the form of a servant, and came to do his Father's will; and by the Holy Spirit's application of the eternal atonement of JESUS in the heart and consciences of Obituary. Died on the 4th of February, 1858, the affectionate, beloved, and long-afflicted Elizabeth Poock, wife of Thomas Poock, of Ipswich. Her end was peace. THOMAS POOCK. The much esteemed wife of the pastor of Hope Chapel, (in Norton Street, Twig Folly,) Mr. Thomas B. Parker, died during the past month. The funeral sermon was preached Feb. 21st, by Mr. John Poynder. A KNOTTY QUESTION.-Mr. Editor, Will you, or some of your able correspondents, be so kind as How is a to answer the following question. church to act towards a member that marries a worldly person? Has the church any power over the case -[We cannot see that the church can do more than reprove; unless the union leads to other inconsistencies, but we leave the question for more aged men to answer.-ED.] REDEMPTION FUND. Sum announced, Feb., 1858- £90 5s. 10d. Adullam." By Brother J. Greenslade, Devonport :. 026 010 0 20 030 0 1 0 -0 2 6 -0 2 6 0 1 0 010 0 2 6 006 Mrs. Hays, Brentford The Smitten Shepherd. A SERMON BY MR. JOHN BLOOMFIELD, SALEM CHAPEL, MEARD'S COURT, DEAN STREET, SOHO, ON SUNDAY MORNING, JANUARY 5TH, 1858, FROM ZECHARIAH XIII. 7. "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow; saith the Lord of hosts." THIS prophetic language, for sublimity tent as they were in days of old; many of meaning, and majesty of style, has in darkness and in ignorance as to the but few equals in the whole range of the glory God intended the great doctrine of Scriptures. It was delivered centuries sacrifice to teach. If we come to the before its fulfilment in the death and suf-language of the prophets, they still point ferings of the Lord Jesus. The sufferings, to Jesus, the great sacrifice. Well might death, and victory of Jesus Christ were it be said by one, "We have found Him the burden of the prophecies for ages. of whom Isaiah the prophet wrote." After man had fallen, God intimated to That part of Isaiah we read this morning, man that Christ, or, "The seed of the (53rd chapter) refers to the humiliation woman," should be bruised, by bruising and suffering, which Christ should pass the serpent's head. From that time sa- through; also to the death, exaltation, crificial worship became instituted. Adam, honor, and to the great glory to which he the father of the first family, trained his should be raised. If we come to the children as far as he was able, to the great Lamentations of Jeremiah for the desoimportance of sacrificial worship. Hence lation of Jerusalem; yet in them we find we have Cain and Abel, offering their sa- expressions which could only be addressed crifices to God. One was unacceptable, to the "Man-mediator." The language the other acceptable; one was offered of my text, doubtless, refers to Jesus without faith in God's promise, the other Christ, though there have been thousands was offered in simple dependence on God of disputes as to different parts of scripfor His blessing. From Adam down to ture, I don't know of any persons who the prophetic economy, the same sacri- call themselves Christians, who have once ficial system was observed with the same disputed this text referring to Christ. glory in view. It is said, "Abraham saw This language I hold to be of solemn the day of Christ, and was glad." Men meaning, denoting a work of the highest under the Levitical economy saw through and most glorious import; this text dethe sacrifices, saw through the bloodsprinkled altars,saw through the gorgeous robes the priests wore; and were enabled by the eye of faith to look to the precious priesthood, even the SON OF GOD. It is true, there were many then who did not so worship God, and is it not equally true that there are many who do not, now? Let us implore God's help while we are there not many who assemble from direct your attention, First, to the glorious time to time in the worship of God, yet complexity of Christ's personal and official seldom ask themselves what interest they character; he is here said to be "God's have in that worship in which they are fellow," the equal of the Highest. engaged? or, what part they have in condly, the mysterious and vicarious suf Christ, or the gospel of grace they so ferings of Jesus, as set forth by this manoften hear preached? They hear of eter-date of heaven, "Awake, O sword, nity but seldom ask themselves seriously against the man that is my fellow." and solemnly, what part they are to play Lastly, draw a few lessons from the sufin eternity. They hear of the great sa-ferings of Christ. crifice, but are in darkness, and careless as to their interest in that sacrifice. We hold that things are now to a great exVOL. XIV.-No. 157. mands to be touched with reverential hands, and solemnised hearts; but none but the Spirit of God can open our understandings to see the magnitude of its meaning, and the glorious results which spring out of the sufferings of the Saviour. Se I. THE COMPLEXITY OF CHRIST'S PERSONAL AND OFFICIAL CHARACTER, "God's fellow." Of whom could the F 3 term expresses equality, similarity, iden- Prophet have said this? of whom could | Now what we may gather from all these, God himself have said it ? whom did God and I have read not a few, is, that the call "my shepherd, the man that is my fellow ?" He could not have referred to any other than to that Being who once said, "I and my Father are one." No other save that Being who, when in this world, was called "Immanuel, God with us." He was called "The man," "the man Christ Jesus." Now Christ was man, and perfect man, born of a woman, formed in the fashion of man, a glorious man with God, a divine man sent of God. Here is a wonder for angels, not that he was God, but that he who was God should become man; he who was before angels, sin, or death; he who gave birth to angels, should become lower than angels, even to suffer death. Here is a mysterious matter for angelic minds! to think that He who gave them birth, gave them powers, gave them capacity to worship, that He (their Maker) should become lower than angels. He was man that he might sympathize with man. He was man that he might die in man's stead. He was man that he might come into this world of sorrow to dry up the tears man shed. A man sent by God when, in Bethlehem, he threw off his glory of light; and a man, when in the garden, "He sweated as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground." Man, when he cried, "Oh, my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." Man when nailed to the cross; man, when crowned with thorns, man when his side was pierced, man when he cried, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?" Oh! think of the manhood of Christ, that he suffered in thy place, sinner; to bear thy guilt, to give thee victory over thine enemies, even sin and death. Christ was man by the mysterious constitution of his person. He was God's equal, and man's fellow. He was a man of dignity, a man of power. Had he not been man, he could not have died; bad he been merely man, however pure, however good, had he not been the God man, "God's fellow," he could not have atoned for sin, or wipe away our stains. This term, "Fellow," one learned man says, means a man of power; ano ther says, it means a man's neighbour; another, a near of kin; another, a man my equal, intimating relationship, fellowship. Mr. John Stevens says, the word in Hebrew, when translated, means neighbour, near one, companion, associate. He knows what sore temptations mean, For he has felt the same." Then Christ is called my Shepherd. Isaiah saith, "He shall feed his flock like a Shepherd." Christ saith of himself, "I am the Good Shepherd." David saith, "the Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want." Christ is the Shepherd of his people, he is the Shepherd of his Father, he is the Great Shepherd who "had power to lay down his life, and power to take it again." And Christ is the Protector of his people; not only the Great Deliverer, but the Great Protector. He who gave us an existence, maintains that existence; and he who gave us spiritual life, he who gave us faith, hope, and love, maintains these graces of the Spirit in our hearts. It is Jesus who protects us from every storm, who keeps us and preserves us from the fierce attacks of the evil one, and supports us amid the machinations of hell itself. II. We notice THE MYSTERIOUS SUFFERRINGS OF CHRIST as set forth by this mandate of the Most High, "awake, O sword!" not the sword of the creature; not the sword of despotism; but of justice, of inexorable justice! "Awake, |