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THE

GOSPEL MAGAZINE.

"Comfort ye, comfort ye, my People, saith your God." "Endeavouring to Keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace." "Jesus Christ, the same Yesterday, To-day, and for Ever. Whom to know is

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A WATCHWORD FOR WILDERNESS WANDERERS, WITH POPERY, PERSECUTION, AND PERILS IN PROSPECT.

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DREAD NOT!

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BELOVED, we were sitting before the Lord" (2 Sam. vii. 18), and contemplating the next year with very much anxiety! We thought of you and we thought of ourselves. We wanted a word from the Lord, and knew not to what part of his blessed book to look for it. We paused at, and pondered over, Isa. xxvi. 20, 21. They are serious words, and they seem very suitable words for the times in which we live, and the circumstances in which we are placed. "Shall we commence the year with a comment upon these words?" thought we.. Nay; let us first look again at that precious testimony (Exod. x. 22, 23). For who knows but the Lord may thus again indulge his dear Church and people in the days that are approaching?" 'And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days: they saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings." We were turning to the passage just quoted, when the eye dropped upon the words at the head of this paper-" DREAD NOT." "Dread not! thought we; "this is the very thing we want. We do dread, and we want the Lord to say-[ah, how blessed when the Lord says it] Dread not!'"'

Come then, beloved, we have wanted a watch-word for 1851, and we trust the Lord has given us one; here it is, "DREAD NOT!" and is it not in sweet accordance with our Lord's own language (Luke xxi. 28), "And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh?" They were his brethren-his disciples-his beloved ones-and as such they had a covenant interest in a covenant promise (Rom. viii. 28), "All things work

VOL. XI.

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together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." And such being the case with the Lord's people then, so is it the case with the Lord's people now, come what may! Hence, in the fear of the Lord, and in the faith of the Lord, we may say -and that most cheerfully-to the Lord's people, and to the Lord's people only, Beloved, "Dread not!"

If you turn, dear readers, to the first chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy, and the 29th and two following verses, you will see the connexion in which these words stand. "Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them. The Lord your God, which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes; and in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place."

As you are aware, the word "Deuteronomy" means, literally, "The Second Law," it being a repetition of the laws and the precepts which had before been delivered. You will see, by the third verse of this chapter, that Moses had now entered upon the last month of the last year of his pilgrimage. His mission was well nigh closed-his warfare had nearly come to an end. And now, ere he takes his leave of Israel, he is about to bring before them a summary view of the Lord's conduct with them, and commands concerning them,

Beloved, it is worthy of remark, how very much this was the practice with Old Testament saints. Moses did so, Joshua did so, and so did David, and prophet after prophet. Nor was it confined to them. New Testament believers did the same. Stephen addressed the multitude by whose hands he immediately after suffered martyrdom, and at considerable length detailed the Lord's dealings with his ancient people (see Acts vii.), and so also did Paul in the synagogue at Antioch (see Acts xiii.) And his epistle to the Hebrews may be considered a brief summary of the whole book of God, in the principles it lays down, and the patterns of faith which it brings forward, for the preceptive guidance of those whom he addressed.

To what, then, beloved, do you attribute this system of repetition? They (the Jews) had the Old Testament Scriptures (as recorded by the apostle in the opening of the third chapter of his epistle to the Romans), and they were personally familiar with the facts spoken of in the New. Why was it, then, necessary that the same events should be brought before them again and again? We answer, first, because of the natural forgetfulness and ingratitude of the human heart; and, secondly, on account of its natural unbelief and scepticism that so fact after fact, and one event upon another, should be ratified and established by prophet after prophet and saint after saint.

And what is the character of all saving, spiritual teaching now, and what has it been since the days of the apostles? Is it, or has it been, to bring forward some new thing? is it, or has it been, to explore some new region, to dive into some fresh depth, or to bring forward some novelties in religion? Ah, no! The character of all saving, spiritual instruction has been, and still is, to lead the mind round and about, again and again, the great centre of attraction in the spiritual world; and that great centre of attraction-that Sun in the spiritual firmament— is Christ! The every-day teaching of the teacher, and the every-day dis

covery of the taught, is to show on the part of the one, and to learn on the part of the other, our simple and entire dependence on Christ, as the one great, grand, and glorious Orb, from whose rays, and whose rays alone, are reflected all our light and comeliness. Truly, it is "in his light that we see light" (Ps. xxxvi. 9); as we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor. iii. 18). It is well, beloved, that we should commence this new year with this old-fashioned truth. Your ears this year will be assailed with not merely new things in science; novelties will not be confined to the "puppetshow" of Hyde Park, but you will hear much of new things in religion— of novelties in Divine things. Be prepared for it; be upon your watchtower; "believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world" (1 John iv. 1); for "the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron" (1 Tim. iv. 1, 2). Now these times are come; they have actually arrived. And it will be specially manifest this year, that those who are partially "enlightened" (see Heb. vi. 4)-those who have had light in the head, but no grace in the heart, having "itching ears (2 Tim. iv. 3), will do as the Epicureans and the Stoics did in Paul's day. The zeal that will be so rife among merely natural men, will take possession of professedly spiritual men; and, turned into another, or outwardly religious channel, their language will be, "May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is?" for as in the apostle's days, so now, such men will overlook, or be indifferent to, the weightier matters of the soul, and will "spend their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing" (Acts xvii. 19, 21); and the burden of their cry will be, "Is there anything whereof it may be said, See, this is new?" (Eccl. i. 10). Thus there will be a species of rivalry in doctrine.

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"But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak" (Heb. vi. 9). "Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the OLD PATHS, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls" (Jer. vi. 16). "No man having drunk old wine straightway drinketh new, for he saith, The old is better" (Luke v. 39). Nothing in your esteem can surpass what, as the children of God, you have en joyed, and it is the repetition, the renewal, the revival, of past realizations that you seek. And there is a blessed promise for all such seekers in the 26th of Leviticus and 10th verse: "And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new." This Scripture contains a precious gospel mercy, known and felt by God's dear children, and his dear children only. "They shall bring forth old, because of the new;" that is, the Lord having graciously vouchsafed some new pledge of his love→→ another fresh token of his favour-some renewed precious deliverance; the mind is instrumentally led back thereby into a recollection and reviewing of the "old stores" of grace, love, tenderness, and mercy, as first hid in the covenant Head before time; and then in time—and according to our every-day necessities-opened in covenant love by a covenant hand in a covenant hour, to us, a covenant people! Thus new trials,

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