Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light....Eph. v. 8.

NATURAL persons raised from indigence to opulence do not love to hear of their pedigree: they see not the hand of the Lord in it: what detracts from their person and merit hurts them: but disciples of Christ like to hear of, love to look back upon what they were by nature, that they may ascribe fresh praise to the Lord, who of his mere grace "raised their poor souls out of the dust, and lifted their needy souls from the dunghill, and has set them with the princes of his people."....Psalm cxiii. 7, 8. We are here reminded, "Ye were" ....what? dark, having some glimmering light of God, his truths, his ways, &c. Nay more, darkness itself; blind to them as if totally deprived of sight; ignorant of them as a beast; as dark about them as we should be about natural objects without the sun. We walked in darkness and knew not that we were in the high road to hell. But now, blessed Now, O wonder of grace! Ye are....what? enlightened by the Lord? have light from the Lord? Yes, this is true. But more "we have a light In the Lord, like the angel which John saw, standing in the sun."....Rev. xix. 17. We have not only the light of life, but we are IN Christ, who is the sun of righteousness and the light of the world. Here we see our Father's glory shining in the face of Christ; feel his love in him; behold his grace and truth which came by him; enjoy precious promises in him; know the glorious doctrines taught by him: all which lead to, and center in him. Hence we look down upon the world with contempt, upon sin with abhorrence, upon satan with defiance, upon carnal men with pity, and up to our Lord with love and praise; for "we have an unction from him, and know all things."....1 John ii. 20. His truths are our delight: "His commandments are not grievous.".... 1 John v. 3. Here is all comprized in one word, WALK AS CHILDREN OF THE LIGHT. But how shall I know I am a child of light? Strange question! Just as odd as for a person with his eyes open in mid-day light, to ask how do I know I can see? But if you do not enjoy the comfort of light it is because you do not walk as a child of light: there are many such dark walkers. No marvel they are uncomfortable professors. Paul wept on account of such. See them described; "They mind earthly things."....Phil. iii. 19. They have a tongue for`. Christ, the world has their heart: beware of such refrain from them; for "If we say that we have fellowship with Christ, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another," and "the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin."....1 John i. 6,7, VOL. II.

H

Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them....Matt. xviii. 20.

OUR hopes and comforts rise or fall according to our conceptions and belief of what Christ is in himself and what he is to us.

Attend to this: you will find this true in your experience. Therefore, it is of no small moment whether you believe Christ to be God over all, or only a mere man: nay, but it is of the utmost importance; it enters into the very life, peace, and joy of your soul. He here puts this beyond a doubt. None but God is at one and the same time in more places than one; but Christ declares wherever my disciples are gathered together in my name, there am I: therefore Christ is the omnipresent God; this is the joy of our faith; this the glory of our souls: now it should be our grand concern to bring this into experience and practice. 1st. Remember "the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good."....Prov. xv. 3. O soul, what have you to do at places devoted to sin and vanity? Know the eyes of the Lord are there: if he sees you there he will surely make you smart for it. But, 2d. Our Lord delights in the assembly of his disciples in his name; if but two or three, no matter where. O, let this call up your attention to his name; let this reprove professors that they do not always meet in Christ's name, speak to each other more of his glorious person and precious salvation: this is the way to be helpers of each others faith, hope and love in the Lord. Be ashamed of yourselves, ye frozen-hearted, tongue-tied professors, who can be all talk for the things of the world, but dumb when precious Jesus is the theme. What! can you go day after day without calling your family together to speak a word of Jesus to them and to Jesus for them? O, what seasons of peace, comfort and heavenly-mindedness do you abridge yourselves of! The presence of a king makes a court: the King of kings makes a court, a temple in your houses, yea, in your hearts, when you assemble in his name. 3d. Let this precious word encourage you to this: "There AM I in the midst of them." Have you not found it so? The unworthiest of all has. There AM I, as though Christ was first there waiting for us. Can his presence be with us without shedding his light, life, liberty and power among us? No, no more than the sun can shine in its meridian without darting light and heat. 4th. Remember two or three are within the compass of the promise: not angels, not sinless men, but poor miserable sinners Christ delights to be in the midst of. O, love and praise our dear Lord for his marvellous condescension and this precious declaration: study more and more to improve it, to build up each others souls in him, and to glorify his precious name. See his affectionate notice of such....Mal. iii. 16, 17.

What is your life?....James iv. 14,

A SHORT day, full of evils: a span long, replete with crosses. Each revolving day brings its troubles: each fleeting moment its sorrows: yes, says a soul, "I am a living witness of this; I am a mark for the enemy to shoot his fiery darts at; against whom he daily renews his attacks; constantly buffets, and is ever busy with his subtle devices. Each morning I rise I am brought into the field to exercise my arms, or on the stage to conflict with my enemies. Truly, I am almost worn out, and wearied out: what with a sense of in-dwelling corruptions; the plague of my heart; the attacks of satan; the troubles of the world; want of the sense of my Lord's love, and the workings of unbelief; my life is one continued scene of sorrow and distress." Remember for your comfort, your life is short: your rest shall be eternal and glorious. Consider what one sweetly says: "It is the great work and difficulty, and yet duty of a christian, to believe unseen and unfelt love, in and under well seen and well felt difficulties:" sometimes the Lord joins them as in 1 Thess. i. 6. "Having received the word in much affliction, with joy in the Holy Ghost," then it is easy; but often the trouble is felt and the love is hid in the word: what is to be done in such a case? Faith can find love in the word of promise, receive it, fasten upon it, and live by it: here opens a most delightful scene, a most glorious prospect; here lose sight of YOUR life; it is swallowed up in that word: "ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God: Christ is our life."....Col. iii. 3, 4. Never consider yourself without Christ, nor your life without his life, nor your enemies without his perfect victory over them in your nature, for your person, and to your comfort and joy in him. Now say, what is your life? You have lost all the glory and comfort of it in Adam: you find all restored, with infinite addition to you, in Christ; therefore, whatever your feelings and frames may be, yet live by faith upon him, above corrupt senseand carnal reason. This is a mystery unknown to the world: when you see professors following the pleasures of this life, seeking happiness from the gay scenes of vanity, you behold them turning their backs upon Christ, shewing the greatest contempt to him, and in effect saying of him, the Lord with all the treasures of his life and love cannot make my life happy: I am forced to take up with the delights of the play-house, and rant and revel in the scenes of mirth and jollity: from such a life, such a spirit, and such professors of Christ, Good Lord deliver us.

It pleased the Father, that in him should all fulness dwell. Col. i. 19.

THE religion of nature is the religion of pride: pride is of the devil: pride works by a lie and keeps the soul in unbelief of the truth: hence we naturally think some change in us, some good done by us, causes God to be our Father, and we look on ourselves as his very good children. This notion obtains in the mind of many, and is the cause of their rejecting the everlasting covenant of the three-one Jehovah, and denying the covenant relations and transactions of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: they are so filled with themselves, with their stuff of inherent righteousness, free-will, moral agency, and one knows not what unscriptural jargon, that they see not all fulness in Jesus, where it pleased the Father it should dwell. Lord empty us of all self-fulness that we may receive out of thy fulness: THE FATHER by covenant love; God took on him that near and dear relation to all his chosen, when his eternal, co-equal Son covenanted to become man, to sustain the curse for man, to satisfy justice and obtain every blessing for sinners. This pleased the Father; and as man had lost all holiness, happiness and blessedness by the first Adam, and was quite empty of all good, all fulness is treasured up and dwells in the second Adam, the Lord from heaven. This also pleased the Father: the Father of whom? "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.".... Rom. viii. 9. Here the covenant office of the blessed Spirit is engaged to convince us of sin, to empty us of self-sufficiency, and to shew us the fulness that dwells in Jesus for us: hence here is a plain answer to that question, how may I know whether I have the Spirit of Christ or not? Do you see yourself stripped of all righteousness, emptied of all good, prone to every evil? This is the teaching of the Spirit. Do you see the fulness that dwells in that glorious man Christ Jesus? That you must receive pardon of sin, justifying righteousness, adoption to be a child of God by faith in him, sanctification and eternal redemption out of his fulness? Are you pleased at this? Are you satisfied to come day after day as a self-emptied sinner, hungry and thirsty, to receive out of his fulness? Can you say so? Then you have the Spirit of God; for what pleased the Father, pleases you: O, rejoice in this; you may say with the apostles and all saints, "Truly our fellowship is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ."....1 John i. 3.

Lord, pull our haughty spirits down,

Our empty hearts make known, O make us fall, and see, and own All fulness in thy Son.

Spirit of grace, lead us to Christ,
As to our fountain head,
Out of his fulness to be blest

With life and living bread.

M.

The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy....Zeph. iii. 17.

A TRULY gracious heart is restless and unhappy when it experiences distance from the Lord: notions of the Lord may satisfy formal, dry professors; but those who are alive to God cannot rest without enjoying his presence; they will draw nigh to him, praying him "draw nigh to my soul and say, I am thy salvation." That precious word lives and abides in our heart: "now in Christ Jesus we poor sinners who in times past were far off from God, are made nigh by the blood of Christ."....Eph. ii. 13. Hence we are called upon, "sing, shout, be glad, rejoice with all the heart." Yea, thou God-fearing, soul-trembling sinner, even thou, the Lord has in his eye and speaks from the love of his heart; "fear thou not, let not thine hands be slack."....Zeph. iii. 16. Dread not thy mighty, thy many enemies: put on courage; lift up the hands which hang down; take hold of thy Lord's word: FOR, 1st. THE LORD THY GOD IN THE MIDST OF THEE IS MIGHTY: the might of the Lord his God was in the midst of the heart of young David, when he -went to fight the Philistine giant. Hence you hear not one word of himself, of his own might and power, &c. but the Lord has done this and that, and the Lord will deliver now; I come forth in the name of the Lord: so Paul, "I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me."....Phil. iv. 13. Now here is the nature and work of faith: when Christ dwells in our hearts by faith, self confidence is destroyed: says the soul, I am weak and helpless; I am not sufficient of myself to think any thing of myself, but my sufficiency is of God....2 Cor. iii. 5. This language is a proof that the Lord is in the midst of that soul: he has proved that he is mighty in it by "casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."....2 Cor. X. 5. His mighty salvation is begun in that heart: it has no cause for dejection; for 2d. "he WILL save:" you believe the Lord's might: he is able to save: you cannot doubt that: his word declares it, his work proves his willingness: exercise your faith upon his will to save you both from all your fears and all your foes: cast away all vain and foolish notions of terins and conditions of salvation: see it all cast upon THE WILL of Jesus; for 3d. "He will rejoice over thee with joy:" it was his joy to bleed and die in agony and in blood for thee; it is his joy that thou comest and criest to him as a lost sinner for salvation: he will rejoice in his work for thee, his grace in thee, and his salvation of thee. O, well mayest thou be called on, “rejoice in the Lord alway, and again rejoice."....Phil. iv. 4.