man's manifold religions have gone in this way. Jews, Romanists, Protestants, Puseyites, Rationalists, Spiritualists, Conforming and Non-conforming Churches have, in whole or in part, ignored that which is emphatically and pre-eminently the truth. It is the exception, rather than the rule, to set forth Christ's work as complete salvation for man. Our perfect acceptance, high calling, real mission, and glorious hope in Him, do not constitute the burden of professedly Christian teaching. They have gone in the way of Cain.""" Many other features indicate "The Way of Cain :"-he went from the presence of the Lord as men go from the truth of God now :— "The way of Cain" began in a man-invented scheme of religion. This neither found acceptance with God, nor gave healing and peace to its inventor. Infidelity followed, and man was left to the way of his own choice. His own judgment of what constituted progress, and the means for its advancement, became his rule, until the flood came, when the whole of this godless generation-both "the way of Cain" and all those found in it, were overwhelmed in a common and mighty destruction. "The Lord has a living Church, and many faithful labourers; but, comparing Christendom with the word of God, and accepting the Divine judgment as to her condition, we are constrained to confess that upon her way we see strongly marked the footprints of Cain.'" EXPOSITION OF PSALM LXXXI. BY MR. JAMES WELLS of the Surrey Tabernacle, Wansey street, Walworth road. Sing aloud unto God our strength; make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery. Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day." THERE is no definite explanation given why such notice was taken in the Jewish dispensation of the new moon; so that we seem lost, as it were, to consider as to what the spiritual meaning was. And yet no doubt it hath a spiritual meaning. It seems something like this; that the Christian's hope waxes and wanes like the moon; our hope falls, and falls, and falls, and gets so low that the Christian has sometimes to exclaim with the prophet, "My hope and my strength are perished from the Lord." Presently our hope begins to revive again, and so it goes on reviving, until it becomes full of light, and full of assurance, and full of consolation. And then, just as we get that far, there is sure to be something external, or internal, or both, to cause our hope to wane again, and to bring us again as it were, near the brink of despair. Nevertheless, the moon is called a faithful witness in heaven, and I am sure the Christian's hope is a faithful witness. The moon notwithstanding all its waning and waxing, is faithful and stedfast, and has no more forsaken the earth since the foundation of the world than hath the sun. And so the Christian's hope, it is our mercy, though it thus wanes and waxes, can never fatally fail. "For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob. This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony, when he went out through the land of Egypt; where I heard a language that I understood not. I removed his shoulder from the burden; his hands were delivered from the pots. calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder; I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah. Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee; O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me." Thou Now the former part of this psalm describes what the Lord did for the Israelites; but all these things could not make them what his word ex horted them to be. It is our mercy that there is a better covenant, wherein the Lord gives a new creatureship, and brings those whom he delivers to hearken unto him in a way that these natural Israelites did not. Hence, pertaining to the new creatureship it is written, "My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish." But we see here the Lord lamenting that the Israelites did not listen to Him, that they did not hearken to Him, that they went away from time to time from His ways into that destruction which was the natural consequence of apostasy from Him. How great the mercy, then, of that better covenant, that gives to the people a new heart and a new spirit, that maketh them willing in the day of God's power; that turneth a disobedient people into the obedience of faith. "Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee; O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me, there shall no strange god be in neither shalt thou worship any thee; strange god. I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt; open thy mouth wide and I will fill it. But my people would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would none of me." Now this does not mean the true Israel, this does not mean the spiritual Israel, does not mean that Israel that are partakers of new creatureship. "Israel would none of me." This is the language of every carnal heart under the heavens ; "Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.' The Lord hath, then, another Israel. "So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust; and they walked in their own counsels. Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries." Now all this is the language of the old covenant. See the 17th of John; how differently the Saviour there speaks of his disciples from what the Lord speaks of the Israelites here. So that the more we know of our own hearts, and the more we read the Holy Scriptures, the more we shall feel our need of the grace of God, the Spirit of God, and the power of God to keep us in the truth as it is in Jesus. "The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto Him; but their time should have endured for ever. He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat; and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee." THE ARISTOCRACY OF DISSENT. ""Tis pleasant thro' the loopholes of retreat To peep at such a world; to see the stir Of the great Babel, and not feel the crowd." COWPER. "Ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are; that no flesh should glory in his presence."-PAUL. THE Congregationalists have been celebrating high carnival, holding a series of meetings in sundry large places to them belonging, in London and Westminster, and delivering oracles of wondrous significance. What men say in public assembly, and carefully convey to the press, they submit to general opinion, and expect, of course, to be noticed and criticised; but we are not merely exercising a common right in challenging opinions, put forth as with the sound of a trumpet; we are nolens volens made amenable to their dicta, and must speak for ourselves if we are not content to be snuffed out, left without place or name. A few years ago these gentlemen proclaimed themselves to be the aristocracy of dissent -a thought as pitiful as it was proud. No other section interfered with the puerile pretension; and not long after they had donned the coronet we heard the cry of fire from their quarters, and great consternation ensued, though they were far from grateful to those who drew the fire-plug and turned on the hose, because, forsooth, they wetted and rather damaged the coats of the élite of the aristocracy; and we know that, to this day, they look askance at the men whose zealous interference saved them from destruction. But "Richard is himself again. They have procured a fresh supply of gas, and their balloon has become more gigantic than it was before. They are not only aristocrats, an order, or class, in the professing kingdom; they will be oligarchs, ruling that nothing shall pass as current which has not been struck at their mint, and that none shall buy or sell who does not wear their mark. At their levee sundry magnates from other provinces presented themselves, and did the congé in respectful style; but the Baptists were represented by a letter only. The Baptists! Save the mark! Congregationalism ignores the existence of such a body. If there be any of that sort they are informed that their day is over, that their system is obsolete, and that their claim to be a distinct people is ruled out. Dr. Angus, in his letter, tacitly confesses the sin of certain bold utterances reported of him a year ago, and plainly begs to be forgiven by the august masters of the situation, and for himself, and those he represents, to be admitted to the fellowship of this great Catholic body. Indirectly, though intelligibly, he is snubbed for his rudeness on a former occasion; but, as they can afford to be generous, they tell him if he and his brethren-a mere handful of nobodies-will drop the foolish appellative of Baptist, and come in as Congregationalists, the door shall be open for them. It is as much as he had any right to expect, and as good as he deserved. We shall see what will come of it. We have no wish to disparage the Congregationalists as such, nor to deprive them of any honour due to any philanthropic and Christian effort in which they have or do engage. We are well aware how contemptible our section appears before their greatness, and how sovereignly indifferent they are to our opinions on any subject; but we shall venture to enter our caveat against their legislative proscription, and to declare, notwithstanding their parade over our obsequies, that we are not dead, nor quite asleep. A BAPTIST. (To be continued.) If Christ be precious to you, you have saving faith, for He is precious to them who believe. NEW BOOKS. WHERE IS THE OLIVE LEAF? We WE have read one sentence in a book called A Caution against the Darbyites, with singular feelings. It says, "The practical unity of the church is gone;" and we are persuaded there is more truth, more sorrowful truth in that sentence, than some would be ready to admit ; we confine not our reading to any one organ of any one section of the church. look everywhere to see if truth, living, vitalizing, soul-creating power, and sanctifying truth, can now be found anywhere; and all that can be seen is, the rending of churches, the idolizing of men, the exaltation of natural gifts, and a cunning and crafty underhanded denial of the eternal sovereignty of God, the eternal glory of Christ, and the. absolute necessity of the power and presence of the Holy Ghost. These are lamentable facts. Noah, as Benjamin Kench thinks, was a type of Christ. The ark which Noah built was a type of the visible church tossing on the waves of time; and then we may add, the dove was a figure of the Holy Spirit. All the Evangelists shew this; Matthew says, "And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water; and lo, the heavens were opened unto him; and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove; and lighting upon him." Mark says, "And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened; and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him; and there came a voice from heaven, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Luke has a little sweet addition; he says, "Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, (this is Luke's word, he tells us, our blessed Jesus came up out of the water looking up to heaven, and praying;) then, the heaven opened; and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him; and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son, in Thee I am well pleased." was John is exceedingly emphatic, "John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and, (mark you), it abode upon Him." Christ is nowhere without the Holy Spirit, nor is the Holy Spirit anywhere without Christ. "IT ABODE UPON HIM." If the heart is deeply grieved for sin, and mourns over sin, and longs to be free from sin, the Spirit is there, and Christ is there. If, in the soul, any precious visions of God's Christ are given; if any inwrought knowledge of His person, and realizing His love, Christ is there, and the Spirit is there; nor is the Father absent either. But now was there anything more in Noah's dealing with the dove than a mere natural act? may be there was. The dove was a figure of the coming and of the comforting power and presence of the Holy Spirit. Let us read Genesis viii. 8. First, Noah sent forth a dove from him to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground; but the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot." Although the Old Testament dispensation, the Spirit was moving, coming and going, but the Spirit found no place of rest for the sole of his foot; but when the Son of God came from the waters of Jordan, (as an emblem of how he would rise from the dark waters of the fall, of wrath, and of death,) then the Spirit descended; and it abode upon Him. "Noah stayed yet other seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; and the dove came unto him in the evening; and lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off." So when Jesus came from the grave, and stood in the midst of His disciples, He had the Spirit with Him. The olive leaf was in His mouth. Read that most precious twentieth chapter of John. Was it "evening" when Noah's dove came in to him the second time? Yes. So says our Evangelist, "Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus, and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, "Peace be unto you." There was the olive leaf. Where is the olive leaf now ? Where is the glory of Christ, prosperity of soul, and peace in the churches now? Blessed be the Lord, there are a few green spots, there are some seasons of mercy, there a few anointed ones, scattered abroad; but,-Noah "stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove, which returned not again any more. In a new covenant sense, both Christ and the Spirit are with the redeemed church; and such of our ministers as are spiritual men, are helped by the Spirit; but, taking the visible church as a whole, we fear the powerful, truthful, and glorious presence of both the Lamb and the Dove is wanting. Look at Christendom where you will, and the awful state of things declares the absence of that Divine power which only can raise the dead, heal the sick, and comfort all who mourn by the way. Mr. Howard's Caution is a remarkable production. Mr. J. N. Darby has marked out for himself a singular course, in which he has been given to change; and that very seriously too. He has been a clergyman, and a kind of king among "the breth"but what his position is now, we stop not to describe. ren, We shall only make two remarks, and close this paper for the present. I. We are increasingly convinced that in this world there is nothing so truly valuable as a personal and special revelation of Jesus Christ, God's dear Son, in the soul of the saved sinner; from whence arises a living faith, an experimental knowledge, and a steadfast abidance in the truths of the Gospel. Satan will bitterly oppose such, but finally destroy them he never can. II. We have seen for years rich preachers, and ambitious professors, are not always real blessings in the church of Christ; chapter after chapter illustrative of this we could give. But is the olive leaf departed? Is the practical union of the visible church gone? We fear it is. Shall we produce our evidences? Not now, only it is to be so, let every minister think less of associated circles, and more of vital cleaving to Christ alone. At His feet, beneath His shadow, leaning on His arm, only there is either safety or comfort. Loud and long the voice is heard, "Cease ye from man." A DEAD-BUT WELL-DRESSED RELIGION. "One of the Old School," has issued a tract on Broad Churchism, which we are compelled, for want of room, to notice more fully in the GosPEL GUIDE; but, one thing we may say here, this tract proves to a demonstration that, the GOSPEL Christ preached, and which is the glory and power of God unto salvation, is more and more thrown into the shade. This "Old School" disciple lays hard at C. H. Spurgeon; which we cannot notice here; but we give one extract; it is full of meaning. After noticing the many cracks in the walls of the Establishment, the author says: "If Dissenters admit among them (as The Freeman says they are doing), the Broad Church notions and forms of thought; it is no wonder that concerts, dancing, novels, theatres, &c., begin to be apologised for, and are thought to be compatible with stylish buildings, great organs, unconverted singers, and other appurtenances of a dead religion. The history of our own country during the last 200 years ought to teach us some lessons on these points. When the doctrines taught by the men of the Puritan and Nonconformist School were gradually forsaken, formality, Socinianism, and immorality quickly overspread the land. A hundred years ago the great Revival came, and we know that the same doctrines as were held by Reformers and Puritans, were again mighty through God in producing peace and purity in tens of thousands. It is these very doctrines which the "New Theology" is aiming to set aside; and just as far as they succeed will Satan's interest be helped forward, worldliness will come in, and the great end of all religion, even conformity to Him who was "not of this world," and who died to redeem his people from it, as well as from their sins, will be lost sight of." Our Own Fireside.-This monthly continues to supply a pleasing variety of articles for families where Christianity is acknowledged-where the Gospel is, at least, in part, believed. We have not so much fear of Our Own Fireside as we have cf some of the Magazines which are considered religious; but in which the old Pharisaic leaven, and the new German leaven, are so speciously mingled, that danger is apprehended. The Rev. C. Bullock, in the main principles of the Gospel, is sound; and in his hands we feel the work is safe. 1866,-the Great Year, &c.-Published by G. J. Stevenson. This pamphlet is full of dates and predictions, with historical references, and conclusive calculations, demanding the serious attention of all; and supplying some answer to the question, "Watchman, what of the night ?” This Baptists: their Existence a present Necessity, &c. By Joseph Angus, D.D., London: Elliot Stock. address by Dr. Angus, is the very thing all Baptists should read; as it fairly represents that distinguishing faith and discipline which separates our denomination from all the other sections [of professing Christendom. Dr. Angus has hereby given the Baptists an opportunity of defending their own position. Thousands of them are half ashamed of their own convictions and professions; and not a few of them are too ignorant to contend for what they do, and what they do not believe. Here is something to promote zeal in a right direction, and something to help the weak and tender ones to battle with their more powerful opponents. The Lord's Supper.-The mass in the Church of England is a frightful fact. It has moved many a godly man to lift up his voice like a trumpet. The heaviest piece of literary artillery we have yet seen is a pamphlet by Rev. S. Cavan, the curate of Mansfield, in which is given the testimony of the most ancient and reverend defenders of the faith the world ever had since the Apostles were called home. It will do much to convince the people of the errors of Romanism, if this book of Mr. Cavan's is largely circulated. |