TO ALL OUR CHURCHES, MINISTERS, READERS, AND PEOPLES, WHO LIVE IN, WHO STAND BY, AND CONTEND FOR, THE FREE GRACE AND ULTIMATE GLORY OF CHRIST, IN ALL HIS REDEEMED AND JUSTIFIED FAMILY,We say, "Grace be to you, and peace, from GOD the FATHER, and from our LORD JESUS CHRIST: who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world; according to the will of God, and our Father; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen."

In commencing our Twenty-second Volume, we have desired, in few words, to Review the Past; to Consider the Present; and Carefully to Anticipate the Future. The Lord forbid that we should stand in any false position; manifest any wrong spirit; or write, or speak any erroneous words. In order to be right with God, right with His Word, and right in His service, we have from the deepest working of our soul, implored His teaching, who only can teach to profit; His guidance, who alone can safely guide; and His blessing, without which our writing, our printing, your reading, and our labour altogether must be in vain.

So sweetly has the SPIRIT of the living GOD sanctified our spirit, softened our heart, instructed our mind, and unfolded His truth in our soul, that we come with a peaceful confidence to address you at this time, assured, within, that we shall not err in judgment, we shall not be rash in spirit, we shall not bruise nor break the contrite and humble soul; but, as instruments in GOD's hands, we shall know how to speak a word in season to every weary and down-trodden son and daughter to whom "the FATHER of all our mercies and the God of all consolation" may send this our brief Epistle.

Brethren, believe us, and receive us with all confidence, when we

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declare unto you, that as soon as we had ceased in our pleadings at the feet of the Divine Mercy, these words were given us in the speaking of the SPIRIT within,

"WHEN THE ENEMY SHALL COME IN LIKE A FLOOD, THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD SHALL LIFT UP A STANDARD AGAINST HIM."

We

In Reviewing the Past, has not the enemy come in like a flood? Te say not that this man, or that man, is an enemy. There is but one emphatically called "THE ENEMY." Satan himself is the great adversary, the accuser of the brethren, the beguiling and the crooked serpent whose sting is fatal, where atoning blood extracteth not the venom; and even when the vicious poison is removed, Satan will hiss, and sometimes sorely deceive, mislead, bringing darkness, misery, sorrow, and for a season captivity of spirit, hardness of heart, and on the conscience a burden too heavy to be borne.

In looking back upon "the flood" of confusion which has fearfully broken in upon our Churches during the past year, say not, Mr. Foreman is the enemy. Nay, wilfully, or designedly, he is not the man to be Zion's enemy; but he might be the means whereby the enemy might come in. Look not either upon the whole bench of Suffolk divines, or upon the small body of London Protesters as enemies. They may have acted, as they believe, rightly; or they may have taken a course, as we presume to judge, mistakenly; and thousands of hearts may have been wounded; but we trace the whole up to Satan's deep and dreadfully designing enmity. He-the arch-fiend, now dressed in his gaudy robes of pretended sanctity,-laughs at the huge pillared temples men are building; he laughs at their philosophy on the platform, and their many long prayers in the pulpit; he laughs at their bazaars, and soirees, and concerts, and orations, and all the other fleshly schemes which men now set up in their Dagon-like houses; he cares for none of it. The enemy knoweth right well, that God's holy truth is despised; the Gospel is beclouded: the Holy Ghost is insulted; the Christ of God is not exalted; and therefore he careth not for all the foolery and finery, either of the monks on the one hand, or the fashionable Nonconforming bodies on the other.

But when Jesus Christ comes down from heaven to make a man of His own choice a minister; when Sovereign Grace recovers him from the flesh; when the Holy Ghost sanctifies and fills his soul with the knowledge and love of Jesus, and with a zeal for the true and real salvation of immortal souls; and when God sets such an one high on the walls of Zion to proclaim His Gospel to perishing millions;-then, against that man, against all such men, will the enemy come in again and again; and but for the fulfilment of the promise-" the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him,"'-we all must inevitably perish.

Cease, as much as possible, therefore, from counting good and godly men, enemies. We have suffered, and are suffering, as much as many, from what Caryl calls the private and the public enmity of man. In their weekly prints, they have most sarcastically ridiculed us; in their monthly periodicals, they have done all they could to injure us; in their various pulpits, they have slyly shot their arrows at us; in their parlour visits, they have indignantly denounced us; and, had it not been that the Lord was on our side, when men rose up against us, "then they had

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swallowed us up quick." We should have ceased to have any existence. But shall we look upon these men as enemies? Nay, we will not. have but two enemies in the whole region of a created existence-Satan, and our own deceitful heart.

We say, therefore, let not Mr. Foreman's friends look upon Mr. Wells, and his host of friends, as enemies. Let not Mr. Wells-as we know he does not-look upon Mr. Foreman, and his adherents, as enemies. Let Mr. Philpot try and look upon us-humble and unworthy though we be-not as enemies. We shall think none the worse of the Standard editor, or the Herald editor, or the other little men who love to scribble and be called editors. Nay, nay, nay : No man," says Dr.

Alexander, 66 can lift up his head with manly calmness and peace, who is the slave of other men's judgments." We rejoice in this, we depend upon no man's judgment; we call no man master. For two-and-twenty years and more we have been favoured to publish God's Eternal Truth. The man never lived that taught us the truth of God, except those Bible-men inspired by the Spirit. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself called us, and sent us into the vineyard; and when He commands us to cease from our labour, we hope to lay our tools down gratefully, submissively, and without one murmur. When the Master says, He has found better workmen, and more faithful servants, we shall not dare to dispute the point, because conscience and the Book of God have often reproved us for our ill-manners toward ONE the most tender and loving of all that heaven or earth did see.

Still, with all this confidence in Jesus, and with all this independence of men,-as poor Beza once said, so this poor writer can say,"I tremble lest, having come to the end of my voyage, I now make shipwreck in the very harbour." But God His promise will not break, nor leave His sons to perish.

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In reviewing the past, "the enemy has come in like a flood." The autumn of 1865, with the Strict Baptist churches in London, and in the provinces too, should have been a year of jubilee indeed. "The people say," says "Silent Samuel,' we have but two really acceptable preachers in all England." These two brethren, in 1865, were to celebrate great events: the one the inauguration of his new Tabernacle; the other his Jubilee. These two events should have been most auspicious seasons; and seeing an abundance of riches has fallen to the lot of both of them, many poor churches and ministers in our denomination should have been made to rejoice by the flowing forth of bounties from the resources of these valiant men in Israel. But, instead of this, the enemy did come in like a flood; and none can tell how he triumphed, while the loving saints of God did

weep.

We must not leave the past, without one little song of praise to God and of thankfulness to our friends. In the midst of the flood, we have been preserved floating on the top of the waters,—

"Our journey lies across the brink
Of many a threat'ning wave;
'The World' expects to see us sink,
But Jesus lives to save."

To the Lord our God be all the glory given; while to our friends we return thanks most sincere, and as instruments, we ask them to aid us in our circulation. Why should not our ten or twelve thousand readers

be twenty, or even a hundred thousand? If our heavenly Father will His blessing give, and friends but faithful prove, we shall be helped to proclaim,

The Lord on high His standard raises;
And beneath its shade we're safe.

Carefully to consider the Present, must be the work of more months than this. Francis Quarles said (as though in prophecy), what may now be said," Dost ask me, Why so sad? or can my sorrow be thy wonder? Canst thou, or canst thy eye expect a sunshine where the greater lamp of heaven is eclipsed? or can my soul be frolick when the vineyard of my heart is blasted? Can the children of the bride-chamber choose but hang their heads, to see the Bride-groom slighted, and the Bride's lovely cheeks profaned with every peasant hand? Can poor affrighted lambs, wanton and frisk, upon the pleasant plains, whenas their worried mothers tremble at the quest of every cur? What member can rejoice, when the body is dis-membered? Sion, the glory of heaven, is darkened, and her bright beams obscured. Sion, the vine-yard of our souls, is blasted, and her clusters are grown sour. Sion, the Bride of my Redeemer, is defiled, her blood-washed robes are sullied and slubbered. Sion, the Mistress of our flocks, is over-powered, and her tender lambs have no protection. Sion, the mother of us all, is barren, and her uberous. breasts are dry. Sion, the glorious Corporation of the Elect, is factious in itself, and her Members are disjointed. Ah! how can my distressed soul find rest, when Sion, the rest of my distressed soul, is oppressed? How many of her dearest children are now tugging at the slavish oar of infidels! How many roaring under the imperious hand of the daughter of Babylon! How many banished from their native soils, and driven from their usurped possessions! This Vine, which heaven's right hand hath planted, is decayed, her fences broken, her hedge trodden down, her body torn by Schismaticks, cankered with Hereticks, blasted with fiery spirits; her branches rent with the wild boar, her grapes devoured by the wily fox. Her shepherds are turned wolves, and have devoured her flocks. Confusion is within her walls, and desolation is near unto her gates. O Jerusalem, if I forget to mourn for thee, let my right hand forget her cunning; and if I prize not thee above my greatest joy, let my tongue cleave to my roof."

This

Pausing:- -we have been looking to see where the standard shall be lifted up; and in some measure we saw it in the distance, with these words inscribed thereon-"I AM THE LORD THAT HEALETH THEE. is the great and good Physician. He sent His Word, and healed them in ancient times. He has sent His Word, and healed us many times. By our small instrumentality may He send His Word, and heal yet many, many thousands; then, with Samuel Rutherford, when addressing Lady Boyd, we shall say,-"I rejoice exceedingly that the Father of Lights hath made you see that there is a nick in Christianity which ye contend to be at, and that is to quit the right eye, and the right hand, and to keep the Son of God. I hope your desire is to make Him your garland, and your eye looketh up the mount, which certainly is nothing but the new creature: fear not, Christ will not cast water upon your smoking coal, and then who else dare do it if He say 'Nay? Be sorry at corruption and not secure; that companion lay with you in your mother's womb, and was as early friends with you as the breath of life,