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his Church. This song was a song of faith, and should we see in it no more than the triumph recorded, of the temporal deliverance of Israel, and the ruin of Pharaoh and his host, still it must afford much that is interesting as one of the songs of the great leader, appointed by the Lord himself, over God's chosen people; himself brought up in all the science of the Egyptians, his mind matured and refined by the purity of his exalted feelings as the man of God.

This song, spoken after the overthrow of Pharaoh and his army, the Lord's people having passed triumphantly over the Red Sea, and safely led on Canaan's shore, sets forth, in the most exalted strain of Hebrew poetry, the glorious triumph of the great Jehovah over his enemies, and in Christ the enemies of his Church. Glorious thought! The song which the redeemed, the conquerors through Christ will sing, when triumphantly they enjoy the victory over the beast, his image, and his name (Rev. xiv). Looking at it in this light, what beauty, what glory it opens to the believer as a type of that great redemption which the conqueror, Jehovah-Jesus, obtained through his own blood-the blood of the Lamb, slain in the counsels of God, before the foundation of the world. Jehovah indeed is the glorious strength of his Church, and will be their song throughout eternity. This song-the subject of this song is nothing less than the salvation of God's people-his chosen ones, "not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles" (Rom. ix. 24). It is, therefore, that Moses sings, "Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious ;" and in Luke i. 71, Christ is set forth as the One by whom " we should be saved from the hand of our enemies, and from all that hate us." Vain hatred indeed! Vanity truly is written upon all the enmity of the world-sin, Satan, and death. The salvation of the Lord is a full, eternal, finished salvation. What reason have God's people, then, to fear their enemies? None. For" if God be for us, who can be against us?" (Rom. viii. 31). Glorious title! " A mighty Conqueror," "a Man of War" is our God, who "has bruised the head of the serpent," blessedly fulfilling the first gospel prophecy (Gen. iii.); so bruised, that he can do nothing but what the Lord will allow him; his power is crushed-enfeebled. Subject to the Almighty, what, then have God's people to fear? He vanquished not only the host of Pharaoh, with that proud, presumptuous creature at their head, but spoiled-(look at it, my dear fellow-pilgrims)-spoiled principalities and powers, when Christ triumphed over them on the cross, fulfil ling the everlasting covenant, " perfecting for ever them that are sanctified by that one offering." Nor are the captains, the chosen captains (ver. 4) and leaders escaped in the Revelation, their flesh being eaten by the fowls of heaven, and their sinking into the depths as a stone is represented in the antitype (Rev. xviii. 21). Where the angel is represented as casting the millstone,-a representation of spiritual Babylon, -every Antichrist, ancient and modern, everything that lifteth up itself against God, and against his anointed, which shall be thrown

down from their thrones and spiritual pride, and be found no more at all!

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How often do God's enemies use the language (ver. 9), "I will divide, I will pursue, I will overtake; I will divide the spoil, and my lust shall be satisfied upon them." And God's dear children often tremble and quake when thus they see Satan, sin, world, flesh, and death, all united, ready to overwhelm them. Doubts and fears arise, and the poor dismayed child cries out, "Has God forgotten to be gracious? not remembering that all is under the omnipresent eye of God, who knows how far their enemies will go, and that they can go no further. They forget that there is an appointed time for God's deliverance; not a moment shall it tarry beyond the fixed moment! Therefore wait: it surely will come. Look at this great salvation, poor, tried, tempest-tossed, sin-burdened child. Look at the situation of the army of Israel, unarmed, burdened with the old, the helpless women and children; on either side the hills, behind them Pharaoh's host, before them the waves, and now comes the command-say to the children of Israel that "They go forward." Surely many an unbelieving thought arose.

"Blind unbelief is sure to err,

And scan God's work in vain ;

God is his own interpreter,

And He will make it plain."

And so it was. They were led safely to the opposite shore, guided by the bright pillar, whilst a wind, a breath of the Lord, caused all God's enemies, and thy enemies, to sink as a stone in the mighty waters. Thus the Lord triumphed over his foes, and in covenant love will ever appear in the hour of need for all his beloved tried ones,"for God is faithful." Thus I have found him, and must speak to his praise.

If the Lord spares me, and enables me to write, I may pursue the subject a little more another time, if worthy to be inserted.

AN OLD PILGRI.

B

n.

FRAGMENTS BY A REDEEMED ATHEIST.

I.

"With my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands. GEN. XXXII. 10.

NEXT to a joyful consciousness of a work of grace in the heart, few occupations are more grateful than to trace the finger of the God of Israel in our temporal affairs. As our life does not indeed consist in the abundance of things we possess, so it is a holy secret and high at

tainment to be content with what we have; for contentment with godliness is great gain: yet the contentment enjoyed by the children of the Most High, differs essentially from the piggish philosophy of a Diogenes, or the Heathen hilarity of the Lazaroni. More nearly does it resemble the balmy thankfulness of an infant nestling in the bosom that supplies its wants, while it lays its little hand with affectionate confidence on the oft-tried fountain of nourishment. Without doubt the parent sees the hand of Christ in our temporal mercies, and the disposition to bless him for all we receive, are graces of the Spirit of God, and much to be coveted and cultivated. Indeed, our knowledge in this particular, as in everything else, must be personal, practical, and experimental, to be good for anything. In vain does the written word send us the ravens and lilies for lessons respecting the minute speciality of the Lord's providence. We read, and straightway forget what we have read. It is not until Providence brings us into positions of helpless dependence, that we discern the promises of God, relative to food and raiment, to be something more than ornamental phrases, bearing a general import, but devoid of pointed, particular, personal application. Our eyes, our hearts, and our minds, are so wandering, or, if fixed at all, so fixed upon idols, that we cannot bring them home to rest upon the sacred page, and give to its declarations the same credit-it does not ask for more-that we give to the promises of an earthly parent, or the notes of a rich bank. Yet the earthly parent and the bank must break every one of their engagements, unless the very God we doubt will their performance, and supply the means with his own hand. Among the many crosses devised by Divine ingenuity to make the saints follow on to know the Lord, that of temporal trials is a common one. The pressure of temporaral difficulty sends them to the throne of grace; and the heart that repairs thither, aching with consternation, comes away calm, lulled by the peace which passeth all understanding. Some of the saints have more fellowship with the ravens and lilies than others; but they who have had most, become accustomed to regard each of these exigences as a letter of invitation, of imperial invitation from the throne of grace, to learn his will who sitteth thereon.

The trial that befel Jacob at Bethel was one of this character, as appears from the vow he vowed, "If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my Father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God" (Gen. xxviii. 20, 21). Yet the meat and drink, though uppermost in Jacob's mind, were subordinate in God's purpose, which evidently was to prepare his heart for the revelation in the dream, and the communication of that wondrous knowledge of which, when the patriarch waked out of his sleep, he found himself in possession. "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven" (Gen. xxviii. 16, 17).

II.

"Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord" (Isa. xliii. 10), that “In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be JUSTIFIED, and shall glory" (Isa. xlv. 25).

If a great undertaking has been designed and completed by a single individual, at his own exclusive cost, we betray either ignorance of these facts, or wilful malice, when we assert that the finishing stroke has yet to be put to the structure at the expense of other persons. But whether the allegation of incompleteness be founded in ignorance or malice, it gives circulation to what, in fact, was a downright falsehood, and at the same time tends to detract from the honour and fame of the Architect. The vast work of the Lord God Jesus Christ, on Calvary, is not only the most wonderful and unparalleled, in a universe filled with Divine marvels, but as regards completeness, it is so absolutely finished, that to talk of finishing it, is like saying, "Let us make death more dead, or let us make life more living." It would not be more absurd to dream of joining a piece to infinity, adding an hour to eternity, or increasing Almighty power by the pressure of a human finger. Yet by many is the work of the Lord regarded as not perfectly finished, but finished only up to a certain point, a point at which the lost sinner is to begin, and throw in the finishing touches of his brush, and the fine strokes of his chisel. In other things the same persons see plainly and act wisely. They acknowledge the sun in the firmament to be a glorious work, but far beyond the reach of any human addition, and abstain from swelling the lustre of his meridian beams by auxiliary torches and bonfires. None but the blind and insensible would imagine that splendour or light, warmth or power, could by man be added to that luminary. And, in truth, it is by reason of spiritual blindness that false, distorted, and destructive notions are imbibed concerning the justification of the ransomed people of Christ. As no man can say that Christ is the Lord, except by the Holy Ghost, so none can obtain even a glimpse of the gigantic glories, infinite fulness, and Almighty efficacy of the works of justification, till the same gracious Spirit condescends to reveal it. Hence the folly of unregenerate men writing on this subject, and hence the nonsense they put forth to the great distress and bewilderment of souls called by grace, and eagerly asking, "What must we do to be saved?"

In all they can say on this momentous topic, they are of necessity blind leaders, from whose sight eternal justification by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is as effectually hid as the noonday sun from the dead tenants of the tomb. They excel in natural understanding, and peruse the same Scriptures as the regenerate, yet their eyes are so holden that they cannot see the everlasting verity of a Divine righteousness, imputed for the dear Redeemer's sake; while the elect discover it in every page, and feel it to be the very back-bone of their spiritual

being. The unregenerate know no other righteousness than that in which they were born, for none other has been supernaturally revealed to them; hence all their notions respecting the justification of a guilty soul are derived from the school of the first Adam, though often covered with a varnish of gospel phrase, to give an air of truth. Blinded by the god of this world, they can neither see nor believe what the Scripture declares in the plainest language-namely, that the state of the whole race of man, in consequence of the transgression of Adam, the common federal head, is one of absolute, unconditional, and irreversible perdition. They regard it as rather the worse for sin, a little damaged, yet not irreparably ruined, nor irretrievably lost. So they saw what they really are in God's sight, how far gone from original righteousness, how sunk in sin and rebellion, and how certain of misery after death; they would own their need of a new righteousness to hide their filthiness, and authorise their approach to God, as in the days of primeval innocence. This new righteousness, the Lord Christ, who is over all, God blessed for ever, has created for his people, by a personal effort of his own soul, pouring it out on the altar of his Godhead, “an offering for sin," "being delivered for our offences," and returning from the depths of death and hell to the right hand of God to make intercession for us, "being raised again for our justification." He descended into hell once for us to accomplish our deliverance. He ascended into heaven for us to accomplish our justification. Who can say that he has left incomplete anything that he undertook, or if any part be left incomplete, who shall finish it?

Thanks be to God, faith gives us a victorious answer to such questions, and enables us to triumph in the knowledge that He is our Rock, and that His work is perfect. Yea, we are his honoured witnesses, and are numbered with those of whom it is written, "This people have, I formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise."

III.

"Whereunto also they were appointed"-1 Peter ii. 8.

Two distinct classes of persons are mentioned, or kept in view, throughout the Scriptures, beginning with the history of Cain and Abel, and concluding with the imperative decree, "he that is unjust let him be unjust still, and he that is righteous let him be righteous still " (Rev. xxii. 11); nor is this distinction more marked than in Jude, who describes each in the plainest terms of which language is capable. When speaking of that family to which Abel belonged, he addresses them "beloved," "saints ;" and describes their condition as being that of persons sanctified by God the Father, preserved in Jesus Christ, and called. Their manner of life as worshippers or religionists, is mentioned as that of persons who are engaged in building up selves on their most holy faith, "praying in the Holy Ghost;" and

them

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