A LITTLE REVIVING IN OUR BONDAGE."-Ezra ix. 8.

AT the time that these words were written, the Lord's people were brought to a very critical position; but the Lord had, in great mercy, seen fit to relieve them in part of their many troubles. "They soon," however, “ forgot his works, and waited not for his counsel," for they were found doing after the abominations of the "Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites " (Ezra ix. 1). This brought Ezra upon his knees before God, and made him say, "O my God, I am ashamed, and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God" (ix. 6); and then he goes on before the Lord, acknowledging the sin of the people, and the Lord's mercies, and among them the one mentioned in the passage that he had given them a little revival in their bondage. I shall not speak more on the history of these words, but, if the Lord will, write a few thoughts on their spiritual nature.

The child of God, when taught to see the state in which he is by nature, is sure to fly to the breasts of Sinai for relief and help; he will set to work to make a fig-leaf dress to cover his nakedness, which he has just discovered, and fancy that he shall soon manage things aright; but he will find that the rent is made worse than it was before ; that works are but filthy rags; that all he can do will not and cannot bring him in favour with the Most High. "The Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon him" (Is. xl. 7); and the consequence is, that "the grass withereth," and even "the goodliness thereof" becomes as the "flower of the field." Yet, however, he is not willing to give up; he will keep clinging to his own condemnation, and is "kept under the law" (Gal. iii. 23), and shut up as a bondman unto the law of Moses; here he is kept till "faith comes," and nothing but this faith coming, which is the gift of God" (Eph. ii. 8) will relieve him from the bondage in which he is; but when faith is come we are no longer under a schoolmaster, but are the children of God (in blessed experience) by faith in Jesus Christ (Gal. iii. 26). This is one bondage state in which the children of God are often found; and they can no more deliver themselves from it-nor can any one else do it for them-more than David could "fly away and be at rest."

But there is another bondage state in which all the children of God are and will be, more or less, till they quit this body; they cannot in this world so effectually be made free to this bondage as they can to the bondage of Moses. This is the bondage of the creature, which continues till the "manifestation of the sons of God" (Rom. viii. 19), which will not take place in our present state. Paul says that the "whole creation" -that is, the creation of grace-those who are created anew in Christ

Jesus-that the whole of this creation "groaneth and travelleth in pain together until now" (Rom. viii. 21)-that there is not one of the family of God exempt from this bondage, the whole of them have to groan and travel under this tiring yoke; and not only so, but the apostles themselves, who had the "first-fruits of the Spirit," even they "groaned within themselves, waiting for the redemption of their body" (Rom. viii. 23).

The apostle Paul has beautifully described his experience of this bondage in the 7th of Romans; he says, "That which I do I allow not, for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I" (Rom. vii, 15). Every child of God comes to this experience, and finds that they cannot do the good that they want to, but are constantly doing that which they hate; yes, often do they make up a resolution never to do it again, but find again and again that it is but breath spent in vain, for soon does the temptation come creeping over them again, and they fall a victim to its tempting allurements; then they sit down in misery; couched between two burdens; "they abhor themselves, and repent in dust and ashes;" they feel the most offensive reptile that crawls upon the face of the earth, and creep into some sly corner, ashamed to look anybody in the face. Oh, how true it is, that "What I hate, that do I;" yes, the thing that he really hates-hates with his inmost soul; and yet strange to relate, he does that very thing again and again; he then comes into Jeremiah's experience when he said, "O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in him that walketh to direct his steps"-as much as to say, Once, dear Lord, I did doubt it-once I did think that I could walk where I wished, and do as I chose; but now I have been taught, and beat about with such mighty winds, and such high tempests, that I come to quite another conclusion, and "I know that the way of man is not in himself "that he is sure to do the thing he hates; and the thing which he would that does he not.

The apostle then goes on to relate that he found two laws in him, -that one was "the law of the flesh," and the other "the law of the mind" (Rom. vii. 23); and he tells us that these are "contrary the one to the other "(Gal. v. 17), and the consequence is, that we "cannot do the things that we would." So that we are kept in a continual bondage, and a continual war, for Paul says, "I delight in the law of God after the inward man "-that was the effect and desire of the "law of his mind." But he says, "I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin." Thus runs the experience of the great apostle Paul ; and though he was confident that God would by and bye deliver him from it (25 v.), and though he knew that the condemnation attached was already done away (viii. 1), yet he had to "groan and travel, being burdened," until the redemption of the purchased possession" (Eph. 14), which is the "redemption of our body" (Rom. viii. 23).

"

I have thus written a few lines on the bondage of the people of God;

I will now attend more closely to the passage, and show a few of the little revivals' which we are sometimes favoured with "in our bondage."

I. A spirit of prayer. One of the qualities of the old man, is to deaden us in this blessed privilege. Oft, too oft it is that we cannot pray at all; we go through the form, but the child of God is well aware this will not do; he feels dissatisfied; he wants feeling; he wants life; he wants to " pour out a prayer;" he wants to feel power in what he says; he wants to feel a freedom at the throne of grace and access at the Lord's footstool; he wants to feel what he says, and to let his tongue be the language of his heart; he wants to plead for fresh graces, new life, more liberty, and a greater knowledge of Jesus; he wants to pray-yes, feelingly pray; to see the Lord as commanding all his affairs, and humbly trust him in all and every circumstance. But these things he cannot feel his need of as he wishes to do, and perhaps cannot pray for at all; he wants a power put forth of a Divine operation to touch his soul, to warm his heart, to open his mouth, and to unclasp his lips. Well, by and bye, the Lord sees fit to "pour out" upon him "the spirit of grace and of supplication," so that he calls upon his name. And how sweet such a season is after so long a dearth! The soul seems humbled down in sweet humility; the heart and affections captivated, and the whole soul enlarged; so that the poor soul falls down at the feet of Jesus, and asks him for what he wants with such a sweet humility, that the poor soul and Jesus seem to be but one, and he pours out his soul with such blessed feelings that he will never forget. All seems melting and crumbling humility, and child-like petitioning and prayer. This is truly a little reviving in our bondage."

II. A word spoken with power. Solomon tells us that "Heaviness in the heart of man, maketh it stoop; but a good word maketh it glad" (Prov. xii. 25). Jeremiah says, Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and they were the joy and the rejoicing of my heart" (Jer. xv. 16); so that the effect of the Lord's word coming with power is the joy and the rejoicing of our heart. David tells us how sweet he found these words to be, and how he enjoyed them, for he says, "How sweet are thy words unto my taste, yea, sweeter than honey unto my mouth (Ps. cxix. 103)-so blessed and so sweet is it to enjoy one of the Lord's words; yea, sweeter than honey. These words which the Lord speaks to his people are words of comfort and consolation. David says, "Mine eyes fail for thy word." He wanted the word of God to come, and that to comfort him; as is evident from the remaining part of the verse-saying, "when will thou comfort me ?" (Ps. cxix. 82). Now when the Lord sends his word of comfort into the soul, it always comes just suited to the case of the poor creature to whom it is sent; if he wants deliverance from a trial, it savours of that blessing; if faith, the word is respecting it. And whatever be the case of the soul, the word is sent to comfort it in that particular, where he needs it; and that makes it all the more prized, because it comes just when most needed.

"A

word spoken in due season, how good is it!" (Prov. xv. 23). Yes, when the word comes, it will be in due season-both as regards the soul's state of need, and the purposed time of his deliverance.

When the Lord sends a word into the soul, how it seems to roll over and over in the mind, and leave a sweet savour at every turn; the soul truly feasts on it with joyful heart, and eats it as a precious morsel; he finds it indeed the joy and the rejoicing of his heart; and can say from blessed experience with one of old, "Pleasant words are as an honey comb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones" (Prov. xvi. 24). Well, when these blessed seasons are enjoyed, they are truly little "revivals in our bondage."

III. A little opening up of the person and work of Christ. Sometimes the soul feels as dead to the Lord Jesus, as though it was no concern to him, whether there was a Saviour or not; he feels no warmth towards him, and the Lord seems to be hid from his eyes. 'Verily thou art a God that hideth thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour " (Ps. xlv. 15). But by and bye there seems an opening up of Jesus to the soul, though it be but small, and not near what the soul wants; he seems to see a something fresh in the Lord, and it agrees with this text, "My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door" (Cant. v. 4), so that the soul could just see a part of his dear Lord, and the result was, "My bowels were moved for him " (v. 4). Well, the soul is not satisfied with seeing a little of the dear Lord-he wants to see more; yea, he wants to see all of him, and so he says, "I rose up to open to my beloved." He wanted the door opened to get a full view of his beloved, instead of just seeing his hand only through the "hole of the door :" but perhaps that is as much as the Lord intends to show us at that time. And so when he rose up to open to his beloved, what was his sorrow, but to find that " my beloved had withdrawn himself" (Cant. v. 6); so that the soul is as it were on tiptoe to come into the full liberty of the gospel, a full view of Jesus-is just expecting to enjoy it all, when his beloved withdraws himself," and the poor soul says, I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer " (Cant. v. 6); but though it was not a full view of the Lord Jesus, yet it was a little peep at the King in his beauty, and a little view of his dearly beloved; he found he was "standing behind our wall." He felt his beloved was not far off-his bowels were therefore moved-his beloved then "looked forth at the windows," and instead of giving the poor soul a full view of his precious self, he "showed himself through the lattice" (Cant. ii. 9); and this was the purposed extent of the enjoyment of the soul at that time. The soul, however, is not aware it is to end there; he therefore "opened to his beloved," but found he had "withdrawn himself," and was not to be found: so that, though the soul does not get satisfied, yet he gets "a little reviving in his bondage."

Space will not suffice to write more. If the Lord, however, deign to cause this to be the means of giving a "little revival" to any of his tried ones, my end will be amply answered. That this may be the case, is the prayer of

CEPHAS.

I have sent a letter that I received from Miss D-'s mamma, the particulars of the death of her son Frank, who you know was seriously ill when we were at Dover. I should say his life was twenty years, but this I am not certain about. It appears to me a very delightful account, and the suddenness of the change makes it come to me with more force and power. When I have been writing to the mother, I have been inclined sometimes to send passages of Scripture to him in his illness, but never having a message back, I concluded all was dead and darkness: the mother very rarely named him, but merely said the passages were given.Poor Frank used to be very much at S― -, writing for Mr. S after he left school; and at that time I was much struck with him, he was particularly kind and simple in his manner, but I could never trace any weight upon his mind on religion. He was indeed brought out to the light most beautifully. .

September.

MY DEAR MRS. S

Yours, in truth,

C. S.

Your last kind and welcome letter was very gratifying indeed-I do stand in need of treble faith, for it has been much exercised of late. You have no doubt heard of my second bereavement, * but it remains for me to tell you of mercy vouchsafed-oh, astonishing mercy! never did I experience so much joy mingled with sorrow. During the protracted illness of dear Frank, I had much solicitude respecting his eternal welfare; I had hopes that the work was begun, yet could never come to any satisfactory evidence on the point till within ten days previous to his death, when he very freely opened to me the inmost recesses of his heart, by which I could plainly discern the deep work of the Spirit. He was much impressed with the description which Mr. W- gave in his sermons of the depravity of the human heart, which he at first could not believe; however, he prayed earnestly, if the statement were true, God would enable him to see it-his prayer was speedily answered, and he became a humbled convinced sinner before God, a diligent seeker by prayer for the peculiar manifestation of God to his soul, for which he ardently longed and patiently waited not without hope, and at times comfort, for from the preached word he knew that he was in the right way, and had still that hope within him which in his last days he proved

* The writer had been left a widow four months previously.-ED.