man in Christ about fourteen years ago!" The apostle did not. He would not have his He had permitted all these years to pass away experience hide Christ. He knew his bright without saying anything about his vision to vision would hang as a dark veil between the the Corinthians; and now it is evident they sinner, and the face of Him he wished to be would not have heard it from him, but for the seen. It was a bright vision, no doubt; but conduct of the false Judaizing teachers, who he knew the Spirit was not engaged to bless came among them with great swelling words the preaching of it, but of Christ. He would of vanity; and what they lacked in truth, have Christ seen, not through his vision, but endeavoured to supply by fraud and preten- the gospel. Had he have preached his vision, sion. They had been favored with visions he himself would possibly have been the from the Almighty! the ignorant and plebian centre object in the hearer's eye; but he had apostle of the Gentiles had not! Had any of no desire for his preaching to terminate in them heard him declare that he had? And himself; and his object was not to teach men so these wise, but, alas! too simple believers that he was anything, but that Christ was all. at Corinth, were led away by evil and design- Does our experience bring us to the same ing men, and brought ultimately to doubt conclusion? The apostle did not aim to enthat their spiritual father was an apostle, slave men by visions, but to reach the conbecause, as their sapient teachers alleged, he science through the truth. He knew men had not had a vision. This dreadful charge, might be entangled by their emotions, and among other things, compelled the apostle, held for a time through their fears; but these though with great reluctancy, to speak a were not his aims. In proportion as men are little of himself. "I knew a man," says he. destitute of truth, they seek to lead men capIf you will have me to speak of myself-if I tive by something else of their own; and in must, according to the dicta of your teachers, proportion to their ignorance, generally are have a vision to give authority to my teach- their pretensions. It is a bad sign when pubing, well, then, be it known to you, that "Ilic teachers endeavour to hold and lead their knew a man," &c. I am not deficient, you see. Your teachers have doubtless told you all they know which they thought would impress you with an idea of their great superiority; but, as I had other objects in view, I did not do so. It might have been wrong in me, perhaps, but I did not want you to see my vision, but my Master-my vision was for my consolation; my gospel for your's. Here we see at once the different spirit by which the two parties were actuated. The false teachers were all mere bombast and pretence, the apostle all meekness, humility and self-distrust. False teachers preach beyond themselves, and make no conscience of their words; the true, preach within themselves, and often hold their stores in reserve, if the people's condition do not immediately demand them. The former soon empty their buckets with a noise and a splash, and are gone; while the latter remain, being fed by a living spring. With the false teachers Christ was nothing, themselves everything; with the apostle, Christ was everything, and himself nothing. Their vision led them to speak of themselves, and condemn others; his, to speak of Christ, and condemn himself. The apostle had been highly favoured, but he did not preach that, but the Lord who had thus distinguished him. His vision had cost him a thorn, and he knew it; and hence he said but little about it. The vision of the false teachers had not this accompaniment, and hence their origin was declared, and their spirit, which was in accordance therewith. When Christ reveals himself to a man, he shews him to himself; when satan brings a dream, it is that the sinner may be hid; and hence so many talk of superior light, while they see not the truth. The apostle did not view his vision as a part of the gospel, though, from the way some talk of their experience and revelations, we should think that they do. They see a little, but they talk much; they preach more of their sight, than of the object they see. hearers by their extraordinary experiences, and pretensions to the profession of something peculiar, wonderful, and different to their brethren - when their authority is to be traced to refined egotism, inflated statements, spiritual pride, and mystical sensations. The apostle's revelations, unlike many of which we hear in the present day, left him in possession of a Christ-like spirit. Great discoveries of Christ, indeed, ever stand connected with a tender and compassionate spirit. The scholar of the third heavens, like his Master, was ever careful not to break the bruised reed, nor to quench the smoking flax. He was not only acquainted with the experience of the believer, as contained in Psalm xxxviii.-Romans vii., but with the Spirit of Christ also, as displayed, Mark ix. 38, and John xiii. 4. Hence he kept his vision to himself, lest any of his brethren, conscious they had not been so favoured, should think their religion was vain, or, seeking for one like it, should be ensnared by the great adversary, and mistake a dream from beneath, for a vision from above. With the apostle's vision, then, there was prudence, tenderness and love. What a mercy it would be for the church, if all who make pretensions to great revelations, were distinguished by the same graces! Let us not, then, judge of men by their statement of experience only, but by the character of the message they bring, and the spirit they manifest in connection therewith. If they, by the free utterance of their opinions, and assuming the chair of the judge, deem themselves faithful, we must tell them we think otherwise; and if, while boasting of their experience, they are found to be bitter, censorious, and dramatical-if their light is without humility, their knowledge without tenderness, their zeal without love, we may be sure their teaching will be very unlike that of the apostles, though in the estimation of themselves and others they are extraordinary men. MINOR. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A LONDON THIEF: OB, THE PRISON OPENED AND THE CAPTIVE LOOSED. LAST month we commenced (on page 88,) a notice of a small volume, recently published, under the above title. We have taken more than usual notice of this work, because it opens up in a singular manner, the awful deeps of sin, and the superabounding mercies of sovereign, distinguishing, invincible grace. As regards the reality of God's saving grace in the heart of David Dash, the subject of this narrative, we have certainly not been without our hesitations and fears. We have looked after, and we have looked at the evidences which the dying circumstances of poor David furnished, and the more we have done so, the more have our hopes increased, that David Dash was indeed a chosen vessel, a ransomed sinner, a quickened soul; and that he is now, through Jesu's precious blood, and justifying righteousness, a glorified spirit, in the realms of everlasting life and perfect bliss: where "Loudest of the crowd he sings,, a And sings of sovereign grace." The scenes connected with David's transportation are too horrifying even to refer to. In course of time, he returned to his native land; and for a season strove for a more honest course; but temptations and afflictions, like heavy waves dashed against, and so overpowered him, that down in the deeps again and again he went. The time drew nigh that David must die; and now comes the question—" How was the change produced? - Wherein did evangelical repentance, and living faith appear?" We have many times been tempted to think very lightly of some person's expressed experience whose subsequent Christian deportment have abundantly proved the genuineness of their faith in Christ, and their vital union to Him; and we have been exercised with reference to this man's real conversion unto God. Conversions, sometimes, are so mysterious. The grace of God doth now and then lay hold of such deeply depraved sinners: the black smoke of their sins, the terrors of their minds, the pangs of their distressed spirits, the remorse of their guilty consciences, the legal stirrings of their old Adam nature, and the powerful temptations of their great adversary, — these mingled clouds do frequently so obscure the clear shinings of heavenly grace, as to make it very difficult in coming to a decision. It is true, that our decision alters not the reality of the case! but in speaking or writing of death-bed conversions, we certainly feel anxious never to take the mere workings of a distorted mind, nor the delusions of a frenzied brain, for the saving operations of God the Holy Ghost in 1855. the sanctified and changed heart of a vessel "prepared unto glory." In the dying days, and in the dying experience of David Ďash, we feel a solid hope that there were such marks of the finger of God-such demonstrations of the life of God -such burstings forth of the love of God, and such fruits of the evidential saving grace of God as shall render this narrative a real blessing to the many thousands who may either read the extracts we give, or who may read the volume itself. Yea, further, we have said within ourselves, "Surely, Josiah Viney, after writing and sending this testimony into the world, can never again, preach universal redemption, nor man's power to turn himself unto the living God." The first sentence in David's experience, which shews the commencement of God's work in his soul, is in the following paragraph, and distinguished by italic letters. After speaking of the coming of his last illness, he says: - "On Wednesday I had to walk to the Dispensary, Devonshire Square, but was obliged to return. The next day (Thursday, 15th April-that day which will never be forgotten by me-the most eventful day of my life), my wife, with much trouble, led me to the Dispensary. The doctor who saw me said, 'You are like many more, who drink and get cold upon cold, and let it go too far. I can do nothing for you: you are past my skill. Don't then I felt something like an arrow shoot come any more; let your wife come.' It was through me. I felt I must die; and going back I turned to my wife and said, 'He as good as said, Go home and make your peace with God.' I felt alarmed for the first time. I knew I should die. I was now quite wretched; and when I got home and up the stairs, I looked down and said, 'I shall never go down again until I am carried feet first.' I went to bed, and thought I should not live an hour. My wife said, 'Would you like to see some one ?" I said, 'Yes; send for him This person was a Mr. Jackson, missionary, who was so kind to you when I was in prison.' of Old Gravel Lane. At one time he had some money to give away from the Needlewomen's Society School in Goodman's Yard, Minories; he gave my wife some coal and bread tickets. I once went with her to hear him, and it so happened that night he gave a lecture on drunkenness, which touched me home so much that I thought he knew all about me; so that when she asked me who She went to him, and he said I was out of I should like to see, 1 at once sent for him. his district, but as I had a particular wish to see him he would come; he did so, and read and prayed with me, and told me to look to Jesus and ask him to pardon my sins. I told F 2 him I could not pray. At that time I did not know the meaning of the word. He said, 'Ask God to give you his Holy Spirit to guide you." " "There is a fountain filled with blood, * * * * * When they sung I could not help joining—it I The penitent man shortly after visited the sanctuary, and found there more than he sought. We proceed in our search after solid evidence of an eternal change of heart. Mr. Viney, the author of this volume, has embellished it with some pretty flowers of rhetoric and reflection, but these are not what we want. A broken, bleeding heart a heart crushed by the sentence of a broken law-a soul panting for a Saviour's precious blood-a spirit truly penitent and contrite, under a sense of the inexpressibly awful nature and dreadful consequences of sin-a conscience really sensitive, guarded, and guided by Gospel fear, and sympathies strongly disposed towards such persons as love and honour CHRIST, and toward such places as a TRIUNE JEHOVAH doth honour with His sacred, life-giving, soul-exalting presence. Let us feel out and find these things in the soul of a poor sinner-let that sinner have been ever so vile a wretch, ever so base a transgressor,-with the certain effects of grace which we have named, we must embrace him as one that hath obtained like precious faith-as one that with all the immortal powers of his ransomed soul, will worship a pardoning God in Christ for ever and for ever. And surely poor David was In reading the following extracts you will find a humble, but blessed exhibition of some of the features we have named. Mark the sentences-dear reader minister gave out the hymn, a person handed weigh deeply the points and the periods of me her book--I shook my head, as much as to the testimony given. and, withal, think say I could not read. After the service was how wondrous strange that such a mind over, she asked me how long I had been afflicted. should so long be bound in Satan's chains, I told her between four and five months. She but how much more wonderful, that such a said, can you read? No.-I had thought of double-tanned sinner should be washed in learning, but could not afford to pay for it. the blood of the everlasting covenant-and She said, do you think you could learn? I embraced in the arms of Immanuel's love! said, yes. On which she put some money into Oh! wondrous grace indeed. But come into my hand, and said she would pay for my schooling.' David's dying chamber; and look, and listen to the following scenes. such an one. I "After Mr. Jackson's visit, several persons came to see me. My wife one day asked me if she should read to me. Yes; read that long-neglected book,' for I could not read myself. It was, I think, about the first Sunday in May, when two persons, hearing of my illness, came to see me. One said to me, 'I knew you, my friend, twenty years ago.' little thought I should see you here in this state.' I asked him his name; he told me, and I remembered him. He then told me that he had been one of the worst of men-a great swearer, a great gambler, a great drunkard, and everything almost you could name! 'but,' said he, by the grace of God, I am converted-I am born again.' He then left me, and came the following Sunday, when he read to me, and prayed. Every word of that prayer seemed to pierce my heart; this was the first prayer I had really felt, and it came home with power. After this they sung that hymn, "A few Sundays after, I got better. It was now about the middle of June. I dressed myself, and went over to the little chapel in Hart's Lane. I fell on my knees in the pew, with a heart full of thankfulness that I had been spared a little longer. I lifted up my heart, and offered a prayer unto God that the word I might hear in his house might, through grace, be grafted into my heart, to bring forth fruit to repentance. I think I never heard indeed was a happy day to me. anything so beautiful as that service. That When the Panting for knowledge,-the living soul born mind thirsting for living water from labouring for spiritual food,-the heaventhe wells of salvation-these are beautiful and wholesome fruits of saving grace within. Sin and Satan shut us up in darkness, in ignorance of Gospel truth-in carelessness and in infidelity:-but the Eternal Spiritwhen He enters-unlocks the chambers of the hidden man-casts out Satan-and so pours in the light of truth, as to create an undying appetite for a divine and holy acquaintance with God and His precious word. See a positive proof of this in David's case. He :says: "When I went to school, my master put me to learn short words. I could not make it out. I do not think he thought me so ignorant as I was, for I could not tell the letters. I saw they were different shapes, but that was all I could tell. This very much puzzled me. I had to take my spelling-book home. | Now my wife was a scholar, and I asked her what they were. I took a great deal of notice. I tried to learn, for I wished to read my Bible; and this was how I got on-As my wife told me the letters, I kept repeating them over and over again; at last I knew them by heart. I went backwards and forwards to my school altogether twenty-two weeks. I shall never forget how happy I felt when I could read a chapter; I had been at school but six weeks, when I read to my kind friend the 10th John's Gospel. I also learnt to write." With a few words on death-bed conversions and on David's last moments-we hope next month to close up this solemn record of mercy's marvellous doings. WHAT IS NOT, AND WHAT IS SCHISM. A WHOLESOME WORD FOR THE CHURCHES IN THESE DAYS. A CHRISTIAN Church is a number of believers incorporated together, to maintain Christian principles, to celebrate Christian institutions, and to exercise Christian discipline, in order to the glory of God, and the mutual edification of the several members so united. And, therefore, 1st, No man can be a member of that body but by a voluntary choice on his part, and the free consent of such a society on their part. 2ndly, A refusal to join with any particular body of Christians, thus incorporated, is not schism; for where a union has not commenced, a schism cannot be. 3rdly, A peaceable and regular departure from such a society, for lawful reasons, viz., for better edification, or fuller satisfaction, in matters of soul-concern, is not schism. Schism, as stated by the Apostle Paul, in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, consists in three things: (1) In a contentious temper and practice. There arose among the members of the Church at Corinth, envying, strife, and divisions: these accounts, he charges them with carnality, and walking as men, and not as Christians, 1 Cor. iii, 4. Those animosities which were fomented among them, were from the flesh. (2) We are informed, that their contentions were about the ministers of Christ; some of them were of Paul, in opposition to Apollos; some were of Cephas, in opposition to the two former, and others were of Christ, in opposition to all the three before named. (3,) They behaved in an irregular and unseemly manner when they were assembled together for public worship; or they were not united, as a Christian body ought to be, in their religious acts at those seasons, 1 Cor. xi, 18, 19. on tions of the members from them,-that it is a breach of Christian love and unity, which ought to subsist, and by all possible means should be promoted, to the honour of Christ and the spiritual welfare of the community. It appears, by the Epistle of Clemens of Rome to that Church, that they afterwards also fell into schisms and divisions. A part of them deposed their bishops or presbyters, as that ancient writer indifferently styles them, though they were sound in the faith, and of good morals, (Oxon Edit, page 102,) for which reason, he, or rather, the Church at Rome, in accused them of schism, and in a very imporwhose name that famous Epistle was penned, · tunate manner, and with a great variety of moving arguments, beseecheth them to return to their duty as members of the body. If particular persons approve not of the ministry of a Church, whereof they are members, they have no legal right to endeavour to lessen the esteem which their fellow members have of their minister, to their disturbance and grief. If they cannot enjoy edification in that community, under the ministry of it, it is where they may reasonably hope to meet with their wisdom, and also their duty, to seek it it, and peaceably and regularly depart from that society unto some other Church in fellowtinue in a society among whom he receives not ship with that. A man cannot resolutely conedification, which is the great end of Christian hath in view, to the grief of the members fellowship, in order to carry any point that he of that society, without incurring the guilt of schism. Such, dear Mr. Editor, is old Father John Brine's description of what schism is, and what schism is not; and I feel persuaded that if the same could find a corner in the Vessel for May, it would prove beneficial to many of our distracted Churches in this our day in a fourfold way: first, to impart instruction; second, to bestow counsel; third, to give caution; and fourth, to afford direction. dwelt in the bush is the blessing which rests Trusting that the good will of him who upon your heart, and comforts your heart in all your downcastings, believe me, Yours most lovingly for Christ's sake, W. SKELTON, S. S. All true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, as fellow citizens of the saints, and of the household of God," are much nearer, and closer related to heaven, than to earth. With earth the body connects; but the redeemed soul unites them to God. With earth they have only a transient connection, but with heaven an everlasting tie. The first is but a shadow, and shall soon pass away. Their bodies, as frail tents or tabernacles, soon will wear out, or be taken down. But in heaven they have a more enduring substance. A house eternal, not made with hands. Just so far as they realise this their heavenly calling, are they raised above the things of time. The distinctions of riches or poverty, health or sickness, life or death, now become very small and insignificant in These things are the account of schism, as it is stated by the Apostle, and charged on some of the members of that Church. Hence, we see, that schism may be without a separation from the external communion of a Church, that it is an opposition to those, who of right, are the ministers of a Church, or any attempt to alienate the minds and affec-deed. EXPOSITORY EPISTLES TO THEOPHILUS. LETTER XI. We have now to look to the cleansing of the leper, in the perfection thereof. Now, my good Theophilus, see if you can follow me, step by step, in this matter. The priest was to go forth out of the camp to where the leper was. (Leviticus xiv. 3). The leper must not come in by himself, but the priest, by a true judgment of his case, and by sacrifice, is to bring him in. Here we see our great High Priest, that while we could not come unto him, he yet came unto us. His righteousness reacheth unto all that believe, and his atonement can reach unto the uttermost-even reaching farther to save than sin and the law can reach to condemn. Sin is indeed deep-even deep as satan's hell; yet is the atonement of Jesus deeper than hell; it reaches up to a vast eternity, and takes away sorrows we must have felt ten millions of years to come. It has gathered up every penalty under which, in the boundless deep, we must have for ever lain. Hell has no morning -no hope; on the other hand, heaven has no night-no despair. By Him it is we have the sweet influence of Pleiades seven ministerial stars, which he hath ereated. These proclaim that summer is near, and that the bands of Orion, the messengers of cold, are loosed. He comes forth unto us rejoicing as a strong man to run a race.' 66 Now, when he comes unto us in the manifestation thereof, he will, as soon as we are bad enough for him, pronounce us clean. This will be the judgment—the first step towards bringing us into the enjoyment of holy things. (Job xxx.) This felt solitude-this blackness of self-this destruction of the bones of creature strength-this turning of fleshly music into mourning, will make your reconciliation to the Saviour no feigned matter, no inere educational, customary, or dead-letter form; not a mere blind assent to your know-notwhat; but just so deep as the ploughshare of conviction has entered into your soul, just so deep will the incorruptible seed of truth take root therein; and if the whole field of your soul be well ploughed, the whole range thereof will in due time bring forth fruit unto God. But we must not yet run away from our leprosy. The only testimony the leper could give concerning himself was, "Unclean, unclean." Now, in being brought into the camp, he was to be sprinkled seven times. Fulness and perfection appear to be the meaning here intended; but besides these general meanings, will not the seven times bear giving in detail, so that each separate time shall have its distinct, yet connective meaning? When the leper was cleansed he was a new man, and came, as it were, into a new world; and as the first creation is a figure of the new creation, is there not in the number seven an allusion to the first and literal creation? Let us, then, take the seven, not in too close a sense, but as close as it is needful. The type should be to the antitype; for a type, or shadow, is not the very image of the thing signified, but only a general outline. 1st, Light. The first sprinkle of the atonement would give light; and is it not so? Is not the first ray of light, the first beam of hope, by the blood of the Lamb? Is there any other way in which God will ever command the light to shine into our hearts? and is not the very object of this light, to give us I have said this judgment will be pro- this as the light of the knowledge of the glory nounced when we are bad enough for him; of God, in the face of Jesus Christ? And God for your reconciliation to him cannot, without sees this light, that it is good. And if you this, be complete. You will want a Saviour just look for one moment at what it is, I am only in proportion as you are a sinner; and sure you will say it is good indeed. Take the until your fleshly hope utterly perish in your Holy Spirit's own explanation-it is thisown corruption, you are not fitted for the Sa-"In the beginning was the WORD, and the viour in his eternal Priesthood. And here I may just once and for all say to you, that no promise of the gospel can do you good, no precept can minister useful caution, no one relation of the Saviour as Shepherd, Son of God, King, or Bridegroom-no favor from God the Father, no one grace of the Holy Spirit can come to you, apart from the one great atonement. Everything must be done, and be achieved, and be possessed by this. Those who do not dwell together in the unity of this eternal Priesthood, do not dwell in the true unity of the Spirit. Unless, therefore, you are vile and loathsome, and helpless, and poor enough to receive Christ rightly, you are deceiving, to all intents and purposes, your own soul. You must become, as it were, a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls; and from experience say, with Job, "My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat: my harp, also, is turned into mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep." WORD was with God, and the WORD was God. In him was life, and the life was the light of men." This, then, is the light—it is Christ in his eternity. How, then, can the light of the righteous ever be put out? But "God divided the light from the darkness." And so you will find that this light will separate you from those who have not this light. They cannot see the Saviour in that attractive light that you do. You are drawn to him by that infinite and eternal sufficiency which you now see in him, and those self-same excellencies which make him so suitable to you, will make him correspondingly repulsive to others. They will hate him for the self-same reasons that you love him; and therefore the two are nominated accordingly; for the light he called day. Now, the word day signifies action-movement; that is, action and movement in accordance with the light; walking as children of light. The word translated night, signifies turning |