WEDNESDAY, October the 24th, was set apart by us, as a Church and congregation, as a day of special thanksgiving for the goodness and mercy of our Covenant God manifested both in providence and grace, and a truly delightful day it was, as many can testify. Not only has he crowned the year with his goodness in sending an abundant harvest, which demands a song of praise (though through the oppression of man, the poor are deprived of the benefit of it); but has in an especial manner vouchsafed his blessing to us as a church, in blessing his own truth, in granting deliverances of no ordinary character, and in succeeding our efforts in erecting a house, on land adjioning the chapel, for the use of the minister. It was felt that these especial favours demanded an especial song of praise and thanksgiving. Brother Dickerson, of Alie Street, paid us a friendly visit on the occasion, and in the morning delivered a very suitable discourse, imbracing four most important points. The first, retrospective, and had reference to what God had already accomplished for Crowborough, taking as the ground of his observations the last part of the 23rd verse of the 23rd chapter of On the first Monday in September, we had Numbers, "What hath God wrought?" our half-yearly tea meeting; a goodly numSecond, to the minister, from Psa. xxvii. 14. ber sat down to tea at five o'clock, after which Third, to the church, from 2 Chron. xv. 2. a public meeting was held; when one of the Fourth to backsliders, from Hosea xiv. 1-4. deacons gave an account of the Lord's dealIn the afternoon, was held a public meetings with us during the past year; concluding, when, after a most suitable prayer and singing, the state of the finances respecting the building were brought forward, and our brother Dickerson, who had been acquainted with the cause from the beginning, gave a most interesting account of the progress made, and the present state of affairs, which was GOD does not say to any one of his people, most gratifying to all present. A most de-"Rejoice that thou art holy," but "Soul relightful object has been attained, the building joice and triumph that Christ is righteousof a house for the minister. The builder has that he is the Lord thy Righteousness-that done ample justice in the erection, and the he has died for thee-that his blood cleanses friends have exerted themselves nobly in sup- from all sin-that thou hast an advocate with plying funds, so that by borrowing £50 for 2 me the Father-even Christ the righteous years, we have been able to pay all expenses, One." Therefore, the first step towards reand we hope by that time to be able to meet ceiving comfort from the blessed Paraclete, the demand; and the house will stand as a is to send away and to renounce all grounds monument to future generations of the good- of confidence, and all comforters of our own. ness of God to us. After the meeting, a large-Major Rowlandson. JOHN STREET, UPPER HOLLOWAY. MR. EDITOR, We have had reasons for joy and thankfulness, that ever a report went forth from Holloway in the VNSSEL; because, thereby, some of the Lord's dear children who are living in the dark places around us, whose souls were hungering for the bread of life, and longing for the courts of the Lord, have (through the instrumentality of the VESSEL) been guided to Zoar, where they have found that which their souls longed after; our pastor has again baptised three males and three females, making an addition of twenty since May last. Thus you will see that the little vine is growing, and the fruit of faith, hope, and love are still hanging on her branches; and our prayer to God is, that all the graces of the Spirit may shine forth so blessedly among us, that the heathen may be constrained to say, "The Lord hath done great things for them;" and we will answer, He has, for which we are glad," and praise his name for it. IPSWICH. Mr. Poock rose to say he was quite satisfied BETHESDA Chapel, Ipswich, and minister's that everything was fulfilled according to house, having undergone repairs, painting, agreement, for the workmen were prompt, and cleansing, was reopened on Lord's-day, civil and obliging. He called upon the TreaNovember 4th, by Mr. Poock and Mr. Collins, surer to report names and donations; he did of Grundisburgh. so himself with £10, the builder £5, and so he went on until the total named amounted to £52; leaving a small balance to pay. On the following Tuesday a tea meeting was held at the Temperance Hall; between two and three hundred persons sat down, and enjoyed their tea, sweetened with many remarks concerning Bethesda, and the Lord's manifold mercies to us as his church and people. After tea the friends repaired to the chapel, when Mr. Poock opened the evening's service by giving out, and the people singing, "Come, thou Fount of every blessing." After which, Mr. Carpenter, of Chelmondiston, engaged in prayer. Mr. P. then requested a chairman to be nominated, when Mr. W. Clarke, the Treasurer, was named, and unanimously called to it. He warmly declared his love to the place, the people, his minister, and his God; there he was blessed; there he was in his home-house, was dear to himhe studied its peace and its prosperity, and felt pleasure in doing so, and anxiously wished the Lord to have all the glory. He stated the outlay, and proved the utmost economy had been maintained. Ten years had rolled away, with a debt of £800, since the chapel and house had been repaired. There was no very heavy burden upon them, and £60 was all he asked, to pay the trades man's bills. Mr. Collins, of Grundisburgh, was next called to address the meeting. He did so effectually, stating his long knowledge of, and love to, the cause. He had prayed for, and watched it anxiously. He rejoiced in its position, and hoped it would yet see brighter days. He trusted it would be a birth-place for many, a hospital for the sick, and a feasting-place for the hungry soul. His usual pleasantry was very effective, and the result was a cheerful response to his appeal. The chairman called on Mr. Thornley, of Stow Market. His address was congratulatory to minister and people, expressive of the finest feelings for his brother Poock, whom he had known for many years, desiring his life and future usefulness in the midst of that people, who was evidently so united and so blessed. Mr. Felton, of Zoar Chapel, was next called upon. He declared himself astonished at God's mercy-the people's liberality-his brother Collins's magic power on the people's mind. He had known and loved his brother Poock twenty years-prayed prosperity might abound-exhorted to give God all the glory. Mr. Carpenter then rose, and expressed himself so very delighted with the past and the present history and mercy of God attending the cause, that its equal could only be found at Chelmondiston-to which our worthy Chairman could not readily agree-each desirous of glorifying the Lord for his goodness to each. Mr. Pells related an anecdote he thought calculated to facilitate the glory of God. Our friends the singers attended, with their usual respect and willingness, on the occasion. The doxology was sung, the benediction pronounced, and the friends retired. To Father, Son and Holy Ghost, be all the T. Poock. glory. Amen. THE WEST OF ENGLAND. DEAR FRIEND, -I promised you a few particulars relative to my labours in Plymouth, during the month of October last. Some folk smile, some are angry at the few notes I gave you last month; and some think it unwise. However, I pass all that, and again promise you that a few of the exercises of my mind in the ministry, and in other matters, during my sojourn in the West, shall be laid before you, and before all in fact, who choose to read these occasional notes of mine. It is high time that I should watch the hand of God towards me if I never did before-for a more mysterious path I think no man could ever be called to tread. But of that now I will not speak. The day before I left London, these words arrested my mind-and I thought they came with some comfort to my soul-"I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron." Certainly no words could be more suited to my case-and now-in reviewing my going out and coming in-and my labour there, I certainly hope the Lord did go before me: but the gates of brass, and the bars of iron, are not yet broken; and my unbelief often tells me a painful tale concerning them; and sometimes I can lay myself in the dust, and say "let him do with me as seemeth him good." It was late on the Saturday night when I reached Plymouth. Our kind Christian brother Westaway met me at the station, and soon I was safely housed in the snug department allotted to the poor wayfaring men. I retired that night with the words on my heart, "I will go before thee:" and I tried to open them, and to fetch a sermon out of them; but no; not one single idea could gather. There was the promise, and that was all. The Lord's-day morning came, and when I arose I found my spirit empty of any heavenly treasure, but heaving deep sighs to heaven for such a message as the Lord would bless unto the souls of the people. As I stood in the room, silently turning over the leaves of the Book, these words came most sweetly to my mind," stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love." The different stages of a divine experience through which the Church had passed were opened to me: her present condition-"I am faintiny for a fuller sense of thy love to my soul!" O stay me with the out-pourings of grace; and truth." Now teaching that of the ever b That men may truth, and adm and even have I doubt not. thousands; th for those who changing their them by heart cred Spirit's g they could not beloved John against seduce. ye have receiv ye need not th the same anoi! and is truth, hath taught y way and mea train his chil ous-always in own blessed w great instrum Hence he gav to the church gelists, pastor of the saints, the edifying come in the u ledge of the unto the mea of Christ; a & is a great ble think, enoug under this he and a sound Spirit, broth experience of strips, and h alts; he has they are in d All things w written, ther things and taught broth all things I a to be hungry O, blessed sc in whatsoev tent:" and as though I already perf forth and r ments and look at the of affliction fire and the deep sea of I have ofter supporting labours, (h above meas deaths oft. forty stripe with rods, shipwreck, the deep. waters, in own countr perils in th ee tree of inted a deed, 25 6 Poe Business, and Hour anal to 296 THE EARTHEN VESSEL, [DEC. 1, 1855. comfort me by the application of thy precious peacefully contemplate thine own death-bed, promises, and the unfoldings of thy thoughts or thy sudden transition from this world to toward me." This was my first subject; and that which hath no end, and from which much was I favoured in the work that morn- there is no escape? Thou must soon enter ing. Vital union to Christ will produce an upon an eternal state of inconceivable glory inward vehement thirst for those sacred en- or unutterable woe. The end of all things is joyments of His presence; and for those holy at hand with thee. Thou art fast hastening seasons of nearness to His throne which is the down to the grave; and as "death meets thee, earnest of our inheritance, and the strength of judgment will find thee; death to thee will our hearts. All I have experienced of this be the day of doom, or the bright dawning of thirsting after Jesus is contained in the follow-thine everlasting glory-day. Where is thy ing verse which originated in my own breast "There's none on earth I love like thee, It is the love of union; Oh, ever faithful prove to me And maintain sweet communion." The true believer, in this state, is the subject of a union-a spiritual, and a natural-an heavenly and an earthly. A living faith leads the heart upward, while all the powers and affections of a fallen nature tend downward; but Grace presses out many a deep-fetched and earnest aspiration, saying "Stay me with flagons; comfort me with apples; for I am sick of love." To my own poor trembling spirit, there was a rich unfolding both of the greatness of Christ's Person, as well as of the fervency of the church's breathings after more nearness and conformity to him. I was enabled to go before the people with a mind somewhat sanctified by sacred meditation; and in speaking, I found a flow of thought, and a freedom of utterance which made the work pleasant, profitable and uniting. I will add a few words to this, if spared. SOLEMN WORDS TO CLOSE UP THE C. W. B. YEAR. qualification for the presence and society of thy God? Where rests the eye of thy faith, when thou sayest, am, or, I hope I am prepared Rests upon the Christ of God? Is thy comeliness and purity that which Christ hath put upon thee? Is thy perfection the perfection of his righteousness and merits, and his only? Th the Lord the Spirit led thee to the blood of Jesus for cleansing and purifying? If these things have not been done for thee and within thee, thou canst not rightly say, I am prepared to meet him. Vain is thy confidence, groundless thy hope, dead and vile thy faith, if they are built on anything short of the obedience, death, resurrection, ascension and intercession of the dear Redeemer. Hast thou ever viewed him standing before the throne of God, clothed in a vesture dipped in blood, as thy great Representative and Forerunner? Hast thou put thy cause into his hand, that he might plead it before his Father, upon the ground of his own glorious and perfect merits? Nay, my soul, hast thou cast thyself unen the free and sovereign grace of God in Cast, and that, too, independently of all to hast done or canst do? Nothing short of this qualifies thee to stand accepted in the sight of that God who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and in whose sight the very "Thrust in thy sickle, and reap; for the time immaculate robe of Emanuel's righteousness heavens are not clean. Nothing short of the for thee to reap is come."-Rev. xiv. 15. will suffice thee there. Every rag of thine SOLEMN command this, my soul! and certain own must be cast away with self-loathing as it is solemn! It will surely come; and and contempt; all thy strength, in thy estiwhen that sickle is thrust in, thou wilt be mation, must become perfect weakness; all gathered into the garner of eternal glory, or thy proud and high-flown notions of wisdom left for the thrusting in of the second sickle, and knowledge must become foolishness, and and be gathered with all them that know not thou be brought by the Eternal Spirit to God, and with them be cast into the great come as a poor, lost, and undone criminal to wine-press of the wrath of God. O, solemn the throne of mercy, and there to confess that consideration! for all who are then gathered thou art ignorant, and helpless, and naked, will be "cast into the lake of fire and brim- and vile? for it is only as thou art so led and stone, which is the second death." "Who taught, that thou canst rightly prize Christ amongst us shall dwell with the devouring in his riches and suitability, or acceptably fire? (saith the prophet Isaiah). Who plead that he, of God, might be made unto amongst us shall dwell with everlasting thee wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctifiburnings?" And yet this is to be the eter- cation, and redemption. nal prison of all them that know not God, and obey not the gospel. O, dreadful place! -the lake of fire and brimstone! O, awful condition!-to be doomed to dwell eternally in the devouring fire of hell! to agonize eternally in the everlasting burnings of the bottomless pit! O, detestable companions!-the devil and his angels! How stands the case with thee, my soul? Stand still, and for one moment exainine thyself. Canst thou answer, to the satisfaction of thy conscience, this solemn and momentous question? Art thou prepared to meet the eternal God, should he summon thee this day, this hour-nay, this moment, to his bar? Canst thou calmly and But 0, my soul, if thou hast been thus led, and thus taught, then mayest thou hold up thine head with joy, and look up with confidence in the most perplexing circumstances; for nothing can hinder thy redemption, which every moment draweth nigh. O, then shalt thou hail with joy that solemn command of, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap." And sweet in thine ears will be the voice of the archangel when it shall shout forth, 66 Arise, For with ye dead! and come to judgment !" all the redeemed thou shalt mount up to meet thy Lord in the air, crown him the Captain of all thy victories, and enter into rest. AUTHOR OF " A CLOSET COMPANION " |