Where Are We Safe In These Times?

“When these things begin to come to pass, then—look up, and left up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.”—Luke 21

To our Christian friends, fellow labourers, and readers of the Earthen Vessel generally, we send the greeting of one, who, although he did, in the hour of temptation, deny Christ, yet being converted, or restored by the powerful Grace of God, was commanded by his Divine Master, to strengthen his brethren; accordingly, in addressing “them that had obtained like precious faith with us through the Righteousness of God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ,”—he said to them, “Grace and peace be multiplied unto you, through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as His Divine power hath given unto us all things pertaining unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Hirn that hath called us unto glory and virtue.”

Without travelling round the world to find material for an opening address, we simply attempt to answer that one question—“WHERE IS SAFETY?” A question propounded by many anxious minds in these days of division in churches, and of diversity in all the fields of theology and professions of Christianity.

Solomon answers the question in one line. As though he looked through the nations at this moment; and surveying the wholesale slaughter, the bloodshed and misery of the world, he says,—“The horse is prepared against the day of battle; but, SAFETY (or Victory) IS OF THE LORD.”

In the Everlasting and Electing Love of God THE FATHER, there is the root, and origin of Safety: in the glorious Person of the Covenant Head, the LORD JESUS CHRIST, there is a Mediatorial and Substitutionary Safety: in the gracious work of the ETERNAL SPIRIT, there is an experimental Safety: and in the Gospel of the blessed God, there is an instrumental, and manifested Safety. These large, and holy, and unchangeable foundation doctrines of Divine Revelation, are, in these days, so perverted, denied, or mixed up with false and modern theories, that it becomes increasingly binding upon us, to shew as clearly as may be,—WHERE IT IS THAT DYING AND HELPLESS SINNERS MAY FIND ETERNAL SALVATION.

The prophet Jeremiah, in his forty-second chapter leads us into a portion of ancient Biblical History, which was a kind of prophetic map of the times and troubles which are now passing over the nations and peoples, who, like the Jews of old, make some pretensions to the fear and faith of the Great and Holy God.

On this first day of January, in the year of our Lord and Saviour, one-thousand eight-hundred and seventy-one, let us sit down, and reflect for a few moments, on this wondrous piece of sacred prophecy.

There is a five-fold use to be made of it: the Literal; the National; the Evangelical; the Spiritual; and the Hypocritical. Look first at,

1. The Literal History. There had been a sore destruction of the rebellious Jews. The remnant desired to go down to Egypt; but they first go to Jeremiah: ask him to pray for them. The Lord answers them: bidding them abide in the land of Judea; but false prophets rose up against Jeremiah: they deceived the people: they rejected the counsel of God’s prophet: listened to the heresy of the false prophets,—hence ruin came upon them. Our land, and other lands, are teeming with erroneous teachers. Hosts that profess to be worshippers of God, listen to, and are led by, the false guides: the result will be, a darkness more lamentable than any pen can describe. Now consider,

2. The National Identification, or use of these words. The King of Babylon, Satan’s representatives in the Emperors and Romish councils, have been threatening and frightening the nations. The whole of Europe is staggering; thousands upon thousands have fallen. What thrones will totter—what nations will fall—what calamities will seize us, no one can declare. Dr. Cumming is sounding his trumpet again. He says,—“the great trouble is begun.” Prussia, Germany, France, and other parts of the Continent know too well it has begun. God alone knoweth where it will end. Our Churches, all our Christian people, are called upon to awake—to unite, in earnest prayer to the Lord God, that our Nation, our Colonies, our Home and Foreign possessions, may be preserved from those awful floods which are deluging the cities, towns, hamlets, and rural portions of our allied states and communities. The voice of the Lord soundeth in our ears, and we must reiterate the cry,—”Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.” To the very letter is not this prediction fulfilling?

Before we pass from the National Identity of Jeremiah’s prophecy, let us state distinctly our conviction that ”this rocky little island of the sea” has a powerful kingdom in her midst which is based upon Gospel principles. God Almighty has given to this nation such a host of giants in Divinity, such a continuous family of faithful Abrahams, of rejoicing Isaacs, of wrestling Jacobs, of testifying Pauls, of honest Peters, and of discriminating Judes, as was never found in continued succession in any other nation in the world. We would write in letters of gold the shining and solid sentence of a great author, who says,—

“BRITAIN IS THE POWER RESERVED BY GOD FOR MAINTAINING AND DEFENDING THE TRUTH.” The despotisms of Europe will war among themselves; but Britain (however defectively she may—in practice, have realized her principles—Britain) does stand upon the glorious basis of Christian truth; and (through God’s appointment, and by His power,) is capable of opposing—of resisting Antichrist, in every shape and form.”

Is it not true—that Britain is beyond the image territory? Neither geographically, morally, or spiritually is she under the sway of the ten horns, which, with the beast, are to be destroyed. Nevertheless as the Antagonizing Kingdom against Antichrist, she has a great work to do. And, if there ever was a time, when the true Churches of Christ—when the faithful ministers of Christ—when the gracious disciples of Christ—should be UNITED in faith, in truth, in prayer, in witnessing and working together for CHRIST, the Eternal CHRIST of God, and for the defence and development of His Kingdom, IT IS NOW.

Mr. Baxter, of Eastbourne, (a wise politician, as well as a faithful minister of Christ) does not believe, as some assert, that this English Nation will be destroyed by invasion; but, he does believe she will suffer great loss in her foreign possessions. The three frog-like spirits INFIDELITY!—WORLDLINESS!!—and FORMALISM!!!—are on our shores, poisoning the minds of many: hence, we affirm that SAFETY is only to be found in the RESISTANCE of these frog-like spirits; and in a bold and blessed fulfilment of that one sentence—“In the Name of our God will we set up our banners.” It may be asked,

“WHY SHOULD ENGLAND BE SPARED?” God’s promise to Abraham encourages the hope. The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous, or twenty, or ten; then will I spare all the city for the righteous sakes.”

Wherein has England been so evidently distinguished by God? She has had a long-continued succession of godly, righteous, and powerful men of grace. Her Goodwins, her Owens, her Charnocks, and others like them, were strong Gospel foundation-layers. Her Bunyans, her Gills, her Hawkers, her Whitfields, were successful builders; in connection with many armies of like spirits, who have passed away; but, whose works do follow them. And as spiritual lights in the Gospel Temple, England has had her Huntingtons, her Gadsbys, her Kershaws, her Warburtons, her Philpots, her Parks, her Topladys, and multitudes of genuine ambassadors for CHRIST. These British Christian Ambassadors were all, by distinguishing mercy, fetched out of the horrible pit, out of the miry clay; their feet were set upon the rock, and kept there. To hundreds of thousands their ministry was “the savour of life unto life,” and they have left behind them, a numerous seed to serve the Lord; a generation to call him blessed.

Is the Candlestick taken out of the Nation yet? Are all the Righteous removed? Are the faithful fled from the Earth? It would be awful sacrilege to suspect such a condition. Call together, for one moment, the noble army of ministers of Christs Gospel, who even now are planted by God’s grace in this three-millioned London! For people—for believing people—for praying people—there is not such another city in all the world: and for earnest preachers of God’s Christ and Gospel, her like can no where be found. Survey very carefully, how, in every quarter of the metropolis the Lord hath set His Ambassadors, every one of them in the ministry of Truth, as it hath pleased Him. Look at the Eastern parts of London. Matthew Branch, a quiet, humble, faithful witness for Christ in the district of Bethnal Green: by his side stands the ancient John Osborn, who with his dying breath, lifts up the great Redeemer’s name: a stone’s throw from the ancient sire, is Henry Myerson, an Israelitish descendant, who, for years, has often almost killed himself, in his energetic and impassioned extollings of the blessed Lamb of God. Deeper down in the East, William Bracher, a penetrating and healing minister prays for, and proclaims unto the mourners in Zion, the virtues of atoning blood: his neighbours, the sedate and careful Henry Cousens; the gifted Thomas Davies; the determined Lee; the fiery, but honest Steed; the learned successor of good William Allen, Master Reynolds; the dove-like Young; and in the centre of the far east, that “noble champion” as he is justly called, Thomas Stringer, who, as an unflinching contender for the faith, deserves the support, the help, the kindness, and the prayers of all who know the truth in the love of it. Beside these, the afflicted Alfred Kaye; the lion-like, but strangely-loving William Lodge; the well freighted and literary Thomas Jones: the reticent Franks; the pious Hewlett; the deep-thinking Houstoun; the hopeful Griffith; the young Frank Griffin, and others in the Eastern district—considered the most deserted: but where, more than twenty of God’s faithful witnesses constantly labour. They are none of them equal to Gill; but they are equally truthful. Take the Northern part of London, and its adjacent outlets. There in one corner is the pen and pulpit propounder of righteousness, William Palmer: such another logician, you will not find in a long search: his brethren Dearsley and Dyer, do the best they can. Getting right into the North; the studious Hazelton; the tender-hearted Flack; the ardent Edwards; with those pleasing ministers Wilkins, Briscoe, Crowhurst, Hearson, Geo. Webb, Osmond, Joseph Thrift, the classical Waterer, and their curates—all working according to the measure of the faith given to them. Honest and healthy in their testimony, may they ever prove to be God’s own mouth, both in calling, and building up the redeemed of the Lord! “The Two Sides of the Saved Man’s Experience” when deeply realized in the minister’s own soul, will ever render his testimony of some use. Can we, without guile, sing the two sides from our hearts?

“Once on the raging seas I rode,

The storm was loud—the night was dark;

The ocean yawned, and rudely blow’d

The wind that toss’d my foundering bark.

“Deep horrors then my vitals froze, 

Death struck, I ceased the tide to stem;

When, suddenly, a Star arose—

It was—‘THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM.’

“It was my Guide—my Light—my All; 

It bade my dark forebodings cease;

And through the storm, and danger’s thrall, 

It led me to the Port of Peace.

“Now safely moor’d—my perils o’er, 

I’ll sing—first, in Night’s diadem,

For ever—and for evermore—

The Star!—THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM.”

When a man has been driven into himself, and out of himself, and away from himself, in distress and despair; and when from that low estate, the Lord God of Israel, the Great High Priest of our profession, hath helped, healed, cleansed, clothed and confirmed him; he is prepared (if the Eternal Spirit will send him) to be of much use in the Gospel. Many such men our English nation has had; and some of them are still in the militant part of the Church on earth. For instance,

In the Western part of the Metropolis, there is yet living that Abrahamic-kind-of-man—Mr. John Foreman, a minister almost universally beloved; although we never heard he was considered a thoroughly perfect man: a practical and powerful Gospel preaching man he has been, and a spiritual blessing to thousands; no one can tell the extent of his usefulness during the last fifty years. And still he lives. We hope, like Paul, he sometimes longs to be WITH CHRIST, which is far better than all he has known of HIM here; and that has not been a little. We are told upon good authority, that John Foreman’s brother, Samuel Milner, can preach a better sermon than the Hill-street pastor; although he has not generally been considered so public a man. Samuel has had a blessed Gospel life; and is acceptable unto his brethren. An honourable testimony for Christ has been given by P. W. Williamson, for many years: and now out of his labours, a branch has run over the wall; and this is supported ministerially, by the well disciplined pastor Crumpton, whose life has sometimes seemed to hang upon a thread. John Wigmore is gone: such another man is not easily found; but while from the country, good brethren like Hemmington, with his serious mind; and Freeman with his simple experience, are coming, neither Gower street, nor Regent street, need be closed: whether the man in the Harrow road is really in his right place, is a question with some; Mr. Vinall fills up the vacancy made by the death of Mr. Abrahams, and all the exercised in Zion rejoice in his testimony. Considering the largeness of the Western Suburbs of London, its number of decidedly faithful men, are few and far between.

In the South, it is not so. There—steadily plowing and sowing, in winter and summer,—are such holy preachers as William Alderson, a man of brains, sanctified for many years to the service of God: his co-worker J. S. Anderson, a diligent editor and pastor, is useful in gathering up the young and early-seekers in Zion; Joseph Butterfield, has had more than one resurrection from the dead; has long and honourably testified of Jesus. Joseph Chislett is a prophetic preacher; but holds fast the form of sound words. Curtis, and Cooler, and Clinch, have their best days before them. The man who may be editor of The Earthen Vessel twenty years hence, may record their valiant acts; all we can say is, they are the plants of the Father’s right-hand planting, we hope; and have been sent into his vineyard, by the Lord himself, with the promise that they shall certainly have their penny. Friend Fothergill understands heaven’s way of saving sinners; and the Lord always honours such men when he sets them to work for his glory. Hemry Hanks, and Henry Hall, are a good pair of the cedar trees of Lebanon. Dear Henry Hanks has been in God’s hand, a nourisher of the lambs in Christ’s fold, for a long day. He is no mighty ploughman—no blazing popularity ever buzzed round his head; but, like Isaiah’s seraphims, Henry has his six wings; with twain he covers his face, in holy reverence before his God; with twain he covers his feet, and Grace has preserved them in the strait way of equity and uprightness; and with twain he has been flying in the Gospel ministry so long, that we expect, some day, he will fly

“Where not another wave shall roll 

Across his peaceful breast.”

Henry Hall, thus far, has fought a good fight; we believe he is one that will abide by the stuff; and we will pray that it may be a long time before he shall finish his ministerial course. Young Master Lawrence is fitted for special work. He speaks as though he could sing,

“For pleasures I have given my soul; 

Now, Justice, let thy thunders roll;

Now, Vengeance, smite—and with one blow, 

Lay the rebellious ingrate low.

Yet—JESUS!—JESUS!!—There I’ll cling, 

I’ll crowd beneath his sheltering wing;

I’ll clasp the Cross; and holding there—

Even me!—(Oh bliss!!) from Wrath He’ll spare.”

If this be so, brother, go on in God’s strength—drink deeper still into Christ’s spirit, aim above all things to be richly anointed with the Holy Ghost:—then, when many of us are silent in the grave, a leader in fair Zion’s Courts, we trust you will with gladness appear. Our patient friend Meeres, has waited for the early and the latter rain; and has not waited in vain. That fine specimen of human nature,—(that placid illustration of David’s sentiment—“thy Gentleness hath made me great”)—that sainted George Moyle evidently predestinated to be conformed unto the image of Christ, we conscientiously believe is as sure of heaven as faith in his Father’s promise can make him. Samuel Ponsford has dwelt among his own people, and they receive him as a faithful witness, whose word brings health. He is ripening for a more beautiful Nursery than can yet be found in this earth. Burlington Benjamin Wale has been to several different schools; he has taken his degrees at Christ’s College; and has been inducted into a diocese rather extensive. As Jacob said—so we say—“God Almighty bless the lad:” may the brightest years of his ministry in the Gospel lay yet before him, in a protracted and unbroken succession. The two last we can but mention now, are the Pastors Joseph Warren and James Wells, two men of large dimensions every way. Joseph Warren has divided his life among many churches—always esteemed and useful. James Wells began with two or three members in church fellowship over forty years since; he has been the indefatigable pastor of that one church all that time. He has buried over a thousand people who sat under his ministry; and yet he now has a church composed of perhaps more than a thousand, and a congregation approaching two thousand. During the last forty years he has ministerially poured out floods of Gospel and experimental truth; he has been more extensively honoured of God (considering the long period of his existence) than any man we know. Thousands of prayers ascend to heaven daily, that he may yet be spared ‘to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood.” Amen.

Thus we have marshalled what may be termed “The Church’s New Covenant Body-guard:”—we wish, that like Ezekiel’s Cherubims, their wings touched each other more than they do: still we are persuaded if this army of Metropolitan ministers could meet together for prayer, and for the demonstration of those principles so precious to their hearts, they would be ten times more influential for good than they are; for with such a company of earnest, praying, and truthful preaching men, we ask, is not England safe? Beside this Particular Body-guard, there are, at least, six or seven other armies of professed Gospel ministers. May the Spirit be poured upon them from on high in a rich abundance; but, we must return again to Jeremiah; and notice, in the third place, that,

3. There is an Evangelical or Gospel meaning to the forty-second of Jeremiah’s prophecy. Set your eyes here upon four things: the Place:—the secret Propensity of the Jews:—the Prayer:—and the Promise.

THE PLACE OF SAFETY—the land of Judea. Mark you, every thing hangs upon this—“If ye will still ABIDE in THIS LAND.” In the Gospel land is that “power of God” which is “unto Salvation.” The LORD JESUS CHRIST himself is the power of God unto salvation; and He said unto His own disciples—”If ye abide in me; and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” Paul’s ship was a little type of this. Men that set out on the voyage with Paul, “under colour”—were for getting away in the boat. All kinds of boats are let down now. But we think we hear Paul thundering out—“Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved.” When Peter was filled with the Holy Ghost, he cried out mightily—”Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby ye must be saved”—but the Name of the LORD JESUS.

Mr. JAMES WELLS, in his “Lectures on the Revelation” speaking of the floods, and rivers, and seas of errors which Satan has poured, and is still pouring out upon the earth, most solemly says—“those that live and die in these false doctrines, lost they must be.” Again: “I cannot be saved by the true Christ, and at the same time be receiving a false Gospel.”

Let all men, who would not wish to be mockers of God, and deceivers of their own souls, ponder this one fact; Christ said, “Many will come in my Name; and will deceive many.” Many are converted to the names and doctrines of men; but all counterfeit Gospels, (as our author above quoted declares,) “are Satanic rivers; and God will damn every false doctrine at the last: God will curse the doctrine which hath cursed his people,…Your transubstantiation will die: your priestly absolution will die: Free-will will turn out to be a liar, and die: duty-faith must die: all the doctrines of men must die: they must all come to naught; “cursed is the man that trusteth in men.”

Only, then, in the Gospel of God’s Christ, is there eternal safety. “He that believeth in the Name of the Son of God hath eternal life.”

The land of Judah, or Judea, was an Old Testament type of the Gospel of salvation. And God told the Jews, “If ye abide in this land l will build you, and not pull you down.”

Analyze this land for a moment. When Moses’s work was done the Lord told him to get up into the Mount Nebo, and die there. It seems Moses climbed to the top of the hill called Pisgah, of which Watts sings—

“Could I but climb where Moses stood, 

And view the landscape o’er;

Not Jordan’s stream, nor death’s cold flood, 

Should fright me from the shore.”

The Lord showed Moses all the land, and said, “I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes; but thou shalt not go over thither.” And it is thus with thousands, even of the Lord’s people; all the time they are held in legal bonds: all the time the grave-clothes are about them; all the time they are held in a state of servitude: until the Son makes them free, they cannot enter into the glorious liberty of the children of God. The eye of faith in their souls can see the land of Gilead, “the heaps of testimony”, which Christ has set up in the Gospel:—they see the land of Naphtali; the wrestlings and agonies of Christ in Redemption; and how satisfied Christ was in his Resurrection. They can see the land of Ephraim:—the fruitfulness of Jesus: and all the other glories of the land; but that eternal life which is in the Saviour, they cannot realize for themselves; that freedom from all eternal condemnation, they enjoy not in their own souls; they believe in, but POSSESS not, the perfection of this salvation. Nevertheless, “to will is present with them;” and they abide in the land, in a way of determination never to give up seeking after the Lord; their inmost thought the poet says, is this—

“I can but perish if I go, I am resolved to try, 

For if I stay away, I know, I must for ever die.

“I’ll go to Jesus, though my sins have like a mountain rose, 

I know his courts, I’ll enter in, whatever may oppose.”

It was into this land, Naomi brought poor Ruth, where she became united to Boaz. And it is only into the Gospel land, that sinners can be gathered unto the Lord; here they become dead to the law, and are married to Christ. Blessed land! no divorce, no destruction, no second death, no awful condemnation here. Only here in the land of Completeness in Christ, can it be said—“the beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by Him.”

In this land, God was manifest in the flesh: here Jesus set up his Gospel Kingdom, and here he declared most emphatically, “Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.”

Returning again to Jeremiah’s prophecy in his forty-second chapter, you see there was a propensity in the Jews to go down to Egypt. And almost universally now is there a disposition to go down to the flesh-pots of Egypt. Some to Rome; some to Spiritualism; nearly all to Arminianism, and a false liberalism. Dr. Doudney in his Gospel Magazine, inserts a paragraph which has lately been in some papers: it reads as follows:

“Mr. Spurgeon has a bad opinion of the Religious condition of England; for, in a recent sermon he said—‘The Church of England seems to be eaten through and through with Sacramentarianism; but Nonconformity seems to be almost as badly riddled with philosophical infidelity. At first it was the doctrine of the eternity of future punishment that had to be given up; now, it must be the very doctrine of the Fall. They treat our doctrines as though they were to be knocked down at their good pleasure, when they choose to amend our theology. The very heart of England is honeycombed with a damnable infidelity which dares still to go into the pulpit, and call itself Christian.”

If Mr. Spurgeon speaks so badly of Gospel England; if Mr. Spurgeon, who is planting Open Communion churches, and a duty-faith ministry, all over this Island, and in the colonies as far as is possible:—(unkindly or reproachfully of Mr. C. H. Spurgeon, we would never write or speak one word; having in his earlier years enjoyed one most holy season of fellowship with him at the throne of God’s mercy seat; still, we repeat,) if C. H. Spurgeon thus views England in such an Anti-gospel condition, what shall we say of this land of Bibles, sermons, and missionary efforts! We can prove that we received the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ into our hearts, in the power and preciousness of it, more than forty years ago. We have in our possession now, manuscripts written by us on the blessed and holy Gospel of the Grace of God over forty years since. We have been battered, bruised, and broken in every possible way; and, verily, our language, at the present moment, is,

“How oft have sin and Satan strove, 

To rend our soul from thee, our God!

But everlasting is thy love, 

And Jesus seals it with His blood.”

Hence, we dare not, we cannot, sacrifice one principle, nor sell one particle of that Gospel which we have received and enjoyed, which we have preached and contended for—no—not for all the honours or rewards the world can give. When poor Anne Askew was at the stake to be burned, the Lord Chancellor offered her the King’s pardon if she recanted: boldly refusing, she exclaimed—“I came not hither to deny my Lord and Master;” so in the strength of HIM who sent from above and drew us out of many waters, we believe that in the Truth and faith of the Gospel, we shall abide stedfastly, and usefully in our measure, until our work is fully done.

But to stand fast in the midst of the deepest secret persecution—when, almost every man’s hand and tongue is against us—not truly knowing us in our trials, is no easy posture. Destroyed we must have been long since, but for that heavenly word, on which Mr. B. B. Wale, preached so happily at our anniversary, “As thy days, so shall thy strength be.”

THE PRAYER of these faithless Jews is the third feature in the Evangelical or Gospel sense of the prophecy now under our consideration. They came to Jeremiah and said, “Let, we beseech thee, our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us unto the Lord thy God, even for all this remnant, for we are left but a few of many, as thine eyes do behold us; that the Lord thy God may shew us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do.”

It is lamentable when people professing godliness cannot pray unto the Lord THEIR God; and pray, too, for themselves. And we fear, that in our churches the spirit of God-wrought wrestling prayer is much straitened. However that may be, cannot we see a suitableness in their prayer to our own condition? Look at the growth and granduer of the Romish Churches, the National Churches, the Germanizing, Congregational, Arminian, and Open Communion Churches; rising up on every hand. They are like the Prussian armies swallowing up France; while those of our churches, are as a few of many—a remnant —and even that remnant, as a house divided against itself. Some of our letters from the Colonies, from Scotland, from all parts of England tell us tales of sorrow and sickness of almost every kind existing in the midst of our own section of the visible Mystical Body of Christ. Nevertheless, our ministers are faithful. Their testimony shall live, for

THE PROMISES are sure to all the seed, to all who faithfully cleave to the Truth as it is in Jesus. See, “Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, if ye will still abide in this land,—this good old Gospel land; then I will build you and not pull you down. I will plant you and not pluck you up; therefore, 

“Be not afraid of the King of Babylon, of whom ye are afraid; 

Be not afraid of him saith the Lord: for,

“I am with you, to save you, and to deliver you from his hand,

“And I will show mercies unto you.” &c.

All these promises are as sure, in Christ, to all faithful believers in Him, as is the throne of God itself. Therefore, disciples of the Holy Lamb of God, seek heartily for grace to abide unmovable in the faith once for all delivered unto the saints.

SPIRITUALLY and EXPERIMENTALLY the prophecy is expressive.

“If ye will still ABIDE in this land.” In a strictly spiritual sense there are three fruits found by the quickened, and saved saints of God, which no other people on the earth do realize. They are (1) Confidence in Christ, as regards his Person and his Work. This confidence in Jesus is safe and strengthening to the soul that has it. (2) There are the comforts of the Holy Ghost. His revealings of Christ; his sealings of the Promise; his Whispers to the heart;—these are productive of much joy and gladness to the people of God. Then (3) their confidence in Christ, their comforts of the Holy Ghost, lead the soul, at times, up into communion with the Eternal God, which is as near to heaven as we can reach while in the body.

Abiding through grace in these blessings, saved believers may sing,

“Yes, we to the end shall endure, 

As sure as the earnest is given: 

More happy, but not more secure, 

The glorified spirits in heaven.”

All faithful pilgrims to Zion, I wish you—

A Merry Time WITH HIM Who saved us from all sin:

With Holy Faith IN HIM The New Year you begin.

‘Twill Come—’Twill go—’Twill not be long 

Before in heaven you’ll join that song—

“GLORY TO GOD, THE LAMB!” 

May I be there—that bliss to share.

This is the hope—this is the prayer—

Of him, who signs himself, with thanks, Thy servant still—

Charles Waters Banks

December 1870