my side I will not fear"! how constantly and entirely should we encourage ourselves in the Lord our God!

FAITH AND EXPERIENCE.

"These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God."-1 JOHN V. 13.

"The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of Hosts, and in this place I will give peace, saith the Lord of Hosts."

WHEN first the gospel of Thy grace,

O Lord, my God, my heart receiv'd,
I felt a calm, a heavenly peace,
For on the Saviour I believ'd.

But now, as years have rolled by,

How far more rich that gospel seems,
How vast its breadth, how deep, how high,
How with eternal love it beams!

And so the Saviour's precious blood
At first I view'd with thankful praise,
But since I've learn'd its deeper good,
A higher strain I'm call'd to raise.

I thought a little of the cross,

And of the sorrows of my Lord,
Gladly for Him I suffer'd loss,
And shame I willingly endur'd.
But, oh, His sufferings and His pain,
His sorrows and His agony,
I prove them now my greatest gain,
And to His stripes for healing fly.
His word, like honey to my taste,
I sipp'd its comforts day by day,
Drank at its streams with eager haste,
And joyfully went on my way.
But now that word is like a mine

Of wealth, yet richer far than gold;
Where God's eternal Counsels shine,
Which His own Spirit doth unfold.
I read afresh its "line" on "line,"
I praise, I worship, I adore;
For all the promises are mine,
A heavenly, everlasting store!

The love which Christ has shewn for me,
The great salvation He hath wrought,
Pardon for guilt so full and free,

And life eternal which He brought.

These fill'd with holy joy my heart,
And made me feel how I was blest,
How I in things above had part,

How great the treasures I possess'd!

But now, to Him who gave them all,
E'en from His gifts I gladly turn,
Before Himself delight to fall,

And His perfections love to learn.

Oh, may that word Himself a chord
Awake within my grateful breast;
Himself! my Saviour! Shepherd! Lord!
Himself, my place of deepest rest!

UNION WITH CHRIST.

Ir is a wonderful mystery that we should now be one with Christ in the heavenlies. But so it is. We have passed from death unto life. We are in Him, and He is in us. Our life is hid with Him. He dwelleth in us by the Spirit. He made our sins His own, and was made a curse for us upon the tree; consequently our old man was crucified with Him-we died unto sin in Him our Substitute. But now He is alive again. He is risen from the dead. The One who was made sin for us, and bore the sentence of death in our stead, has been raised again from the dead by the glory of the Father. Our Head is raised far above all principality and power. "We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour." I believe we should always think of Christ seated in heavenly places, as

our Head-as One who now appears in the presence of God for us.

We have no lower standing than union with Christ. It is not a work of attainment on our part; no, it is what Christ has done. He has redeemed us to Himself to be His bride. It is unbelief to take any lower ground, and should be confessed as sin to God. This great truth received into the heart by faith takes us in spirit clean out of the world. The reason why so many, whom we hope after all are christians, are so cold and carnal, is because they do not believe this exceeding rich grace of God: they do not reckon themselves to have died unto sin in Christ crucified, and to be alive unto God as one with Christ risen. (Rom. vi.) They are not abiding in Christ. When Adam said to Eve, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh," they were distinct persons as to identity, yet the husband could speak of the wife as one with him; and though Christ personally is in the heavenlies, and we are not, He speaks of us as "members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones." Faith receives this truth, because God declares it. The apostle Paul, speaking of husband and wife being "one flesh," says, "This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church." (Eph. v. 30, 32.) This is what grace has done. Nothing can alter it. It is for ever. 'Because I live, ye shall live also," said Jesus. This is our present rest. A little while, and the Head and members will be together in eternal bliss; for "when Christ who is our life shall appear, we also shall appear with Him in glory." Come, Lord Jesus. O come quickly!

THE MIND OF CHRIST.

THE first thing that strikes me is the wonderful dignity of this mind; it carries us up to the mind that indited the word, and we get this faculty, through grace, as poor sinners; and if we do not keep this in mind we shall exalt ourselves. We see this in Nicodemus coming to Jesus, saying, "We know that thou art a teacher come from God," &c. Was Jesus flattered? No: but He sends him back, and tells him that he had come in the wrong way; that he had not the faculty to understand; that he must go back to be "born again."

We have been taken into wonderful blessedness and privileges, but God would only take us there as poor sinners. We see the same thing in the 4th of John. The Lord meets none in this Gospel but as poor sinners. He talks to the woman of Samaria about her sins, before He does about His Messiahship.

We must ever come to the word, "as new-born babes," simply as saved sinners. The fault with the Corinthians was, that they had become Grecians, or Critics.

Our having the mind of Christ is in character with all our endowments, We have the life, righteousness, and glory of Christ, and, therefore, the mind of Christ. May we be kept thinking how we get this mind; it is just as we get everything else-by the Brazen Serpent.

The written word is the only thing that this faculty has to do with; just in proportion as we possess this mind, we shall value the word. The word of God will not submit itself to anything else; but in the possession of the mind of Christ, we shall get Christ, as it were, peeping out all through the Scriptures.

This mind has an infinite range. Brethren may have

different measures of it, but there is nothing alarming in that the alarming thing is to sit together as Grecians, and not as sinners saved by grace.

BETHEL, No. 1.

THERE is no place in its early history of deeper interest than Bethel, whilst its later history serves to shew the powerful tendency in man to corrupt the blessings of God; so that his "table becomes his snare."

Jacob starts a fugitive from his father's house, justly fearing the resentment of his brother Esau, whom he had supplanted by falsehood and deceit, in obtaining the blessing from their father Isaac.

"And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set, and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and, behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and, behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac; the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth....and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I