66 you. May it be the language of your soul now you are under the chastening rod, as was David's, I will cry unto God Most High, unto God that performeth all things for me." I can truly sympathise with you, as a brother beloved in Jesus; but O, my friend, how much nearer and dearer are you to precious Christ. If you can ruminate upon all the endearing and tender ties of nature, they are but faint and defective representations of those parental and invariable cords of friendship with which Jesus has bound you to his loving heart. Were you to dwell upon all the pathetic expressions that possibly could be made use of to describe the sympathetic breast, all must sink into meanness or midnight's sable shade, when we consider what Jehovah Jesus has said in his Holy Scriptures for the comfort of his afflicted children; "for the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee,” (mark, from thee). In all their affliction she was afflicted." O those cordial words-in all! in short, your all-sufficient Saviour has at all times pity in his eye, and flaming love in his heart towards you hence it may be justly inferred, that all his counsels are wise, and all his dealings kind, both in providence and in grace. Methinks your soul is ready to cry out, in language similar to the following: ་ I bless the hand that holds the chastening rod, All his parental strokes are wisely giv'n, I am, my dear Brother, POETRY. Inviolably your's, L. L. LOOKING UNTO JESUS. FROM all things freely justified, When means of grace are rightly used, If while I dwell in Jesu's side, Could saints and angels join to tell, Yet what of this? I'll turn, tho' sad, SHEMUEL. THE Eighteenth Anniversary of the Baptist Church, Rye Lane, Peckham, will be held by divine permission, on Wednesday, the 7th of August,-when three Sermons will be preached :-that in the Morning, at Eleven o'clock, by Mr. JAMES SMITH, of Snoreditch; that in the Afternoon, by Mr. HENRY HEAP, of Brixton; and: nat in the Evening, at Half-past Six o'Clock, by Mr. W. G. LEWIS, of Chatham. After each service a collection will be made in aid of the funds. THE Spiritual Magazine ; OR, SAINTS' TREASURY. "There are Three that bear record in heaven; the FATHER, the WORD, and the HOLY GHOST; and these Three are One." 1 John v. 7. "Earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints."-Jude 3. SEPTEMBER, 1837. THE CHURCH'S ETERNAL PURITY BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB. "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin."-1 John i. 7. THE introduction of these words upon the back of fellowship with God, at first sight may appear strange, as then we might think they were not so much needed; we should rather expect them after a catalogue of gross sins. But those who live under the droppings of the sanctuary, and enjoy intimate nearness with God, can appreciate the sacred and heart-cheering declaration. The greater the nearness to God, and the more we have to do with the fountain of holiness, the more our vileness will appear. What saith Isaiah when he saw the Lord? "I am a man of unclean lips." When the rays of the sun shine in upon a room, the dust and the cobwebs appear more glaring. The more we have to do with God in his word, at his throne, and at his ordi56 the blood of nances, the more welcome will be these words, Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." In calling up the minds of the Lord's family to this divine announcement, the most familiar of all subjects, the hourly theme of every awakened soul; however widely we may differ in many points, we are all at home in this one; whatever may be our views as saints, we are all agreed as sinners, that the blood of Jesus Christ is the only cleansing of the guilty. May God the Holy Ghost lead us to the fountain opened, the cleansing source of the whole redeemed, the ever-flowing fulness of supply to all who are thirsting for salvation, that we may gaze upon the smitten Rock, and behold the waters of life gushing out to satiate our needy spirits until we put foot on Canaan's shore. 1. We are called to notice the efficacy of this blood-" the VOL. XIII.-No. 165.] 2 L blood of Jesus Christ his Son. 2. The extent of its merit. 3. The people cleansed. 1. The efficacy of this blood. "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son;" who in his complex person, God and man, is the Christ of God, the only begotten of the Father, yet personally and essentially God. The essence of the blood is of humanity, yet it is the blood of Him who is God. The worth of the blood is in the dignity of Him who offered, as the pacification of the justice of Deity, though there is a deal of rancour and misrepresentation among the ministers of the gospel at this time (by those who ought to put the best construction on a brother's words) because they do not see eye to eye on the Sonship of Christ; yet every quickened soul, every grace-taught sinner, can rest his hopes alone on Him who is the Mighty God-Jehovah the Saviour. All the worth of his sacrifice, the infinite merit of his blood-shedding, the everlasting efficacy of his death was founded in his self-existing greatness, who is over all God blessed for evermore. In the personal dignity of his uncreated majesty, in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; who naturally possesses every perfection of deity in common with the Father and the Holy Ghost. As one in the eternal and incomprehensible essence He is above being begotten or created. I pass through every idea of Sonship, or derivation, when my thought fixes on the divinity of my Lord; and on this ground only can his self-existence and independence be maintained, his co-equality and co-essentiality asserted. Here is the spring of the fountain opened that carries into oblivion the sin and uncleanness of the redeemed. When He let the deluge out of his heart, it covered all the mountaintops of his people's transgressions. Under this view of the subject, an old author compared the church's sin to a drop of black ink falling on a red hot globe, gone in the twinkling of an eye. And alone can account for Erskine's expression, “Justice was drunk to pleasure in atoning blood;" or, as the beloved Hawker more recently expresses it, "God the Father to all eternity can never remunerate the church for the satisfaction of Christ." The more dignified my conceptions of my Lord, so much the more valuable his blood appears. It is only as our hope anchors here, that we give our doubts and fears to the wind, and that this is the fact, the apostle declares, Feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood." The deity of Christ gives everlasting validity to his one offering, the basis on which he claims the pardon of the myriads he redeemed. By his own blood he obtained eternal redemption for us; he delivered us from the wrath to come; redeemed us from among men: redeemed us to God. Well might Paul tell the church, In whom we have redemption through his blood." In whom is all personal ability, nearness of relation, and all-sufficiency of worth, to claim the everlasting forgiveness of the 66 untold myriads that were given him from the date everlasting. The superstructure of salvation stands upon the immutable basis of his Person, His eternal power and Godhead is reflected through all his acts. It was the blood of his person that flowed for his bride. In this portion there is an endearing expression that clothes the whole gospel with a familiarity the most solacing and delightful, "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son." Against whom have we sinned and rebelled God the Father as the one who personates the Deity in the claims of Justice, and the honours of law. What is the ground of approach? The blood of his Son-of his own Son-of his beloved Son-his dear Son, We approach the Father through the offering of the First-born. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus." Nor is it less pleasing to mark his expression elsewhere," Whom God hath set forth a propitiation through faith in his blood." God hath set forth his blood a covering for the sin of the whole church. What an everlasting assurance that his sacrifice was of a sweet-smelling savour to God. "When he had by himself purged our sins for ever, sat down at the right hand of God." May God the Holy Ghost write it on the tablet of my remembrance in all my approaches, under conscious defilement, that it is the blood of Jesus Christ his Son, that I plead for pardon. 2. The extent of its merit-it cleanseth from all sin. This refers to the application of the atonement-the Spirit's revelation of the blood of Christ to the heart-the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus on the conscience-the consequence of his pouring out his blood at the altar as an oblation of infinite value, expiating the sins of the whole church; as the prophet declares, "Thou hast cast all their sins into the depths of the sea"-removed them in the sacrificial death of Jesus, as far as the east is from the west. "This is my blood of the new testament shed for many, for the remission of sins." When he poured out his soul unto death, having made the atonement at the altar: the Holy Ghost sprinkles the blood in all its virtue and merit on the soul, and gives joy and peace in believing its saving and eternal efficacyleads the mind into an apprehension of its atoning worth and wrath-appeasing power. The soul led by faith beholds the purple flood issuing from the veins of incarnate God; the sinburying, the curse-destroying, the heaven-appeasing fountain; and sees in its vicarious fulness all his sins honourably and everlastingly done away. When God the Holy Ghost thus seals pardon on the conscience, and assures the soul of interest in the atonement of Jesus, the weighty apprehension of divine wrath is removed, the fear of death is banished, and the dread of eternity gone-a holy serenity pervades the bosom. The soul thus favoured to pass through the red sea of a Redeemer's blood, sees all his terrific enemies lay dead on the shore. The blood of Jesus proves an efficacious balm; it heals the wounds of sin, yea |