companions of God the Father, and of his Son Jesus Christ, with whom we profess to live in close, constant, and sensible fellowship,-to make God's glory the one great end of our existence, so that, whether we think or speak, rest or work, worship or visit, eat or drink, or whatsoever we do, we do all to the glory of God. We may not expect the Lord to return until we stir up ourselves to take hold upon him. Like Jacob we must go out into the plain, and there wrestle with God. Like Elijah we must go to the top of Carmel, and there plead until we prevail. Like Hezekiah we must turn our faces to the wall, and pray until God yields to us. Like the disciples at Emmaus we must constrain him to turn in and abide with us. Brethren, let us remember, that the energetic prayer of the righteous man availeth much;-that God will attend to his own elect when they cry day and night unto him, though he may seem to hold out long. Let us, therefore, stir up ourselves to take hold on him, and give him no rest until he bow the heavens and come down, and work wonders in our midst. Do we feel this to be our state? Is God at a distance from us? Are the ordinances comparatively barren? Is the gospel almost without effect? Are our churches and ministers at a loss to know what to do? Do we pant and long for a change? Is this the rooted, reigning, abiding desire of our souls? Can we be satisfied with no less? Are we becoming impatient, and passionately crying out, "Return, O Lord, how long?" Or can we be still, silent, and comparatively indifferent under such a state of things? Brethren, the Spirit of God is grieved, and we have grieved him! Our heavenly Father's heart is wounded, and we have wounded it! Our adorable Saviour has been crucified afresh, and we have crucified him! These things call for deep thought, for bitter tears, for daily repentance, for fervent prayers, for frank confession, for earnest pleadings, and for immediate reformation. Do we feel upon this subject as we ought to feel? Do you? Do we act under the circumstances as we ought to act? Do you? God refuses to be considered the author or the cause of these things, therefore he demands of us, "Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened, are these his doings? Do not my words do good unto him that walketh uprightly?" Can we have walked uprightly, then? Impossible, or God would not withhold his presence from us! Hear his own word, "The Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly." THE APOSTOLICAL METHOD OF PREACHING BY THE REV. STEPHEN DAVIS. The history of Christ, which included his doctrine, having been already pretty largely set forth by the evangelist Luke, the book of "the Acts" appears to have been intended as a supplement to it, to shew how the apostles, within his own particular knowledge, proceeded in the fulfilment of the instruction of their glorified Master, to preach "repentance and remission of sins in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem" (Luke xxiv. 47). This is, therefore, to be connected with his previous writing, and all the other Holy Scriptures, that we may perfectly understand the whole christian doctrine, and be "thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Tim. iii. 17); but such has been the care of the Holy Spirit, that if we possessed nothing beyond "the Acts," it is most com pletely sufficient for all necessary instruction in the way of salvation; while it is divinely intended particularly to set before us a pattern, or model, for the careful imitation of Christ's disciples, in the formation of churches to his glory, to the end of the world. It was at the Pentecost, fifty days after our Redeemer's crucifixion, and ten days after his bodily reascension into heaven, that the Holy Spirit, according to Christ's promise, was communicated to the apostles, properly to enlighten and qualify themselves, and to make them successful in their appointed ministry. Peter first instructed the astonished multitude, that what they witnessed in the extraordinary gift of tongues, to enable his brethren to make themselves intelligible to the strangers that were present from the various countries, was the fulfilment of a prediction of God's mercy by Joel (ch. ii. v. 28, &c.), and he then most distinctly assured them that Jesus, whom they had just before most wickedly crucified, was raised again from the dead, as David had predicted (Ps. xvi. 8, &c.); and that he was the author of the wonders they beheld, and was divinely constituted "Lord and Christ" for our salvation, according to another prediction in Ps. cx. 1, &c. So powerfully was this most sacred instruction attended with the gracious conviction of the Holy Spirit, that three thousand of the assembly earnestly intreated from Peter and the other apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Then Peter said unto them (his brethren doubtless agreeing with him), "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost (Acts ii. 38); and we are informed immediately afterwards, "Then they that gladly received his word were baptized; and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved" (verses 41, 47). Such was Peter and his brethren's method of preaching Christ, and we have here in few words, the history of the original of the first christian church, under the immediate inspiration and superintendence of the Holy Spirit; and all that were afterwards constituted by the apostles, were manifestly formed in a precisely similar manner, so that we need be at no loss properly to understand what is agreeable to the pleasure of our great Master, and the Holy Spirit. We are told of Philip, that when he was driven by persecution from Jerusalem, he went to Samaria, and "preached Christ" to its inhabitants. And "when they believed Philip, preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women (Acts viii. 5, 12). He was then directed by the Holy Spirit to take a journey to meet an Ethiopian, to whom, under his guidance, he "preached Jesus" from the 53rd chapter of Isaiah; and though we are not told of his including Baptism in his doctrine, he evidently did so, for in the very next verse we have an enquiry from the Ethiopian, "What doth hinder me to be baptized ?" (Acts viii. 35, 36). And when Peter saw that the Holy Spirit was communicated to Cornelius, and his friends, he "commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord" (ch. x. 48). And when Paul planted a christian church at Corinth, it was composed of such as, "hearing, believed and were baptized" (ch. xviii. 8); and it is manifest that the churches at Rome, and Colosse, and in Galatia, were similarly constituted (Rom. vi. 4; Col. ii. 12; Gal. iii. 27). It is true Paul says to the Corinthians, "Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel" (1 Cor. i. 17); but he could only mean he was not sent so much, or so specially, personally to administer baptism, as to preach the gospel; for the act of baptizing being an inferior service, might be, and most probably was, commonly committed to his assistants; but he means he baptized some among them (verses 14, 16); and he formed the church of baptized believers (Acts xviii. 8); and he, or Silas, baptizedLydia, and the jailor (Acts xvi. 15, 33); and we may be quite certain he would not, and did not in any case, exceed his commission; nor would he neglect any part of it. It is, however, most deeply to be regretted, that in the present day many, of whom a better conduct might be justly expected, cannot endure for baptism to be even named in connexion with the preaching of the gospel! and if, upon any occasion, the apostles are at all imitated, it is immediately charged against us, that we "make too much of baptism!" This charge, however, comes, as we think, with a peculiarly ill grace from parties who contend that by the sprinkling of a few drops of water upon the face of an unconscious infant its spirit is "regenerated by the Holy Ghost!" and it is constituted "a member of Christ! the child of God! and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven !" or is at least "put into the everlasting covenant of grace!" All this, and the whole institution of Infant Baptism, in the opinion of every intelligent Baptist, is most completely at variance with the instruction of the Holy Scriptures and so far are such from imagining baptism to be necessary for salvation, that they consider none to be its proper subjects who may not be reason-ably concluded to be already in a saved state, through believing in the Lord Jesus Christ; but all such should be baptized (that is, immersed), as their own voluntary act, as the "answer of a good conscience" towards Christ (1 Peter iii. 21); and, as far as possible, formed into christian churches, to walk together obediently to Christ, according to the pattern exhibited in the New Testament. It is, indeed, delightful wherever individuals make it evident that they correctly understand and really love the gospel testimony in relation to our salvation. This is of really greater importance than any agreement with our convictions respecting the mode or subjects of baptism; but it is surely exceedingly desirable, and important too, that the apostolical method of preaching and obeying the gospel should, in every instance, be imitated as exactly as possible: and if our differing brethren could only be brought to look into the Scriptures with proper attention, it seems scarcely probable that they should not discover that the apostles undeviatingly required from their hearers a submission to baptism, as the evidence of their cordial reception of the gospel testimony. And it was the same with John the Baptist, and the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. iii. 6; John iii. 22, 26; ch. iv. 1, 2). And the commission of our adorable Redeemer is most particularly express and definitive upon the subject (Matt. xxviii. 19; Mark xvi. 15, 16). We are, indeed, all liable to mistake, and should constantly exercise sympathy with all from whom we differ; but the Scriptures must be a sure guide, and they may not be added to, or neglected, without imminent peril (See Rev. xxii. 18, 20). Most happy, indeed, will it be for every christian community when "the unity of the spirit," after the apostolical example, shall be again universal, and there shall be in every christian society, "One Lord, one faith, and one baptism" (Eph. iv. 3, 5). And though some of ourselves are too near to the eternal state to be its witnesses, it is pleasant to believe that light is spreading, and in the Millenium the apostolical order will be once more perfectly restored; while those who have through grace in their day perseveringly and consistently followed the Scriptures, shall be at rest with Jesus, and united for ever with the spirits of "just men made perfect," in his most blessed likeness, the highest consummation of felicity (Ps. xvii. 15). PARADISE AND BETHLEHEM; OR, THE FIRST AND SECOND ADAM. Of all places of interest of which we are told in history, sacred or profane, there are few, perhaps, of more real interest than the two whose names are mentioned above;-The one as identified with the fall of man, the other, with his deliverance. Let us look at them, for a moment, reader, in connection with the beings whose names are associated with them: the sinner and the Saviour-the first and second Adam. There, then, are the scenes of their first entrance upon the world. Here is the one, all loveliness; Paradise, with the bloom of its beauty fresh upon it, and there the first Adam, erect in the image of God, noblest of all his works, and surrounded by all that can conduce to his enjoyment and well-being. Here is the other, and how changed the scene;-all is darkness, save the light of that one bright star and the glory over the plain; all is silence, midnight silence, save the angel's song; and here in the Infant, unknown and uncared for, born in poverty and obscurity, is the second Adam. There we see the completion of one great work,-the world's creation; yes, the blue heavens have been spread out over head;-sea and land have been stored with their various forms of life and animation;-man is formed out of the dust of the earth;-the world is made, and the Creator looks upon it, as it rolls round in space before his eye, and is well pleased with it, and declares it to be good; but here we see another and greater work commenced, not of a world's creation, but redemption,-not raising man out of the dust and placing him in the world, but snatching him, as it were, from the very pit of hell, and raising him to the glories of heaven; -a work for which types and prophecies had been long preparing the way, upon which God looked down with special approbation, and the results of which, blissful and glorious as they are, shall be seen and feit through all eternity. There we see the first Adam made "a little lower than the angels," lord over all in this world, and falling to the lowest depths of depravity; -here the second Adam, "despised and rejected of men," yet rising to become the joy, the praise, and the glory of the universe; the First drawing down all his descendants with him to the same state as that to which he sunk himself,-the Second raising them up with him to partake of his own glory; the First bearing them up with him, as it were, from the earth and down to that earth again,-the Second descending from heaven to have pity on them, and bearing them up with him back to heaven again. There we see in the first Adam one who brought upon the world, beautiful as it was, the curse of sin;-here, in the Second, one who poured out upon it, wretched as it was, all the rich blessings of salvation. How different the state in which it was found and left by the first Adam and the Second:-the First found it all loveliness and purity,-the Second, all degradation and sin; the First lit up by the approving smile of God,the Second beclouded and darkened by his frown;-the First a paradise, the Second a desert;-the First left it lying in the arms of the wicked one, the Second left it delivered for ever from his power;-the First far from God, the Second restored again to his friendship and favour. There is one who simply had life in the highest sense of the term;here one who imparted that life to others. "The first man Adam was made a living soul,-the last Adam became a quickening Spirit." Connected with the First we are dead,-with the Second we are made alive;— 1 connected with the First truly we have natural life but spiritual death,with the Second we may have natural death but spiritual and everlasting life;-natural death is virtually the destruction of the First, the Second is virtually the destroyer of natural death (1 Cor. xv. 26). There, in the one place, beautiful as it is, we seem simply to be reminded of earth;-here, from the other, we seem pointed to heaven; we look at the first Adam and he is made of the dust, while his abode, though Paradise, is but earth; we look at the Second, and there is "the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person," while we seem involuntarily to look up from his birth-place to heaven as the place from which He had descended to there, and to which, after having finished his work, He shall soon return again; and as it is from Paradise that man is driven out into the desert world, it is from Bethlehem that the way seems opened up for him to heaven. Bradford. FRATER. Oakham, MY HOPE IS THE CROSS. BY THE REV. J. JENKINSON. The source of "my hope is the cross,' From what He endured in my stead. So now from Immanuel's side Flow the streams of salvation to me. The ground of "my hope is the cross," That would render my hope insecure.. The life of "my hope is the cross;" That gain is derived from his loss, And life from the death that He died. The joy of "my hope is the cross;" For vast are the blessings it brings- And cleanses our hearts from its love; The strength of "my hope is the cross;" Its source is eternally strong: |