His voice calls from destruction's plains, He wears their names upon his breast; He's God, the mighty God, eternal ages' Rock, Soon will he swear that time's no more, In his own glory he'll appear, With all his saints from nature's wreck : To ev'ry one assign their lot; The guilty sink beneath his curse, While all his saints triumphant shout, He's God, the mighty God, eternal ages' Rock, WERE not there facts to prove the same, Before whom angels vail their face. Some say, his nature was defil'd, But that's a thing that could not be. But praise to God, he hath a few, That was conceiv'd in Mary's womb, He suits a poor lost sinner well, 'Tis such are taught to call him Lord. W. W-P. #reat Wakering. 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." * Earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." JUNE, 1835. CHRIST, THE WISDOM OF GOD. 1 John v. 7. Jude 3. How rich and comprehensive the titles are that the Holy Ghost has given to Jesus the Mediator. And christians have attained to no small degree of spiritual knowledge, when they are led highly to prize the person, work, offices, and names that the Son of God has ascribed to him; and some have found a sweet savour in those scriptures that speak of Jesus, the Wisdom Mediator. He is so objectively. There is a fulness of wisdom treasured up in him and he has given various displays of it in creation and pro vidence, in the wonderful and mighty acts that he has done. The world is full of the wonders that he has wrought. He is the only wise God. He manages all the affairs of the world: the wheels of providence he turns round, and orders all the concerns of his church. He has wisdom to baffle the craft of every foe. He has often defeated the designs of the old serpent, disappointed the devices of the crafty, so that their hands could not perform their enterprizes; and many men of might could not find their hands, when they would have raised them up to crush the church of God. The history of Haman records the wisdom of our exalted Lord. When the plot seemed ripe for execution, to cut off at a stroke every Israelite, deliverance instantly is sent, and the enemies of God and his saints fall into the same pit they prepared for others. The Red Sea interposition, so often celebrated in the scriptures, and the subject matter of so many sweet psalms and songs of the infinite wisdom of our God-the people were just released from Pharaoh and his taskmasters; but a most dreadful danger presented itself, either to be cut to pieces, or to be all drowned: neither Israel or his enemies dreamt of deliverance by wind and water: but the wisdom of God opened his treasures, and he who holds the wind in his fists, and the waters in the hollow of his hand, made the strong VOL. XI.-No. 136.] Y east wind to blow all night, made the sea dry land, divided the waters, made walls of defence of them, and made them stand upright. But the Egyptians found the same waters a grave. But let us turn to the glorious gospel, wherein the wisdom of God in a mystery shines forth so sweetly; a grand d exhibition of wisdom in perfection, of grace most marvellous, and love that is fathomless and boundless. If we glance at the covenant of grace, (and it is but a glance that we, poor finite mortals, can take of it) we are astounded at the wisdom and mercy that mark every feature of it. In the substitution of Jesus, we are lost in viewing the love and wisdom displayed, in the rich price paid, in the full satisfaction given, in the countless blessings obtained, in the many millions of sinners completely saved, in the sanction of Jehovah the Father, in magnifying and making honourable the law, and in the harmony and concurrence of every perfection in Deity. In looking at the heaven and the happiness, bliss and glory resulting from it, we can only say, "Oh the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God; how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" Rom. xi. 33. Our attention is often arrested in the wisdom imparted by him, in his three-fold offices of Prophet, Priest, and King. As Prophet, in the gifts he imparts to the labourers in his vineyard; how very useful some are in breaking up the fallow ground of the heart, in alarming the careless, thoughtless, prayerless, and Christless sinners; others are pastors to feed those who are hungering for the bread of life; others are always engaged in taking away the false foundations that all are prone to build on; others point to Calvary, bring forth the very best robe of righteousness, or direct to the open fountain, or break open the alabaster box of very precious promises, which sweetly perfumes the soul; others explain heavenly mysteries; they enter into doctrinal truth, eternal union, ancient love, justification from all condemnation, a redemption that completely redeems, a salvation that eternally saves, a sanctification that sanctifies wholly, who contend for purity as well as pardon, holiness as well as happiness, and the effect as well as the cause of salvation. Christ is my prophet and my peace, Which often warms and cheers my heart. But he is the great High Priest.-1. To atone for sin.-2. To make reconciliation.-3. To intercede for the ignorant.-4. To obtain forgiveness for offences. And our almighty Jesus is competent to do all this, and does do it daily. A never-failing magazine of mercy, poor praying pilgrims find in the life that Jesus now lives in heaven; his precious blood, as one says, is sprinkled upon the golden pavement of heaven, the virtue of it ever seen, ever speaking better things, ever ascending with all the holy desires, aspirations, and petitions of the Lord's redeemed. Here, then, believer, ever look, and rest not on thy imperfect graces or duties, but at the wisdom of thy great High Priest in heaven. He will obtain for thee all needful good by his meritorious sacrifice. His blood does ever speak, His hands they lifted are; For all who live on him by faith, He is also the universal Sovereign, and from him the earthly monarchs receive their crowns, sceptres, and wisdom to rule and reign. The armies of heaven are created and commanded by him. All the allies of hell, with their potent princes, he chains and controls. The church he carries upon his shoulders, contracts and enlarges it according to the counsel of his own will: it cannot be increased by men, or means, or money, without Him. He is an independent Monarch, infinitely wise, well understands every underground plot of men and devils-the almost fathomless depravity of the human heart. But his wisdom has provided a remedy for the whole -precious blood to atone and cleanse-a perfect obedience that has answered and satisfied every claim, object, and end-a fulness of all good and grace, the church's property, that she may make use of at all times and a heaven ready, a palm of victory prepared, a free grace song of salvation selected, an overwhelming object to gaze at for ever and ever-Christ, the wisdom of God: all the contrivement of a God infinite in wisdom. May he shower down blessings upon writer and reader. Hampstead, JAMES. LETTER FROM MR. W TO A CHRISTIAN FRIEND. Dear Sir, IT is not for want of will that I have not answered your sweet epistle sooner, which was another help to my joy unspeakable in the Lord for I now in my inmost soul experience in my measure, what the apostle Peter says, "That the trial of faith is more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen, (with my bodily eyes) I love; in whom, though now I see him not, yet believing, I rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory:" having received a foretaste of the end of my faith, even the salvation of my soul. The Lord hath done great things for me, and hath had compassion on me. It was out of the belly of hell I cried unto the Lord, and he has heard my voice. "I said, I am cast out of thy sight." I said and believed in my heart, I am as surely lost for ever as the prince of darkness; yet the Lord in his own good time enabled me to look again towards his holy temple. "The waters compassed me about, the weeds were wrapt about my head. I went down to the bottom of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever, yet hast thou brought up my life from corrruption, O Lord my God." The Lord has brought me out of the lowest hell. He has saved me from the lion's mouth. I can now say with the prophet, "They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercies; but I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving, (in the Lord's strength) I will pay that that I have vowed, salvation is of the Lord." I have been four years and ten months in black despair, except a few very short intervals of the smallest degrees of hope, and then I have sunk as low, and, if possible, lower than ever. I dared not tell my friends, nor my own wife, till after my deliverance, the unutterable despair I was in, fearing if I did I should be given up of them all, and then I thought I should be either fetched away by the devil, or driven out of the world with my own hands. And what sunk me into such unutterable despair was, I thought I had as surely committed the sin against the Holy Ghost and crucified the Son of God afresh, and put him to open shame, as ever any man did; but blessed, and praised, and adored be the Lord for evermore, that his thoughts were not my thoughts. How inestimably precious to my soul, is what Moses has written in Deut. xix., concerning the six cities of refuge appointed for the manslayer. O how unutterably precious is the work of the Holy Spirit in having convinced me that what I had done, I had done it ignorantly, and that I had not lain in wait for my neighbour, and that the city of refuge, the most adorable Saviour of sinners, was appointed for my refuge. O how precious is this great Saviour of sinners to me; for I have found him a refuge from the storm of the wrath of God, revealed from heaven against all ungodliness, and unrighteousness of men, in his holy and righteous law. I have found him indeed a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, and a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.” O how unutterably precious was the work of the Holy Spirit in applying the Saviour's own words to me, "I will bring again that which was driven away," (Ezek. iv. 16.) and in showing me that I was drawn away by the devil. O how inestimably precious is the experience of the good Shepherd's fulfilling his most gracious promise in seeking such a poor, vile, lost, rebellious, and desperately wretched creature that surely ever lived since it pleased the Almighty to create man upon the earth. The first sensible reviving of hope was a few months since. It was from Mr. Chamberlain's preaching from Daniel xii. 10. He spake much upon the fiery trial, which was very suitable to me. But what was very particularly given to me was from these words," If any man's work shall be burnt, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire." A very small degree of hope entered the soul, as peradventure-it may be, I may be saved, at the last hour so as by fire. But in a short time the enemy wrested from me the little " may be," by setting before me the great transgression, and crucifying the Son of God afresh; but at times the little " may |