when, speaking to the Ephesians of their

BY THE REV. J. FAWCETT, M.A.

Perpetual Curate of St. Cuthbert's, Carlisle. II.

SUCH a manifestation as that referred to a former essay is not made to one in a thousand,-I might even say, not to one in ten thousand; yet if we want to examine an object correctly, we should contemplate it where it is found in large dimensions just as when we want to ascertain the exact form of a minute insect, we magnify it. The parts thus magnified are seen distinctly; yet they are nothing else but the very same parts, in the very same shape, and with all the same appendages, which exist in the creature so small as to be invisible to the unassisted eye. So, though not a man in ten thousand has so bright a manifestation of the glory of God as Brainerd had, yet every man, who has any manifestation at all, has one of the same kind. If his views and feelings could be increased to the same intensity as those of Brainerd, they would be like his; and if they could be increased still further, and made more and more intense, without being at all changed in their nature, they would be like the views and the feelings of saints in glory; for what else is it that Paul means when he speaks of "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding?" (Phil. iv. 7.) What else means he, when he tells the Corinthians, that we, "beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord?" (2 Cor. iii. 18.) What else does he mean,

VOL. VII.-NO. CLXXXVIII.

Let not, then, any man despise such manifestations as enthusiasm; but let him greatly court them, and diligently seek them: they are akin to the joy of heaven itself, and a preparation for it. Nor let any one who is seeking thus to be visited with God's salvation be discouraged, though he seem very far from it-cold, and dark, and even unable to pray. Let him still breathe out the desire, "I beseech thee, shew me thy glory;" and when he feels himself in the deepest darkness, he may be on the confines of a marvellous light, which will ere long break in upon him, to the joy and refreshing of his soul.

It remains only, that I shew the blessed effects of such manifestations.

In the first place, wherever there is any degree of such manifestation, and in proportion to the degree of it, there will be an inward reverence for God; it will be a reverence not unmixed with awe, but chiefly a delightful blending of admiration and love.

S

Now this is the very best state of mind in which a creature like man can be; it is one which becomes his condition and character. It humbles him; it exalts God. It makes him see how mean and evil he is; how great and holy, God. The approaches of such a one to the footstool of the Most High will be such as suit his circumstances, and the relation in which he stands to so gracious a Being. He will wonder almost that he is permitted to draw nigh, and will say, "BeBe hold, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, who am but dust and ashes" (Gen. xviii. 27).

Another effect which will follow from such manifestation, and proportioned to the degree of it, is self-surrender. He who has this knowledge of the glory of God will rejoice to see himself, and all his concerns, in such hands. When troubles come upon him, the bitterness will be almost taken out of them when he looks upon them as the appointment of so glorious a God. Can such a God err? Can he ordain any thing but what is wise, and right, and good? Would his weak, erring creature dethrone him, and alter his arrangements? Far from it. He feels so sure that all which proceeds from God is as it should be, that he would not change one thing. It is his satisfaction to lie in his Father's hands. He accepts willingly the good or evil of the present time; and resigns himself confidently for the future, prepared to receive, with meek and cheerful submission, whatever a God so glorious shall appoint. Nor is it for time only that he thus resigns himself to God; it is for eternity-his soul, as well as his body and estate; his soul to be accepted in Christ, sanctified by his Spirit, preserved from falling, and at last made perfect in glory.

It is easy to see that obedience will follow. The will of that Being, whom the favoured soul sees to be so glorious, will be sacred to him. He will be sure that every command proceeding from him will be excellent; the line of duty enjoined by him the best and the happiest that could possibly be. He will be sure that he cannot depart from it a hair's breadth, but he must depart for the worse. He will not only obey from gratitude, because God is his benefactor, though he will feel this; or from love, because God is his Redeemer, though this will be a constraining motive; or because the path of obedience leads to heaven, though this consideration may worthily weigh with him. But he will also obey, because he is well pleased that so glorious a God should in all things command him. He feels it an honour and happiness to be doing the will of such a God; and longs to do it perfectly, even as the saints and angels in heaven.

Lastly, I would remark, that he who has had a sight of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ will be able to conceive of nothing higher or better in heaven itself than to have God for his everlasting portion. He can enter into the meaning of David, when he says, "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness" (Ps. xvii. 15). He can understand the language of John: "We know that, when he shall appear, we shall kn be like him; for we shall see him as he is" (1 John, iii. 2). Nothing can be imagined by him as promising such a fulness of joy as to be at God's right hand, to see face to face, to know even as he is known. Every pleasure of sense, all the glory of this lower world, seems poor and beggarly in the comparison, and God alone capable of filling the soul with substantial bliss.

If such a glimpse of the Divine glory as he can catch on earth be so ravishing, what must the perfect vision in heaven be? Then the blissful communion will not be interrupted by withdrawment or desertion on the part of God, or by dulness of understanding and coldness of affection on his. The joyous, holy fellowship will not be disturbed by temptation, nor saddened by affliction, nor polluted by sin; it will be a perpetual lightan unclouded brightness a sun which shall never go down-a moon which shall not withdraw itself; for the Lord himself shall be the light of his people, and their God their glory. Thus in heaven the view of the Divine glory will not be, like the best that good men are favoured with below, a transient vision, a momentary glance; it will be eternal; the days of mourning will be ended; every enemy being put under the feet of Jesus, death, the last of them, will be destroyed; and the victory and triumph of the redeemed complete and everlasting.

ZEAL FOR GOD'S GLORY.*

IN meditating on the Lord's prayer as containing the expression of the primary elements of piety, we have found that it gives utterance, in the first place, to that

elevating sense of confidence in God's relation to us, the enjoyment of which is so prominent a characteristic of the children of God.

But they who recognise God as their Father-their heavenly Father-cannot but be filled with filial zeal

as well as with filial confidence. The relation of parent and child, as it is the closest which can exist, so it most entirely identifies the interests of each, and makes the desires, purposes, and plans of the father, to live again, as it were, in the son. Him whom we love, we reverence and obey; and him whom we rever

From a very interesting work, Just published, entitled "The Lord's Prayer; contemplated as the Expression of the Primary Elements of Devoutness." By the Rev. Thomas Griffith, A.M., Minister of Ram's Episcopal Chapel, Homerton, author of " The Spiritual Life," &c. &c. London, 1839. Burns.

ence and obey for ourselves, we long to see reverenced and obeyed by all the world.

This, then, is the next element of devoutness, for which our Lord has provided utterance in the prayer which he has taught us:-zeal for God's glory.

Now, this feeling so pervaded the heart of Jesus himself, and he knew it to be one of so absorbing a character in all God's children, that not only has he placed the expression of it foremost in the prayer, but he has supplied for that expression-notwithstanding the exceeding brevity of the whole composition-not less than three separate sentences, or rather a threefold outlet for the inward rush of feeling. For in the feebleness of language, and its utter inadequacy to express the more intense emotions, this is the only expedient to which men can have recourse, to piece out, as it were, the scantiness of the material employed; to make up for the insufficiency of one form of utterance by the addition of another, and another, which together may supply the symbol, if not the perfect picture of our inward mind; and indicate the length and breadth of those emotions which we would fain give full expression to. "Hallowed be thy name," exclaims the Christian to his heavenly Father; "Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven!"

For these several sentences, with whatever shades of meaning, are all expressive of that one same feeling, the zeal for God's glory. "His name," that is, his character and reputation in the world, we desire may be "hallowed," or counted holy; reverently thought of, honoured, and extolled. Even as when Jesus said to his Father, "I have glorified thee on the earth," he adds, "I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me." That is, thy glorious perfections, thy essential character of holy love, I have made known to my disciples, till they have learned to honour and to love thee as their Father and their Friend. And how dear such a gathering of all men's suffrages for our heavenly Father-such an exaltation of his character for universal adoration-is to the devoted heart, we see both in the grateful declaration of the Psalmist, "I will declare thy name unto my brethren; in the midst of the congregation will I sing praise unto thee;" and in the exulting chant of the assembled angels, our elder brethren, in heaven, when they exclaim, "Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy; for all nations shall come and worship before thee."

and may the Messiah speedily come to liberate his people."

Yet, mixed up with the very intensity of this zeal for the universal reign of God, and even affecting seriously the sense in which the phrase, "Thy kingdom come" was used, there was in many a mind too low and earthly, too selfish and worldly a feeling of national pride, and a desire of national triumph. The image of a king, and of his kingdom, which was used by God in condescension to our infirmities, to express by an analogy, well known to all men, the authority and dominion which even now he exercises, but will ultimately manifest in all its clearness; this very imagery itself too often clogged the grand and pure idea with earthly incrustations; and men could not think intensely of God's kingdom, without diverging into the desire for those unspiritual concomitants, that vain pomp and glory of this world, which to human power pertain. And therefore, both to rectify this dangerous mistake, the seeds of which lie deep in even the holiest heart, and to indicate at once and clearly what the better and more spiritual emotions of the child of God do really point to, in the midst of all disturbing forces,-to bring out the one single pure idea of God's name being hallowed and his kingdom coming, which alone adequately responds to the yearnings of a genuine zeal for his glory;-our blessed Lord has supplied us with another form for its expression, which corrects whatever of wrong may cleave to the conceptions indicated by those former phrases, and intensifies whatever in them is right: "Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven." For this desire it is which really lives and breathes in the pious heart, that God's will the moral sovereignty of our heavenly Fathermay be not only universally, but spiritually, made triumphant. It would little satisfy the holy soul, that God's name should be reverenced and adored; it would little come up to its most genuine and deepest aspirations, that his authority should be acknowledged, and that the incense of a prostrate worship should ascend to him from every clime, unless his will-his moral law-should find a shrine in every mind, and be written, not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart; unless this will should be made by men their own; unless, from the spontaneous operation of a new and living principle within them, they should not merely submit to God, but go along with God; unless his Spirit should be put within them, and he himself should dwell in them, and walk in them; and he should put his law into their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and they should teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; but all should know him, from the least of them unto the greatest of them: for all outward law is but the temporary substitute for inward principle; and the sovereignty of God has then first reached its absoluteness when it no longer works upon his people from without, but works within them as the impulse of their own self-moving will. This is the way God's name was hallowed, and his kingdom came, in Jesus himself, the Son of God. His meat was to do his Father's will, and to finish his work; and what things soever the Father did, these also did the Son likewise. This is the way God's name is hallowed and his kingdom comes among the elder brethren of God's family, the unfallen saints in light who serve around his throne. Thus hath the Lord "prepared his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom ruleth over all." His angels that excel in strength do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word. His hosts are ministers of his that do his pleasure:

But the Christian's zeal for God's glory is expressible with still more force by that peculiar phrase which was always in the mouth of every Jew, and which, therefore, our Lord adopts into his prayer,— "Thy kingdom come!" God was the King of Israel. Among that favoured people he had begun to manifest himself; and from them, as from a centre, he had promised that his glory should radiate and diffuse itself around, till it embraced within its splendour all the earth. "The Lord," says the prophet Zechariah, "shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one." "The God of heaven," says the prophet Daniel, "shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all those kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever." And for this kingdom, therefore, God's people looked. The very thought of it was dear to every zealous Jew. The Rabbins declare, that "any one prayer which includes not in it a petition for the coming of this kingdom, does not deserve the name of a prayer at all." And in the synagogue-worship, in that solemn form of supplication which is called the kaddish, or the holy offering, this forms the foremost clause: "May God's great name be magnified and sanctified in the world; and may he make his kingdom to prevail. May his redemption blossom forth;

"As bright as flame, as swift as wind, His ministers heaven's palace fill, To have their several tasks assign'd, All proud to do their Sovereign's will." And therefore this is the way that Christ instructs his people to desire the hallowing of God's name, and the

coming of his kingdom, summing up all their petitions | for God's sovereignty, and pouring forth all their zeal for his glory, in that purely spiritual supplication, unclogged by metaphor, unsensualised by any images derived from this world, "Thy will be done:"-be it done throughout the earth: be it done throughout the earth, even as it is already done in heaven: with all the fidelity, with all the spontaneousness, with all the fervour of unlimited accordance, with which the hosts of heaven are swift to do thy will.

Dear Christian reader, is this your desire? Does this imperfect exposition of our Saviour's words express the inmost, dearest feeling of your soul? Then see now the encouragement you have to cherish such a zeal, and utter it in daily supplication before God.

This you will understand, if you consider that the feeling which trembles in your own heart is but the resonance of the purpose of your God. His honour is dear to him even as it is to you; his authority he is jealous of even as you are; his will he has determined to make, in his own time, the will the one sole will, beating in all as one pulse from one heart—of all the world.

The end for which you are zealous is already fulfilled in heaven; it has been there fulfilled from the beginning of time. There God's name is hallowed by the chant of thousand times ten thousand who surround his throne; and his will is done in every slightest act, in every nascent thought, of thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, who stand before him. And this will was once fulfilled on earth; yes, even on earth, this solid, visible, material earth, on which we live and move. In the bright unclouded morning of creation, when God rested from his work that he had made, and God saw every thing that he had made, and beheld it was very good, then was there celebrated one blest Sabbath of uninterrupted adoration. Earth, sea, and air, were organised according to his perfect purpose. The living beings of every kind, with which they teemed, breathed only in accordance with his will. Man, godlike man, fresh sprung from his Creator's hand, and glowing with the splendour of his Creator's image, walked and communed with his eternal Father. The morning stars sang together, and the sons of God shouted for joy; and the divine Wisdom rejoiced in the habitable parts of the earth, and her delights were with the sons of men. The grand idea of God was realised, and heaven was copied out on earth.

And what has been shall be again. Yea, though that fair scene was so soon marred by sin, and that divine image was defaced, and that commerce with the skies was interrupted, and the presence of the Lord was lost; and now for centuries, yea tens of centuries, the name of God has been dishonoured, and his kingdom disturbed, and his will not done on earth as it is done in heaven,-yet shall he, the Almighty, be for ever frustrated in his purpose? Shall he, the All-gracious, be kept out of blessing his creation? Shall he, the All-wise, who knows the end from the beginning, be disappointed of that end? Shall he, the All-actuating, who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, be let and hindered in the realising of that counsel? No; the very nature of God forbids the thought; the promises of God forbid it; the actual workings of God forbid it. All give us the assurance of another Sabbath of this world; all tell us, that the evil which has overspread it is but accidental, temporary, nay and subordinated to the higher purposes of the Almighty. All engage to us that God's honour shall be celebrated, God's authority shall be recognised, God's will shall be done, on earth. On carth it shall be done, even as it is done in heaven. That idea which is realised already in the heavenly regions, which began to be realised upon this earth, but which now is counted little better than a pious fancy, a devout imagination,—just that idea shall nevertheless be

realised again throughout the universal world. I say, God's very nature encourages us to look for this; for he has made nothing in vain : he cannot deny himself: "The Lord of Hosts hath purposed, who shall disannul it? His hand is stretched out, who shall turn it back? The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever; the thoughts of his heart to all generations. He is in one mind, who can turn him? And what his soul desireth, even that he doeth."

And I say, God's promises encourage you to look for this. You know how various, how copious, how dear, how sure they are. It were vain to attempt to lay them out before you here. From the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation, this is written in the book of God,-that Satan shall at last be bruised under our feet; and the holy city, new Jerusalem, shall come down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and the tabernacle of God shall be with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

But most of all, I say, God's actual workings encourage us to look for this; for these are the alreadycommenced accomplishment of his purpose-the anticipation and the pledge of the fulfilment of his promises. With the very fall he began the restoration. With the very intrusion of sin he struck the first blow against sin. With the very first act of rebellion against his will he made provision for the ultimate crushing of all rebellion, and the triumph of that will. And these workings have gone on, through each successive generation, from Adam to the patriarchs, and from the patriarchs to Moses, and from Moses to the kings, and priests, and prophets of the Jewish commonwealth, onward to the grand Restorer, the Messiah, the Christ, the King himself; who came as man to prepare the way for his coming as God; who suffered, and bled, and died, that he might ultimately reign triumphant; who offered himself once to bear the sins of many, that to those who look for him he may appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Christian, he who taught you these inspiring petitions is himself the pledge that those petitions, in all the length, and breadth, and depth, and height of the desire which they express, shall be fulfilled. He who teaches us to pray, and that with fervent daily importunity, "Thy kingdom come," he himself shall come in the glory of that kingdom, when" the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever."

What then, in the mean time, are we who use these supplications to do? What is the spirit, the practical disposition, in which the longing for God's kingdom, therein expressed, should manifest itself? It is, first, a spirit of personal preparation for that desired kingdom; for who can long and pray for the hallowing of God's name, and the doing of his will, and not be labouring to accomplish in his own person his own desires? All prayer is nothing but self-delusion or hypocrisy, which re-acts not on the worshipper, and prompts him not to work out that which he has prayed for. And therefore to this personal preparation for the wished-for kingdom did our Lord so frequently direct the minds of his disciples; as when he said, "Watch, therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come;" and when he gave them parable after parable, of the virgins, of the talents, of the sheep and goats, to lead them not merely to look out for, but to hasten towards-not merely to be anxious, but also to be ready, for the kingdom of God. O, how often do we long for that kingdom, and how little do we anticipate it in our hearts! The very things we long for, (so far as our personal happiness is concerned,) what will they be but the exercise of habitual delight in God, submissiveness to God, adoration of God, and similarity of disposition, purpose, act, with God? But all

these very things may be exercised, in their commencement, even now. They must be exercised in that commencement, or never shall we reach their consummation in the world to come. And the more we cultivate now devotion, purity of heart, benevolence, self-government, whatsoever things are holy, just, and true, the more shall we find already God's law reigning in our hearts, and God's will done by us in spirit, though not yet in extent, as it is done in heaven.

But, again, the spirit of these petitions will be a spirit of co-operation towards this kingdom. How it shall at last be manifested, we indeed know not. To what extent the instrumentality of man will be employed for this glorious consummation, we are ignorant : but this we know-that every soul now saved will go to swell the triumph and enhance the glory of that kingdom which we pray for; that even now, in this dark world, God's name is glorified by the light that is diffused around from those who love and serve him; and that at last they shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father, yea, form a portion of that splendid retinue which shall adorn the coming of their Lord. And O, then, for co-operation towards this glorious end! O, to labour, each one in his sphere, to swell the chorus which shall sound our Sovereign's praise! To this every single Christian is ordained; and to this every single Christian can con tribute. Yes, it is the aggregate of Christian efforts that saves the souls of men, and glorifies our heavenly Father. To no one individual can we rightly ascribe the illumination, the awakening, converting, nourishing of the sons of God. The influences of the Spirit stream in upon us from every side, at every moment of our being; and every Christian is made, more or less, the medium through which those influences flow. Every one who has a zeal for God in his heart may do does do something as the instrument of God. Let not then timidity hold us back; let not limited powers and opportunities discourage us; let us only each co-operate, each do something, in word and act; and that something will tell. In private life, in social, and in public; with families, and friends, and neighbours; for churches, and schools, and ministers, and catechists; by subscriptions and societies; for our less-enlightened brethren at home, and our heathen fellow sinners abroad; work,-work while it is day. Every one has talents; use them for your Lord. Every one is a steward of his grace. O, take care that you be found faithful to your trust; for, "blessed is that man whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing: verily I say unto you, he shall make him ruler over all his goods."

Exercise, then, lastly, the spirit of expectation of that kingdom which you pray for; the joyous expectation of that time when your preparation shall be welcomed with God's plaudits, and your co-operation shall be found not to have been vain in the Lord. Hope must be the foundation of prayer; and hope builds itself up by prayer. The more you believe God's promises, the more fervently will you supplicate for their fulfilment; and the more you supplicate for their fulfilment, the more will there be settled in you and consolidated a calm, assured, habitual expectation of the coming glory: you will see it afar off; you will be persuaded of it; you will anticipate it; your life will even now be hid with Christ in God; and when he shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory.

SKETCHES FROM MEMORY.

BY A NAVAL OFFICER.
No. II.-The Pirate.

"Yet, Ocean, all thy billows
Shall surely flee away,
And on their rocky pillows
The drowned dead display;
Then, awful thought, upstarting,
Behold the judgment-throne!
Earth, sea, and air departing,
Then we shall stand alone."
Charlotte Elizabeth.

SLOWLY and hazily the day dawned on the broad Atlantic, when the officer of the morning-watch on board of a British man-of-war despatched the signalman to the mast-head to count her convoy, consisting of seven merchantmen, which, during the previous night, from variable winds and squally weather, had, as was feared, become widely scattered-five only being visible from the mast-head, three of which were but just within gunshot of the commodore, one being close under his lee. The breeze was at this period moderate, and the ships under top-gallant-sails and single-reefed topsails, courses close-hauled; but the signal-man had scarcely made his report, when the officer of the watch, casting a quick but searching glance over the weather-gangway, called out, "Watch, shorten sail; main clew-garnets, top gallant clewlines, haul taut; shorten sail! Bear a hand, my lads; roll them up smartly; and down from aloft!" Briefly were these orders given, and as briefly obeyed. A moment's pause, and again his voice was heard clear and cool above the roaring of the squall, which now began to bellow over the ship,-" Jib, down-haul ; hands by the topsail-haulyards; haul down; lower away!" Speedily the jib was stopped upon the boom; the topsail-yards were on the cap, pointed to the wind; and the sails, confined by the buntlines, were rendered powerless as to their effect upon the ship. She was now under the foresail and main-trysail, the driver having been trailed up; and yet she heeled, from the violence of the wind, almost to her maindeck ports.

Well would it have been for the vessel under our lee, had she watched and followed our motions; she would not then have been, as we found her when the squall had blown over, a perfect wreck. Her topmasts and jib-boom were carried away short off by the cap, mainsail split, and main-yard sprung; she was truly in a pitiable condition. So have I seen a Christian professor, floating along this world's dangerous sea, dazzled by the sunshine of its smiles, and heedless of mischief, tempted to neglect the duty of watching and following the motions and commands of the great Captain under whose directions he has placed himself, plunged into the deep waters of affliction by some terrible visitation in righteousness; that he might be taught, by bitter experience, the folly of self-dependence, and the deep necessity for constant watchfulness and prayer, lest he should fall into temptation.

But to return. Upon discovering the crippled state of the vessel in question, it was determined by the commodore to send an officer and boat's crew on board of her, to assist in repairing the damages;