power to manage all its temporal and spiritual affairs, until the formation of a Gospel Church. It is proposed to erect a plain and comfortable building, calculated to seat from 200 to 300 persons, in a convenient part of James Deeping, the expense of which, exclusive of the purchase of the ground and the writings, it is supposed will amount to about £300. NAMES OF TRUSTEES AT PRESENT APPOINTED. April 17, 1839. WILLIAM GADSBY, MANCHESTER, J. G. DE MERVEILLEUX, STAMFORD, J. C. PHILPOT, STAMFORD, &c., &c., TO THE NUMBER OF TWELVE. BLESSED INDEED. My dear Husband,-I have an opportunity, and so I write. On Lord's day, I was going alone to hear J. F-, and yet I was not alone, for God was with me. In the lane he manifested himself to my poor cast down soul; it was in the 1st and 2nd verses of the 32nd Psalm that he appeared to me, "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile." Ah, I cannot tell you what my soul felt; tongue cannot express, nor words describe it; but, blessed be God, who has given me a husband who knows what the love of God is, the heights, and depths, and breadths, and lengths of which passeth knowledge. What a mercy to know God! yea, the great God, the Three-in-One, and One-in-Three; to know that He is love from feeling experience; and what a mercy, also, to feel sin exceedingly sinful, to be plagued with it, burdened with it, sick of it, grieved at it, and groaning under it, while we see others who feel nothing of it, and care nothing about it. May the Lord give both of us that fear in our hearts that will enable us to walk as his own dear children. On Monday, this passage was very much blessed to my soul, "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own name's sake, and will not remember thy sins." (Isa. xliii. 25.) Look what beauty shines in it, he not only blots sins out, but look, he will not remember our sins. Now, if we vex a friend, they may forgive us, but to forget, nature cannot do this; none but the Lord Jehovah can forgive and forget sins. My dear husband, I think-I do think I shall not get better, but I have felt, this week, a divine persuasion in my soul, that when I die I shall be for ever in glory with God and Christ. I feel it now while I write; and what does it matter what we go through here? glory is at the end of it; yes, very soon we, both of us, shall be where sin, cursed sin, will never come! This day I experienced this verse, "When I can say, my God is mine, And O how happy I felt; and yet, this morning as I was walking on the shore, a woman passed by me, and I heard her say to another,That young person is in a decline." I believed what she said, and immediately I thought of you, and wept. I thought the little time I had to live I ought to live with you, and not be so far separated; so you see, in the midst of all my joy, I have a little trouble; but, never mind, the law is fulfilled, and sin is put away, and these troubles are only trifles. Do not think I am any worse from what I have said; no, I am pretty well. May the grace, and love, and joy of the blessed Spirit fill your soul, and then you will worship God in spirit and in truth, as your poor wife has done. Blackpool, June 28th, 1839. SPIRITUAL CORRESPONDENCE. J. M'K. TO THE EDITORS OF THE GOSPEL STANDARD. Messrs. Editors,-Ever since I heard of your valuable publication I have been a constant reader of it, and more to the comfort of my poor soul than any of the publications of the present day. While I wish to give God all the glory, at the same time, as instruments in his hand, I value much some of your writers, such as I. K., and J. C. Philpot, who have supplied you with much precious truth. My prayer to God is, that they and you may fearlessly go on. Although I am cautioned in the word not to be surprised at the wiles of Satan in the present day, yet, Sirs, I assure you I was surprised beyond measure in reading your Standard of this month, at the ignorance, blindness, and presumption of Mr. Baley. He says he has disproved Mr. Philpot's sermons, "The Heir of Heaven walking in Darkness," &c., and "Winter afore Harvest." Now, Sirs, my poor soul, and many more of the Lord's tried ones that I am acquainted with, do give Mr. Baley most solemnly the lie. I was called by divine grace among the Arminians, and I trust I had the Spirit of God bearing witness to my spirit that I was regenerated and born again twenty-two years before I heard of these two sermons. But O, Sirs, my language cannot describe the darkness of soul I experienced for two years before I heard of the sermon, "The Heir of Heaven walking in Darkness." I weep when I look at these two years' experience; I was bordering on insanity; the common exercises in my family were a burden to me; I have walked the streets and envied the brute, and been ready to quarrel with God for not making me like unto them; and how hard did the enemy and my wicked heart work against me, till I could neither pray, nor, I was going to say, groan; but indeed it became all sighing, and groaning, and tears, and at length despair; so that between me and Satan it was agreed to give the matter entirely up, and in this contract I was worse off than ever. What to do I knew not; for go into the world I could not, for I hated it worse than ever. I did hate sin, yet I found sin in all I did. I cried and groaned continually with Paul, "O, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of sin and death?" At length I heard of "The Heir of Heaven," &c., in a most mysterious but a Sovereign God's appointed way; and O, my feelings are feelings of gratitude to God for his mercies while I am writing, for I cannot describe the deliverance I experienced in reading it. O, Sirs, the light and power that were given to the preacher and writer of it, the same were given to me and my dear wife in the reading of it; and the depth of my dark, benighted, tempest-tossed, and hell-buffeted soul's experience, and the precious promises and divine truths therein contained, were the means of bringing me out of my prison-house; so that I could once more praise the God of my salvation. I named the contents and worth of this book to many of the Lord's tried ones, to some of whom I lent it, and others purchased it for themselves, and in every case it has been made a great blessing, which proves it to be not of man's wisdom, but of divine inspiration. After this it pleased my heavenly Father to let me be tried in my soul's experience once more, and sorely too. But as I have trespassed so long, I shall refer you and your opponent, Mr. Baley, to the sermon, "Winter afore Harvest," for my experience, as Mr. Philpot there describes it of himself and the tried family of God, is therein contained; and that sermon also was made as great a blessing to me and many of the Lord's tried ones as the other. Thus I can set to my seal, as also will many others, that Mr. Baley's speech is nothing worth. A TRIED ONE. Dear Messrs. Editors,-Having many times been encouraged and refreshed in the reading of the experiences of some of the Lord's tried children, both in a way of providence and grace, which have at different times been inserted in the Gospel Standard, I have presumed to convey, through the same medium, a little of the tender mercies of a covenantkeeping God to one of the most sinful, ungrateful, distrustful, and unworthy of all the Lord's blood-bought, redeemed family. In his infinite and unbounded mercy I humbly hope he has led me to see myself a poor, helpless, hell-deserving sinner, saved alone by grace, quickened alone by the mighty power of God, and preserved in Christ Jesus. Yes; to me, who have deserved eternal damnation, is this saving grace communicated, that it may be made manifest that he came to seek and save the chief of sinners. And since he has been pleased to reveal himself unto me, how many times has he appeared as a prayerhearing, and prayer-answering God! How many times has he given me tokens of his free, sovereign, discriminating, and eternal love, that I am chosen in the beloved; that his perfect righteousness is imputed to poor, sinful, helpless me; that in him I stand complete, though by nature black as hell! How many times has he led me to his banqueting house, and his bauner over me has been love! O the preciousness of a precious Christ, when sweetly and sensibly felt in the heart, as the hope of salvation! O how willing is the man to be nothing, and less than nothing, that his Jesus may be all in all. Having some time ago sweetly enjoyed the love of Christ shed abroad in my soul, and the holy and blessed Spirit many times sweetly whispering into my heart, saying, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee," I have cried out with rapture and delight, "My Lord and my God," and have been ready to say, "My mountain stands firm, I shall never be moved ;” but in this spot I was not long to remain; my worldly circumstances began to assume a gloomy and unpromising aspect, and my spiritual joys began to decline; my faith was shook to the centre, and I was ready to say, "The Lord hath forgotten to be gracious, and will be favourable no more. The thing that I greatly feared is fallen upon me, and it will be soon made manifest that I am an outcast, both from God and man." With these impressions I revealed a little of my mind to a near and dear friend, who, in reply, said he believed the Lord would appear. At those expressions I was immediately melted down into humble resignation to the will of my heavenly Father. I retired in secret to hold communion with my God, and to lay my case before him; and a soul-reviving opportunity I enjoyed. O how sweetly did Christ appear on my behalf, and speak pardon to my cast down soul; and how sweetly did the Holy Spirit bring home to my conscience with power that soul-reviving promise: "Fear not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God." And again: "Bread shall be given thee; thy water shall be sure;" so that I could exclaim, "The Lord is my light and salvation, whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?" Thus I, who but a few moments before had been entertaining hard thoughts of my Maker, my heart being cast down within me, and ready to exclaim, "Is his mercy clean gone, and will he be favourable no more?" could delightfully sing, "The Lord my Shepherd is, I shall be well supplied: Since he is mine, and I am his, What can I want beside?" O thou precious Jesus, help thy poor worm to cast his every care upon thee, for thou hast delivered him from many gloomy doubts and fears, and having obtained help from his God, he continues to the present moment, a monument of mercy. Trowbridge, April 13, 1839. G. M. Dear Messrs. Editors, I trust you will excuse this feeble attempt to encourage you to continue your useful labours, and herein allow me to assure you that they have not been in vain, for my soul has often been refreshed and supported by reading many of the pieces, and especially some that have seemed as if they were written on purpose to fit my experience. Sometimes, when I have been brought so low by the temptations of Satan and the wretched and hateful unbelief of my own heart that I have been ready to question the reality of religion altogether, I have thought, Well, here is a sweet proof that there is a sovereign power in the experience of the children of God, by which they are made to differ from the rest of the world, so that, although many of them are strangers according to the flesh, their experiences not only agree with each other, but are also in exact accordance with the word of God; and I have myself felt real union of soul with several of the writers, and communed in spirit with some of the blood-washed family, whom I shall (most probably) never see in this world; and I hope they will be enabled to go on in the power of the Lord, and not faint by reason of the difficulties in their way. The piece written by "Timothy," from Ezra ix. 6, so exactly described my own experience, and especially of late, that had I taken my pen on purpose to relate it, I could have adopted almost every sentence with a clear conscience, so that I could not but marvel that there was another child of God so much like myself. Under my feelings at the time I could have written a letter to him freely enough, and did feel much inclined to do so, but I considered it would be taking too much liberty, as I am an entire stranger to him in the flesh; therefore I thought it more prudent to decline it, but I mention it for your encouragement. The writings of "J. N.," "D. W.," "Vericultor," "T. F.," and others, whose signatures I do not remember, in the January number, 1839, have been very sweet to my soul, so that I have been enabled to praise the Lord for his goodness, and have mentally exclaimed, "Come, let us magnify the Lord; let us exalt his name together." I have often wished to tell you a little of the benefit I have derived from the perusal of your work, but my timidity has prevented me afore time, nor do I think I should have attempted it now, had I not been encouraged by several friends in this neighbourhood, and also in the town of Bury St. Edmunds, who wish me to say that they cannot but feel thankful to the Lord for giving you fresh strength to continue the Standard in the present year, as they have often been refreshed in the past years by reading the truths it contains in doctrine, experience, and practice; and they especially hope that "J. N." will be kind enough again to contribute to its pages, as his pieces have been greatly blessed to their souls, and also to the poor worm who now writes to you. Now, dear Editors, I must conclude by commending you to the Lord himself, who alone teacheth to profit; for, however we may dislike his lessons while learning them, yet he will bring us to acknowledge that "none teacheth like him ;" and in our right minds we desire to be graciously led by the Holy Spirit to walk close to Jesus, and enjoy sweet intercourse with him, which blessedly raises us above the world, and makes us long to behold his face in glory, where we hope (0 matchless grace!) to see him as he is, and to praise his dear name without interruption. May his blessed name be dearer than ever to our souls, when oppressed with the infirmities of our flesh and the weight of our daily backslidings; may we lean upon his lovely person, and be enabled to wash in the fountain of his precious blood; and may his immaculate righteousness be our blessed covering in the great day, so that, although we feel ourselves to be the vilest of the vile, we may greatly rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of our salvation. We can find no other ground for rejoicing than that which springs from our being eternally united to the Lord Jesus. O what a mercy that we should ever be enabled to rejoice in him; and how sweet is the thought that he never forsakes his own work. I have often wondered how it is possible that any one can dare to rejoice in a salvation that he believes he is likely to lose his interest in. I feel sure that I could never have a moment's comfort in meditating on the precious work of Christ if I thought it wanted any of my faithfulness in order to complete it. I have heard persons affirm that a man may receive and enjoy the pardon of his sins, and after all be lost; but that is making the faithful God worse than a mere mortal, for what honest man would forgive his servant for a crime or fault, and then send him to prison for it? But our dear Lord has loved his people from everlasting to everlasting. This he makes known to them in time; and though, after the manifestations of his love are withdrawn, they lose sight of him and his precious work too, yet he never loses sight of them, but keeps an exact account of the number of the poor sheep he has redeemed; watches over them and feeds them on earth, and will see them all safely folded in glory, to the honour of his blessed name for ever and ever. Please excuse this poor scrap, as I cannot write a good hand; but with the blessed hope that my worthless name is fairly written in the Lamb's book of life, I am, yours sincerely in Jesus, Mildenhall, Feb. 1839. SARAH. Messrs. Editors,-You inserted last month an anecdote respecting a lady at K- -, to whom my sermon of "Winter afore Harvest was blessed. I feel most unwilling to obtrude myself on the notice of your readers, as, indeed, I have felt quite sick of seeing my name so often lately in your pages, but as your London correspondent, of whose name I am utterly ignorant, has sent you a rather garbled |