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upon others-His comforts sustained their souls: but Jesus had to endure His frown. His soul was left desolate, and that utterance of intensest mental agony, that ever dropped from human lips, was drawn forth-" My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!" Instead of being upheld by the blissful communications of his Father's love, in all its plenitude, he drank to the dregs the cup of unimaginable woe.

The notions of many Christians on the subject of atonement are extremely loose and indefinite. Because Jesus was the Redeemer, they speak as if atoning efficacy was in some vague way to be attributed to the whole of his life, as well as to his death. This view does not appear to be warranted by Scripture. The Divine ordinance of atonement for the sins of the people of Israel was immediately connected with the shedding of the blood of the victim, and the transference of their sins to the substitute. So the great atonement, which that ordinance prefigured, did not, strictly speaking, commence, until on the cross, sin was imputed to the substitute. If Christ was always a substitute, bearing his people's sins, why was he not always forsaken of God, instead of being able to say, as in John viii. 29, "He that sent me is with me." From the manger to the cross, Jesus was the object of God's infinite delight, as a man who manifested divine perfectness in all his thoughts, and affections, and words, and ways. He only could say in reference to God, "I do always those things that please Him." In him, infinite grace to man was combined with the maintenance of inflexible truth; while perfect devotedness and obedience to God conspicuously characterized the whole of his ministry. God was with him in the full joy and communion of perfect complacency. But the moment his people's sins were transferred to him upon the cross, all was changed. God turned away His face from His beloved Son; and those cries of desertion and suffering which we find throughout the

Psalms, and which in the New Testament are expressly attributed to Christ, were the utterances of his afflicted soul.

Another observation I would make here, which is fraught with much comfort for us. In the ministry and mediation of Jesus, the Persons of the Godhead are seen united in the great work of man's blessing and redemption. As soon as the ministry of the Son commenced, the heavens were opened, and the Spirit descended like a dove, and lighted upon him, and the words of the Father were heard, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased;"-words expressive not merely of delight in him as the Son, but as the Son commencing the ministry of grace and salvation. How full of joy is this thought! The Father was delighting in the work of the Son. The Son was carrying out the will of the Father, and manifesting His love to us poor, worthless, ruined sinners. All had been planned and settled between the Persons of the Godhead for our blessing, as we find it again declared, respecting the great work of atonement, CHRIST," through the ETERNAL SPIRIT, offered himself without spot to GOD." (Heb. ix. 14.)

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I desire to bring this sacred theme before my readers as matter for devout meditation; for, as I have observed, it is deeply comforting to the soul, to know that the work of atonement was a work transacted between the Father and the Son, through the Eternal Spirit. Man had, and could have no part in this august and divine solemnity. In the day of atonement, to which we would again refer, this important truth is expressly taught in the striking words, "There shall be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation, when he goeth in to make an atonement in the holy place, until he come out, and have

* In some of these, the sufferings of the cross are evidently anticipated; that last hour thus casting back its shadow upon the whole path that led thereto.

made an atonement for himself, and for his household, and for all the congregation of Israel." (Lev. xvi. 17.) None durst enter the sacred precincts but the High Priest, who was the typical representative of Christ. The work of atonement was a work transacted between him alone, and Israel's God.

This ordinance of atonement was the foundation of the people's relationship with God. All communion between them and God was based on it. The blood was sprinkled on the mercy-seat-the throne of grace as well as of righteousness; and there it was ever before the eye of God. God's estimate of its cleansing power is thus simply but authoritatively declared: "On that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. (Lev. xvi. 30.) Thus sanctified by blood, God saw no sin in them.

This sanctification of Israel was a type of the sanctification of God's people now; for in the Epistle to the Hebrews, the sacrificial ordinances of the Jews are expressly declared to foreshadow the great sacrifice of Christ; "For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the High Priest for sin, are burned without the camp; wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate," (Heb. xiii. 11, 12.) Here is an explicit statement as to the object of Christ's death. He suffered death without the gate of Jerusalem, that he might sanctify his people with his own blood. I here, that our minds may pause rest on these words of the Holy Ghost. Christ's people are sanctified " by his blood," and, as thus sanctified, God sees no sin in them. They are cleansed as it is said, "from all their sins before the Lord." As the prophet said of Israel.

"He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel." (Numb. xxiv. 21.) So, now, where the blood of Christ is applied by faith, there God beholds not a stain of sin. Were it not so, the cleansing

power of the blood of Christ would be incomplete.

THE SIGH AND THE TEAR.

[Taken from The Homilist for March, Communicated by G.]

THE sigh and the tear are bro

ther and sister. Both express in

their silent, modest, but most effective style, the inward emotions of the human bosom. One flies away and ascends the skies on the wings of air; the other falls down on the ground unheard, and often unobserved. But there are also bastard tears and sighs-those that intrude upon your notice, and seem anxious to claim your attention on any occasion. Some people seem to have their sighs and tears always ready at their command. They are superficials, made for show and display; the heart within belies them, having no sympathy with them. We would not give a farthing per thousand for such sighs, nor a penny per gallon for such tears. But, oh! there is a mysterious charm, a deep melting influence, an irresistible power in that modest, delicate, unassuming sigh, which is issued by the pressure of inward emotions-which struggles to escape unobserved, and unknown to any one save the parent heart alone, buries itself in the bosom of the breeze to be wafted away somewhere-somewhere, to tell something-something that words cannot express in the ear of some one -some one who can understand its language, and sympathize with its distress. And that silent, genuine tear that trickles down the cheek, hastening to the ground where it hides itself from observation, looking up, as it were, after its sisterthe sigh! Let not our soul come into the secret of that man who has no sympathy with such a sigh— such a tear. The heart of such a man must have become as dry and callous as the leather of the blacksmith's bellows. There is an eloquence in the genuine human tear, which penetrates and subdues the heart of an angel. 'O woman why weepest thou ?" said one of those

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glorious and lovely beings to Mary Magdalene as she stood sorrowfully gazing into the grave wherein her Lord and Saviour had been laid. The great Author of our being seems as if He could not resist the power of tears. Jacob prevailed with God by tears. "I have seen thy tears," said he to Hezekiah. "Put thou my tears in thy bottle," prayed the psalmist. "Jesus wept:" yea, and he "groaned in the spirit" too. Thus the atmosphere of our world was consecrated to carry up to heaven the sighs and groans of its distressed inhabitants, by the hallowed influence of the sighs of their divine Redeemer-and the earth baptized by the pure, unmingled tears of compassion for their miseries and sorrows which fell upon it from the eyes of Incarnate love!

JOB XXIX, 13, ILLUSTRATED.

"AND I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy."

LAST Christmas, J. N. KNAPP, Esq., the Mayor of this town (Newport, Mon.) gave to the poor a large quantity of beef, to be "distributed through the ministers and officers of the different churches. I received the following note from him :

"DEAR SIR:

Mr. White, butcher, Commercial-road, is prepared to honour your orders to the extent of sixty pounds of beef, if so required, which I wish you to distribute, at discretion, in portions of not exceeding six pounds to one family, to the deserving poor of your congregation. My desire is that this trifling charity shall be bestowed only on those to whom it will be an actual and needed good at Christ

mas.

Yours, etc.

Of the persons who shared in the gift, one was an old widow, who had buried two husbands; the first dying by an accident, and the second through sleeping in a damp bed; and four children, two of whom were drowned, one burnt,

and the other gradually pined

away for years, in sorrow for his brother, until he died.

This "widow indeed" was pretty well brought up both as to this world and the next. I have heard her say that she erred in her first marriage, her husband being an irreligious man, but that it was her own fault, as she was advised otherwise. She is now poor and decrepid, but pious, and in hope of eternal glory.

I am often delighted with her conversation, and the first time I saw her after the receipt of her beef Christmas-box, was pleased beyond description. She told me that she had always been able hitherto to get something for the season in keeping with the general custom; but at this Christmas all she could do was to purchase two herrings, which she did—that her poverty troubled her at firstthat she prayed to the Lord to comfort her that she became quieted in her mind and contented with her lot-and then came the ticket for the meat, in which she saw the Lord had remembered her.

The fact is, her heart sang for joy-mine did too-and I should think the reader's will also. May all the rich, and all who can, so give-may all the troubled so pray -may every heart so sing. J. ASHTON. Newport, May 7th, 1856.

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The most erroneous opinions prevail, concerning the nature of stimulation, and the operation of stimulating liquors. The general notion is, that these liquors act upon the animal frame in some way that imparts strength and vigour; and therefore they are taken either to lay in a stock of power beforehand, or after exertion, to repair and supply the power which has been expended. Not only persons whose daily expenditure of strength lies in bodily labour, but authors, artists, and public speakers, have recourse to wine or spirits to support them, as they erroneously think, under their labours. But the whole assumption springs from a serious mistake. Stimulation gives no

strength; it only urges and forces to a more rapid outlay of the strength which already exists; and is succeeded by a depression and diminution of strength, proportioned to the exciting force which has been applied. Agreeably to this, all liquids containing alcohol act upon the human frame. They force the blood to an unnaturally rapid circulation, the muscular fibres to a more intense contractility, and the nerves and brain to an excess of susceptibility. This state of physical excitement works upon the mind, not indeed by invigorating the understanding and the judgment, purifying the passions, or making the conscience more delicately discerning; but by rendering more ardent and wildly salient the tumultuous faculties of imagi nation and passion.-Without any intoxicating liquor, we are all the subjects of the natural and lawful stimuli of the day. Light, air, the variations of temperature, labour and social intercourse, thinking and feeling, are the divinely appointed stimulating agents, to urge us on to proper and beneficial action. And for repairing the vital energy consumed by this daily expenditure, God has made a well adapted provision. This does not consist in superadded stimulation, but in ways and means calculated to arrest the progress of excited energy, to calm, to soothe, to bring back the circu lation and the irritability to that state of quiet, in which alone body and mind can accumulate new power. These ways and means are FOOD and REST; food, such as individual experience ascertains to be the most congenial and nutritious and rest, in its two natural forms, first, that of short cessations during the day from severe labour, in a recumbent posture, or with the legs supported in a horizontal position; and secondly that of "tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep."

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[The insertion of any article in these Brief Notices should not be understood as intimating our approval of the work unless that approval be expressed in an accompanying notice; nor should our disapproval be inferred from the absence of such notice. It may be gratifying to some friends to see that a book is published before we may have had time to examine its contents, so as to give our opinion.]

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The above, and some smaller Tracts, are enclosed in a neat envelope, for one shilling, by Wertheim and Macintosh, and Nisbet. They are strictly Evangelical, and contain earnest appeals to sinners to yield their hearts to Christ, and to believe for a present salvation. They form a suitable present to any whose salvation we may be seeking, They are quite unsectarian, and calculated, under the Divine blessing, to lead sinners to Christ. Some of the smaller size can easily be enclosed in a letter.

*For an Extract from this, see p. 263.

INTELLIGENCE.

MISSIONARY TOUR.-BRISTOL DISTRICT.

I left home April 4th, by the 7 train A.M., for Bristol, where I arrived a little after 2 o'clock, P.M. and found Br. Blackmore on the Platform waiting to conduct me to his house, where I was kindly received by Mrs. B. After a little interchange of conversation on the state of the work of God among us, Br. Ashton, from Newport, on his way to the Weare Circuit to assist in holding Missionary Meetings, also called. Here we remained for the night.

5th. Left Bristol by the packet for Chepstow, and took train for Lydney, and then walked on to Blakeney. Br. Wonacott met me here, and conducted me to his lodgings, at Sewdney.

Sunday, 6th. Preached in the morning at Sewdney Chapel; a good season. Walked on to Drybrook in the afternoon: a distance of six miles. Rough road, rain, and smoke from the heaps of coals burning to make coke. An interesting congregation; a little more of the divine power wanted. In the evening preached at Ruardean; God was present; I expected to have heard the cry for mercy. The preacher is almost buried in the pulpit here. I hope they will have another, and let their preacher be seen.

7th. Meeting held at Ruardeangood meeting; collection in advance of

last year. I hope they will have a revival here; there is the prospect of

one.

8th. Meeting at Drybrook; the friends were fearing they should go behind, as the work at the coal pits was dead; however the meeting was one of high-principle, and high-pressure: collection gone up. This was a blessed meeting. Our friends here want a larger chapel. We hope they will make haste and build it.

9th. In company with Br. Vaughan and Wonacott, walked on to Sewdney. On our way called to see Mr. Goold's Chapel. It is a beautiful building, in the gothic style. Mr. G.'s men are on a strike for wages. (What a pity but something could be done to prevent these strikes, so ruinous to employer and employed). Meeting good, collection in advance of last year.

10th. Travelled seven miles over the Forest. Passed by a few of the old Roman roads, also some pits or quarries, out of which the Romans are said to have dug coals and lead. The Dean Forest contains an immense amount of timber, coals, and iron. While looking at the fiery-furnaces, thought upon the prophet Daniel. The meeting this evening was held at Breem; congregation smaller than the brethren expected,

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