THE

SPIRITUAL WRESTLER,

OR,

ZION'S CHILDREN IN THE WILDERNESS.

"Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you." ISAIAH XXXV, 3, 4.

"Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted." MATTHEW v, 4.

No. 2.

FEBRUARY, 1847.

THE WRESTLER.

One Penny.

"And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day." GENESIS XXXii, 24.

(Continued from page 7.)

While the children were yet unborn, struggling within the womb, the mother entreats the Lord concerning her strange feelings, "And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger." Gen. xxv, 23. Now, the Lord's words are faithful and true, and therefore, by tracing the history of these two nations, we do see what the Lord said concerning them, (when as yet they were unborn, Romans ix, 11,) fully and wholly come to pass.

Also, what the Lord saith here concerning the two manner of people, has great relation to the first promise given to our first parents, respecting two manner of seeds, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head,

and thou shalt bruise his heel." Gen. iii, 15. And here, the elder is plainly set forth to be the devil and his seed, inasmuch as "He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." John viii, 44.

And, though Adam was made in the image of his Maker, as it respects his innocence, purity of breathing, and complete unity to the mind of God, being holy and perfect as a creature, for "God saw every thing that he had made, and behold, it was very good;" Gen. i, 31, "God hath made man upright," Ecc. vii, 29; yet, because he was fallible, or a creature made by a Power superior and stronger than himself, without the perpetual keeping of which same Power, he must be subject to any other Power that might contend against him, that was also stronger or mightier than his own. And, as we find he became opposed and conquered by God's great Enemy, and taken captive too, it proves the truth of it; and being captured, the image of his Maker is defaced, and he is a subject of the devil-one that the devil has spoiled and peeled for himself, as well as to oppose the great Majesty of heaven. And thus it may be said, the devil and Adam became unity and confederacy, and so being one, was the elder inferred above; but, a seed to come, so a younger, [though in the Mind of God, from everlasting, and also, in the bosom of the Father,] "shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt be subject unto him; thou shalt but bruise his heel."

This plainly proves that our nature is the elder, and God's quickening Spirit within us, the younger; and therefore, this younger being wholly opposite to the elder, that God's mind and purpose be fulfilled, as it re

spects the one who has the whole possession of the soul yielding and giving up entirely to the one that has not, there must be a warfare, and this, carried on by the Power of God against the Power of Satan. And, it is our mercy, who feel this warfare, that whenever or however it begins, as God is almighty, working in a sovereign way as he will, to cause all other Powers to be subject unto his, the end is always certain and sure victory to himself. And, because the Lord is good, his works are good also, which proves that having begun a work of warfare in the soul, it is a GOOD WORK, the which, he will carry on by his mighty Power, and perform to the day of Jesus Christ; yea, he will never leave thee, nor forsake thee; he will be thy God, and thou shalt be his people. But, literally, as Jacob by birth, was not the first-born, he was not heir to the blessing of the firstborn, which, appears from his own words to his brother, he much wished for, and no doubt, had many a sigh in consequence thereof, considering its great importance, it being the last Testament and Prayer of his father, which, being breathed and guided by the Holy Spirit, was truly Spirit and Life to the everlasting joy of the soul:-“And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright;" which, in other words, is, "Sell me, O my brother, the blessing that by birth is yours."

(To be continued.)

EXTRACT.

That person must know little indeed of experimental religion, who can suppose that any pleasures or profits of sin, or all of them together, can compensate for one moment's loss of intercourse with God, as reconciled to us in his dear Son. TOPLADY.

HIS VISITS ARE SWEET.

"He delivereth me from mine enemies: yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me: thou hast delivered me from the violent man." Psalm xviii, 48.

My dear R-, It is now a long time since I attempted to write to you. Many times I have wanted to it, but have not been able, on account of some bad feelings or other; but, feeling a little better at this time, I thought I would do it. And now I expect you will find me full of confusion.

For the last twelve months I have found myself the subject of great trials and afflictions of soul, on account of this body of sin and death that I carry about with me; for I find every thing out of Christ is death, and every thing in Christ is life. I have had some sharp conflicts with the enemy of souls. He has tried to dash my hope altogether, by telling me that my children would send me to hell after all. But, O! how a finished work of that dear Redeemer applied made him sculk off when I told him it was out of children's power, or all the devils to do that. But, he does harass and perplex me very much. He very often sets at me about you in particular, when I want to write, and has hindered me years back from writing to you. He wants to make you out to be better than myself, and that you will find me to be an hypocrite. Had he not distressed me so in my feelings, I should have written several letters in my afflictions by this time. But, I have been learning a lesson that is hard to be learnt, that is, I myself know I am worse than the devil, that is, in my fallen state. I have seen and felt it. It is all very well for people to say they believe this or that I have been so low that I have trembled at

the sight. SHOCKED at the sight, Mr. HART says. And when help come with this sweet word of savour, “I have not redeemed you from the knowledge of sin,"* I was enabled to rejoice in that redemption that Jesus Christ wrought out. *

* *

*

I have been feeling for weeks and months together such a continual war within, that at times, I did not know how it would end. Corruptions belching up in all directions so that I thought every moment they must break out into violence. But when Jesus speaks there comes a calm. Sometimes I pine and grieve to think I cannot hear the Word preached more: in short, I want to feel what I do not, and what I feel, I do not want to feel; yet, there is a feeling that all things are well sometimes; but, this is when some sweet portion or word is sent with power to my soul. Now, what lifts me up at this time is, “If ye suffer persecution for my sake, happy are ye." Here was a sight opened up indeed! What me! such a hell-deserving wretch as me, to be deemed worthy to suffer for such a blessed Jesu's sake! I cried out, "O, I would suffer the laws of all things for His presence." The words kept flowing, "If ye suffer for my sake, happy are ye." "If ye endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus; put on the whole armour of God; put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and fight the fight of faith, that will quench all the fiery darts of the Wicked one." I cannot describe my feelings as they were at that time. I was filled with self-abasement to think that I should suffer for the dear Redeemer's sake. It was as though

Well, it so melted me, that

The Writer's meaning here is, that though Jesus Christ has redeemed her soul from the punishment due to her sin, He has not redeemed her from the feeling of its workings in her members. [Eds.]