POETRY.

[To the Eds. of the Spiritual Wrestler,-In perusing the Preface to your little Work I felt disposed to offer you a Word to encourage. It flowed from my pen, and I believe also from my heart IN RHYME. If not on that account unacceptable, you can give it insertion. Believe me to remain, Your Well Wisher, DELTA.] THE ENCOURAGEMENT.

Wrestle on, thou tiny stranger,
Monthly bring thy plate of food,
Morsels which in gloom or danger
Cheer the children's solitude.
In the wilderness progressing,
Need they have of ev'ry aid;
Many foes around are pressing,
And full oft they feel dismay'd.
With the length'ning travel weary,
With the thorns and briars torn,
Oft they feel the desert dreary,
Often feel themselves forlorn.

Oft they cast a glance around them,
Sighing at their pilgrim lot;
Worldlings have a dwelling found them,
They have no abiding spot.

When the Law's cold wind is blowing,
Nature's nakedness they feel;
Weeping over sin's undoing,

"Lord!" they whisper, "Come and heal."

"Come, and leaning on thy bosom,
Well sustain'd we then shall be;
Then the wilderness will blossom,
Then the vanquish'd foe will flee."

"Then the worldlings' earthly treasure
Frail and fleeting will be seen,
Then our portion, without measure,
Ever fragrant, ever green."

"Then the trouble, or privation,
Will be over-rul'd for good;
And in thee, our soul's salvation,
We shall find joy, rest, and food."

THE POOR SINNER'S DESIRE.

These lines were written from bearing a Discourse by dear W---T, Oct. 3rd, 1843, from these words, That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection.' Phil. iii, 10.

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: benold 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. 14.

FEBRUARY, 1848.

THE NARROW WAY.

One Penny.

This Narrow Way being the only Way of Life according to the dear Lord's own words, in contradistinction to the Broad Way to everlasting destruction, (as we read, "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." Matt. vii, 13, 14;) I shall, as God shall be pleased to enable me for his own everlasting honour and praise, endeavour at this time to make a remark or two upon it.

Most of my Readers, I doubt not, have knowledge sufficient to see that the Strait Gate sets forth Christ, and the Narrow Way, the way from this wilderness world to his everlasting kingdom of glory. The Wide Gate too and the Broad Way, perhaps they already understand to set forth the opposite, viz: Anti-christ and the way through this world to everlasting torment. It will suffice then if I employ my pen to try to point out who are the characters travelling in the Way to Life, leaving it to be understood beyond contradiction that all others are travelling onwards to death.

VOL. II.

C

In this day, were we to believe that all who make a Profession are in the Way to Life, it would be obvious. that that way would not be very narrow; on the contrary, we might justly say it was VERY WIDE. But as such a belief would give the lie to God's Word, we must find another way than this that all sorts of classes of society walk in without opposition from Satan; we must find a way as the Word says, "a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen: the lion's whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it;" Job xxviii, 7, 8; yes, my friends, we must find a way contrary to all sense and reason of the flesh, a way contrary to our nature to travel in, a way that the world with all its wisdom knows nothing of, or, we are not in the Narrow Way. Ah, the thought passes my mind, how many ways may we walk in that are narrow to flesh and blood, which are not the Narrow Way to Life! We may be persecuted, but not for righteousness' sake! We may meet with losses, crosses, trials, and difficulties, but not for the Gospel's sake! We may feign the humility of the cross of Christ, and may be taken to be contrite Christians before men, and to effect this, walk in a very narrow path in self-denial, but still miss the Narrow Way, and in the day of accounts, be esteemed by the righteous Judge thieves and robbers! We may suffer many grievous things through the cause of Christ, but it may all tend to lead in the Broad Way to death! O, my dear Friends, these are solemn thoughts, almost enough to make one despair of finding the Narrow Way at all! See the beautiful Hymn on this subject by Mr. Hart; it is evident his walk whereby his soul was saved, lay through a very very narrow channel, for, he says,

"Before we've journey'd far
Two dang'rous gulfs are fixt;
Dead sloth and Phaisaic pride,
Scarce a hair's breadth betwixt."

"Because the gate of life

Is narrow, low, and small;
The path so prest, so close, so strait,
There seems no path at all.”

And it must needs be so, seeing all men in a state of nature are at enmity against God, and can only be reconciled unto him by an entire change of heart and disposition; the bent of the mind must become wholly

transformed; yea, it is summed up in these words, "Ye must be born again," so that the soul is not under the Law, but under Grace. With this new heart produced at this spiritual birth, the soul is a proper and fit object to travel in the Narrow Way; and I am positive on the point that none other can travel there long together; for it is too much for flesh and blood to deny itself, or to inherit grace; and therefore, as the being reconciled to God is a holy work wrought by God the Holy Ghost, it must necessarily follow that it is the path in which only the new born or gracious soul can walk.

For the encouragement of those who are in this Narrow Way, experiencing this great change of affections and disposition, (which may be termed the state of sanctification,) in which they meet with very many severe trials and crosses, doubts and fears, bonds, and divers other oppositions, so that they are often writing bitter things against themselves, cutting themselves off as being without the least sign of hope that they shall be accepted of God, these following words are left on record as an infallible way-mark or mirror in which they might view their true standing, whether inclining towards Zion, or Babylon, "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted of him." Acts x, 34, 35. St. Peter saw the effects of the work or power of grace in the hearts of the Gentiles, these very people who felt their depravity to the utmost degree, and were persuaded, that unless some great change took place, they must perish in their vileness, as a dead carcase in the desert is devoured by the birds of prey; these people in whose hearts appeared direful plagues of running sores; these same people who were despised and evil spoken of by the whole-hearted professors of the true worship of the Most High; yet those who were groaning and crying amid all this opposition to the Sovereign Jehovah for aid and shelter. God had told him just before he observed this, in a vision typifying these people, not to call any thing common or unclean that he had cleansed; consequently, though he had conceived and indulged himself