earnest till we are oppressed. "Lord, in trouble they visited thee, they poured out a prayer, when thy chastening was upon them." And when this time comes, we always find that he is a present help in trouble. He lends an ear to our prayer, he knows the adversary we have to cope with, and brings in a little help. When he draws near, we find the enemy gives way; darkness and light cannot agree together; nor Christ and Satan. Faith moves to meet him, embraces him, and welcomes his approach, and when it touches the hem of his garment, virtue is received from him. We are glad because we have found a little rest. But he does not abide-he departs again; he withdraws his sensible help, and down we go again, and so it will be till the soul is humbled, meekened, and bowed down, and the heart opened to receive him in. All must go through the fiery trial. The good will stand and bear the heat, and nothing else. This trial you will now find. He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver, and will purify the sons of Levi. All the spoil he takes from the strong man armed, shall go through the fire and through the water. God himself will try, his word will try, his eyelids try the children of men. His Spirit will try, and Satan shall try; for he desires to have us, that he may sift us as wheat; but the wheat will endure the wind, and nothing but the chaff shall pass away. I shall expect this furnace work will now soon come on, I think it is near at hand. God bless and prosper you, is the earnest prayer of your's in all truth, love and fidelity for Christ's sake,

EXTRACTS.

J. JENKINS.

There is nothing independent of him who is the mover of all things, and himself unmoveable: Nothing so high, that is above his providence: Nothing so low, that is beneath it: Nothing so large, but is bounded by it: Nothing so confused, but God can order it: Nothing so bad, but he can draw good out of it: Nothing so wisely plotted, but God can disappoint it: Nothing so simply carried, but he can give a prevailing issue unto it.---DR. SIBBES.

This is our comfort, that of all whom the Father gave to Christ, he will not lose one. However the joy of faith may decline, the grace itself shall never totally fail, having for its security the Father's covenant love, which

is from everlasting to everlasting; the blessed Mediator's intercession, and the faithfulness of the Holy Ghost, who, when once given, is a fountain of living water, springing up in the believer's heart to life eternal. Not that I am always on the mount: there are seasons when the Lord is as one that hideth himself: but he only hides himself: he never forsakes the sinner he has loved: and, blessed be his name, he has engaged that the regenerate soul shall never totally forsake him; else, there would never be a saint in heaven.---TOPLADY.

POETRY.

SALVATION BY GRACE.

Salvation by grace! how joyful the sound
To those who feel they are lost, but are found
In Jesus the Lord, and are by his grace
Desiring to seek in earnest his face!
Salvation by grace! for works of our own
Do only the more to earth chain us down;
Man's will's only free to perpetuate sin;
Good works spring alone from God's grace within.
Salvation by grace! free grace we proclaim,
And glory alone, ascribe to the name

Of Christ the Redeemer, who by his own blood,
Has ransom'd the Church, and made peace with God.
Salvation by grace! be ever our song

On earth, as it will, when with yonder throng,

In mansions of glory, we louder shall sing,
All honour and praise to Jesus our King.

OLIVET.

'Twas from the summit of mount Olivet
The Lord ascended to his throne; and there
He intercedes for those he died to save:
His merit there he pleads on their behalf;
For merit they have none, but pond'rous guilt!
That deep would sink them in the lowest hell!
Amazing grace! to stoop so low, that man,
Frail man, might rise!

Eternal Spirit, in our hearts inspire
Immortal praise; and when earth's season shall
Have pass'd away, and the archangel shall

E. R.

The trumpet sound outside heaven's crystal walls,

And myriads enwrapt in sleep, awake,

And from their charnel houses teeming forth,
Each to receive the joyful welcome of

Eternal life, or direful sentence of

Eternal death! and Christ the Lord, once more
Descending on the earth from whence he rose,
Attended with angelic retinue;

May we then with him reign in perfect peace,
Throughout the regions of eternity.

E. R.

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." ISA¡AH xxxv, 3, 4.

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

No. 19.

JULY, 1848.

One Penny.

I AM POOR AND NEEDY.

"But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God." Ps. xl, 17.

My dear Readers,-This is a portion that, at present, answers to my case, and, if the dear Lord will, I intend dropping a remark or two thereon, for your profiting in the things of God. Time after time I have tried to apologize for my weakness and insufficiency to set forth the glories of the Gospel of our ever blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and therefore, I hope it is now not needful, but that all my Readers are fully aware that the Wrestler's daily warfare showeth him that his strength is perfect weakness, and that he hath no helper, save the Lord, who, he does prove again and again, comes to his rescue at the times of his fainting.

I have not the space allowed me, to enable me to open this portion, or to mention all the things I see enwrapt in it; and, as such, I only wish briefly to write that that has to do with me. "But I am poor and needy." What is it to be poor and needy in the sense that these words are spoken? I ask this, for your sake, Reader, as well as my own, because unless we either know, or, are brought to know truly, we cannot follow on to the next

VOL. II.

H

words, in the sense in which they infer, viz. "Yet the Lord thinketh upon me." And, if we never know what it is for the Lord to think upon us (for good,) it matters not who else thinks well of us, where God is we can never go, but shall one day call upon the rocks and hills to cover us from him that cometh to judge the earth in righteousness. O, may we have a prayerful spirit given unto us, that we may live and not die, and then shall it be granted unto us to understand the mysteries of Salvation by Christ Jesus!

To be poor and needy in the sense in which this portion infers, is not the poverty inferred in the 17th verse of the 3rd chapter of the Revelation, "Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods; and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." No; this speaks of them that are pure in their own eyes, that have strength of their own-faith to move mountainspower to work miracles; and yet, know nothing of experimental godliness, not seeing their need thereof. But, in St. Paul's second Epistle to the Corinthians vi, 8-10, you have the same characters that my text speaks of, "By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, and yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." Here, we see, as in a glass, who the poor and needy are. But again, "When they had nothing to pay, [i. e. they having heavy debts, and without a single mite to pay them with,] he frankly forgave them both." Luke vii, 42. This is quite sufficient to show that these poor and needy are not those who believe themselves to be rich and needing nothing, but contrariwise, daily feeling their need of the Lord's strength being perfected in their weakness.

Thus, to be poor and needy, is to have a true sense of our state as fallen sinners. What I mean by "A true sense" is this, To know, by experimental proof, that we are born under the curse of God; and also, that there is

no reconciliation but by the blood of Jesus Christ, "which cleanseth us from all sin." We are poor, not having in ourselves so much as a good thought; yea, we prove that in us, that is, in our flesh dwells no good thing.

But, blessed be the dear Lord, he has caused us, at least, he has of his sovereign mercy toward me a poor vile sinner, caused me to feel my need of goodness, holiness, and righteousness; yes, and seeing my need daily, a cry is continually offered up to him as perpetual incense, that he will be pleased to keep me, to work all my works in me, to make me more and more after his own image, that I may in the fulness of time be presented through Jesus Christ my Redeemer one of the spotless children of the everlasting covenant, to dwell with my God for ever and ever. Thus, I am poor and needy.

But, now just a word or two to explain a little how I was made so; for, perhaps a word dropped here, may open some of the path of my Reader, even to uniting us more firmly together for the Truth's sake.

It was in this way following that I became truly to feel that I was poor and needy: when I was in my first estate, following the dictates of my carnal mind, being in my sin and in my blood, the Lord passed by me, and looked upon me, yea, and that with a look of love; and he showed me my nakedness, and entered into a covenant with me, causing me for the first time in my life to cry unto him for mercy. And, from time to time, he visited me, showing me more and more of my lost estate, causing me to be burdened on account thereof in the same proportion; and, increasing both light and knowledge into my soul, showed me to be both vile and ignorant, wherefore, I cried out, "Woe is me, I am undone!" But, at the same time that he in mercy showed me my vileness, (though I could not hope with assurance that I was his beloved,) he was pleased to direct me by the eye of faith to see the Lord Jesus Christ as being the only way of access unto himself; yes, blessed be his holy name, he caused me to understand that the Mediator between God and fallen man was Jesus Christ, the blessed God-man, Immanuel; and a cry was put into my heart that he