LETTER FROM MR. TURNER, MELBOURNE. it seems one or the other must take place? Either he must give up, or soften down God's truth, or loose the approbation of a very great multitude of (so called) disciples; which of these alternatives does he chose? Does he not go on to shew that it is by the sacrifice of himselfthat it is by his blood, that we have everlasting life? That as the Israelites were supported and sustained in a desert land by the manna, so the true christian is supported by daily supplies, which are by Christ Jesus; and that as the land of Canaan was made fruitful by the blessing of the Lord from the mercy-seat in the temple, so the land of gospel truth yields her strength by Christ Jesus; he it is that ripens and sweetens, and gives fulness to the promises. His blood is the blood of the everlasting covenant, which has, and does, and will, cheer the hearts of thousands of poor prisoners of hope. His sacrifice hath put away sin; now, to believe, to receive, to know, these truths in the endearing power of them; to be upheld, and encouraged, and nourished in our hope in his mercy, and in our love to his name, this is to find that his flesh, his sacrifice, is meat indeed, and his blood is drink indeed; this is that fare that proportions our strength to our day, and will give us the final victory. But these truths are neither the meat nor the drink of mere professors; however sincere they may be in their profession, they cannot receive these testimonies: how many go back who have seemed to receive them, and walk no more in them; but he knoweth whom he hath chosen. All who are taught of God will receive these truths. Again then, I say, look at the truth which both in the Old and New Testament stands in connection with the promise of being taught of God. I hope these remarks in this letter will help us to enter more clearly upon the meaning of the word world connected with the atonement, in our next. A LITTLE ONE. 219 the attention of the Lord's people? What When him I view by faith." The great theme of my soul's delight is CHRIST, his complex character, his covenant relationship, his offices, Person, worth and work, he is the glorious Subject of my ministry, and the Foundation of all my hope and rejoicing. In him I find sympathy in all my perplexities, trials and temptations; from him I draw supplies for all the needs and requirements of the journey. By his Spirit the Comforter I am put in mind of what I require, and instructed how to apply for the necessary aid; then at another time, by the same blessed Spirit, I am favored with some precious exhibition of what Christ is to me, and has for me; while I enjoy at the same moment a pouring forth from his great fulness of consolation, joy and peace; so that in my experience the word is fulfilled often, "Or ever I was aware, my soul made me like the chariots of Aminadib." It is the power of Christ, revealed in the development and elucidation of his titles and character, that alone gives my soul de LETTER FROM MR. JOHN TURNER, light. Therefore I long to see the people of MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA. MY DEAR BROTHER.-Though I have delayed to answer your letter so long, I have not forgotten you. Grace, mercy and peace be with you, and with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in England. A friend lent me a few numbers of the VESSEL, the other day, and in one I found the notice of Mr. Crocker's death. I send you £5 for the widow-which I am glad to forward, from a respect to her departed husband. Though we did not walk together, yet I always felt assured he-Mr. C.-was taught of the Lord; and as far as ability was given, he set forth the Person and offices of Christ. There were many other things besides these which savored of Christ in our departed brother's ministry, now and then, which all know, who have the grace of discernment in spiritual things. I mention this only in love, and for the purpose of stirring up both my own mind, and the minds of the servants of the Lord Jesus Christ who are still in the vineyard. What is there besides Christ worth my charge in the enjoyment of the same comforts and delights that I individually enjoy. And since the desire by the Holy Spirit's teaching is never disappointed, I am in the expectation of the fulfilment of the promise"My word shall not return unto me void; it shall accomplish that which I please," &c. Already the Holy Spirit's blessing is recognised in our midst; some are wounded; some are bound up; some eyes opened; and deaf ears are unstopped; and some delivered from bondage, and brought into the glorious liberty of the children of God, to participate in the choice things stored in Christ, and bequeathed by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ to the blood-bought family, flowing through the God-Man Mediator, by the power of the Holy Ghost. It is a great favor to know Christ so as to enjoy him and to delight in him; to find him all I can need or desire; to prove him always the same; to find the power of his grace, by the ministration of his Holy Spirit, bringing to my mind and remembrance the words of eternal life, and causing my soul to joy in God through our Lord Jesus Her life was hid with Christ, God's well lov'd Son; Christ, by whom I have received, and do receive, the atonement. Oh, the unspeakable bliss of pardon through blood! What peace To appear like him her soul was fix'd upon; the revelation of this truth brings to my mind His presence she enjoy'd, and long'd to go "As far as the east is from the west, so far To live, and reign, with Jesus far from woe. hath he removed our transgressions from us." He was her shield, and he her great reward; Yes! the annihilation of sin is one of the Her Father, Friend, her portion, and her God. grand secrets that belong to those who fear By faith she saw those glorious realms of bliss, the Lord; and the secret is divulged at the Where angel-spirits sing where JESUS is. appointed time to the blood-washed and redeemed soul. In some cases the grand develop-The whisper of yon throng is Sister, come!' "I have no wave," she said, "the billow's gone. ment of this wonderful subject is reserved for "Jesus, receive my spirit, (was her cry,) the sick or dying bed; in other cases, at differ"In that blest home, thy presence to enjoy." ent periods of the career through this life. "Our God is a Sovereign, and worketh all September the fifteenth, her dying day; things after the counsel of his own will." Her spirit soar'd aloft, and left her clay : Your's in the bonds of truth, Jehovah granting her her last requestEased her pain, and took her to his rest. In him she liv'd, and mov'd, in him she died Without a struggle, scarcely had she sigh'd"How kind my heavenly Father is," she saith, Then fell asleep in the cold arms of death. Her face it shone when death did on her feed, Her strength appear'd renew'd in very deed; Death, like a porter, ope'd to her the gate, To meet that throng who bow at Jesus' feet. Thousands of saints assembl'd, will exclaim, "Salvation to our God, and to the Lamb." Cloth'd in white robes, palms in their hands they bear, Melbourne, May 15, 1854. JNO. TURNER. IMPROMPTU ON THE DEATH OF THAT AGED SAINT, ANOTHER saint to glory gone, O, for such readiness as this, MARY is gone, her happy spirit's fled, Denoting victory in every war. She died victoriously-she won the crown-- With oil and lamp may we soar to the sky; And echo through a long eternity, [we. M. A. B. Such CHINA. It is utterly impossible for us, this month, to insert any article on China, either of our own, or of those forwarded to us. We have worked as hard as ever-but we have not had the of our readers, however, who feel interested in the time; the VESSEL has not the needed space. subject, will do well to read the pamphlet just published by Mr. Paul, entitled, "A Voice from British and Scottish Laymen, asking for One Thousand Missionaries to China," &c. Some most worthy Christian laymen are stirring us up to this great effort, and although we are sadly deficient, still, we hope some good will result herefrom. must WATCH, as well as PRAY; and be PATIENT, as well as PERSEVERING. rejoice, if the Lord will manifest his approval of a Oh, how will it make us work so unexpectedly flung into our hands! We Mercy and Judgment. THE CHOLERA - THE HARVEST - THE DAY OF HUMILIATION AND THANKSGIVING. ness. We speak from the testimony of some who have had much experience in this calamity, when we say, nothing definite as to actual cause or cure can be attained. A good authority says: "That thy beloved may be delivered, save with thy right hand, and hear me."---Psalm 1x. 4. SINCE we issued our last, we have almost | them have been driven away in their wickedsensibly walked on the confines of an eternal world. The scenes around us have been of the most solemn character. We could not walk the streets but we saw the doctors driving hither and thither-hearses, mourning coaches, and funeral processions, at almost every turn; and the unhappy tidings constantly coming of one and another suddenly removed from this world of sorrow and of sin. These are indeed heart-aching days for the fallen sons of men; our faces have turned pale; our spirits have trembled; and more than ever, by night and by day, have we felt the immense value of an interest in the redemption of that dear Redeemer, who is His people's life, His people's all. In the midst of these distressing scenes, and hoping that we are instrumentally of some little use in Zion still, we feel it a mercy that we yet are spared to live for, more deeply to love, and more faithfully to serve our glorious and gracious High Priest. We also desire publicly to acknowledge the great goodness of our Heavenly Father in sparing so many of his dear and faithful servants. Oh, we have feared, knowing how much the ministers of Christ are called upon to move among the dying and the dead, we have feared lest many of them might fall. But, blessed be his holy name, they yet are spared; and with all the powers of our souls, we would cry, "Good Lord, spare thy servants-thy ministers still preserve." Some idea of the rapid progress which this disease has made in our metropolis may be formed from the following statistical account : "The population of London exceeds 2,362,236; and in the week ending Saturday, September 9th, 3,143 persons died, or 2,156 more than have on an average died in the corresponding week of former years. But in the week ending September 8, 1849, when cholera raged, 3,183 persons died; so, allowing for increase of population, the rate of mortality for for the week is lower than the rate of 1849. 2,050 persons namely, 954 males, 1,096 females-614 children under fifteen years of age; 1,128 men and women of fifteen and under sixty; and 287 old people, have died of cholera; 276 persons have died of diarrhoea. The deaths from cholera in the last nine weeks have been-5, 26, 133, 339, 644, 729, 847, 1,287, 2,050; and in the aggregate, 6,120 persons have lost their lives by the disease." This is mortality to a fearful extent! Six thousand taken from among the inhabitants of this vast city in about nine weeks; and perhaps, humanly speaking, the most part of Vol. X.-No. 117.-Oct. 1854. "We deliberately avow our conviction, then, that even up to the present time, with respect to cholera, nothing certain is known of either its cause or its cure. Much that has been affirmed on either side, we regard as largely a mass of assumptions. Hitherto, everything is much a matter of controversy as it was in unsettled; even the point of contagion is as 1832; and, then, as to premonitory symptoms,' the medical theory is, that there is always premonition in the shape of looseness; and that, if taken in time, few would fall. Now, in the teeth of this theory, cases innumerable are reported in which there was no premonition. We ourselves know of one, in which the state of the body was the very reverse of relaxed, amounting almost to conpurging began; and a few hours carried the stipation, until the time that vomiting and subject of it into eternity. A well attested fact has come before us of a provincial locality, in which, before the scourge broke out, one of the medical residents was very brave, daring it to come thither, and boasting that he possessed the means which would work its speedy extinction. It came, and, among the first victims, seized himself! His specific The other medical men, appalled by the exwas a delusion; he swallowed it, and died! fled, leaving the people to their fate! Sewers, ample, having less courage, but more caution, cesspools, ditches, stagnant waters, filthy streets, and confined habitations, are as old as earth, and the men who dwell upon it; but cholera is a thing of yesterday, a thing that has to do with the air far more than with the earth. At present, it has been attested, in some parts of the country, so empoisoned is the atmosphere, that sparrows and small birds have dropped dead on the ground, just as they did in the case of the plague. Such is the foe which has humbled the pride of France, mowing down a multitude of her bravest men, and so enfeebling a large portion of the remainder, that it has been-as it ought to have been-a subject of solemn consideration, whether, with troops so broken, it was expedient to offer battle to the enemy." Since writing the above, we have been laid down in weakness by a slight attack of this most prevalent and painful disease: under these circumstances the following exceedingly solemn and truthful epistle came to hand. We dare not withhold it: so profitable has it been to us, we can but hope the Lord's blessing will attend its perusal. How DEAR BROTHER BANKS.-Would you say gone to his rest. You may judge my feelings, in your October number of EARTHEN VESSEL last evening, when standing in the spot where that, owing to the much sickness, and many I had expected to hear him speak from: thus, funerals I have had to attend, together within the midst of life we are in death.' preaching here and there, I have not had time to get ready for the press, the manuscript of the Funeral Sermon of the late William Allen; but hope now to be able in a few days to have it ready for publishing. Truly, these are solemn times! Many, I fear, have been driven away in their wickedness; dying in their sins; and if we differ from such, who maketh us to differ? Many of the Lord's own people have been taken away by this present pestilence: but they died in the Lord. This is that dwelling, nigh which no plague can come. Here it is that no evil can befall them: they die in his love-what can harm them here? They die in his name his name to them, living and dying, is a strong tower. They die in oneness with that atonement which hath put away all sin: they die in that life by the which death is swallowed up in victory: they die in submission to the righteousness of faith; having from their very hearts renounced all their own righteousness: they die in all the security of an immutable covenant: they die, to live an infinitely and everlastingly better life than this world can afford. should these things make us hold all with a J. RAYMENT.” MR. JOSIAH DENHAM.-This most benevolent Christian man- -(the eldest son of the late David Denham, once the esteemed and useful pastor of Unicorn Yard Chapel) has also been suddenly taken from us by Cholera, at 35 years of age. He was a kind friend to the poor, a decided lover of Gospel truth, and a most affectionate husband and father. In a few hours he was laid prostrate in the arms of death. His end was peace. Just before his departure, he said-(as though the precincts of the heavenly world were open to his view) Open the pearly gates, and let me through." In Nun Head Cemetry we laid his remains until the resurrection morning. 66 How different this from dying in our sins! To die in our sins is to die where the wrath of God is where the powers of darkness arewhere tribulation, anguish and blackness are, While our country and our churches have and that for ever. Truly, there is a great been thus visited, and humbled under a gulph fixed between the two. All who love solemn sense of the uncertainty of our existthe Saviour, and the truth as,it is in Jesus, die in faith. Whatever doctrines may attendence here; the Lord has most mercifully put the departing hours of some of the Lord's forth his hand in abundantly crowning the people, they die in the belief of the truth; earth with his goodness, as expressed in the and "he that believeth hath everlasting life, subjoined note. and shall not come into condemnation." "He that believeth shall be saved." Many a believer dies in much darkness of soul, and will be met as he enters the peaceful realms of bliss, with "O, thou of little faith! wherefore didst thou doubt ?" Your's sincerely, in the hope of eternal life, J. WELLS. 6, St. George's Place, North Brixton, Sept. 16, 1854. The Pastor of Cranmer Court Chapel, Clapham. Among the multitudes whom the cholera has removed from us, we regret to announce the departure of T. S. M. Jeuner, of Clapham; a man that has, for many years, and in many parts of this kingdom, preached the gospel of Christ. He has left a widow, several children, and a little flock, to shed a silent tear over the loss they have sustained. We quote the following from a letter just received. "The darker features of the Divine dealings whereby the present time is marked, pestilence and war, appear to us to make the duty of national thanksgiving for the blessing of an abundant harvest the more peculiar and imperative. Fervent ought to be our gratitude to that God who blends mercy with chastisement, and who shews amid the clouds of judgment the rainbow of his covenanted mercies. He has not forgotten his people, nor yet, in spite of our accumulated sins, wholly turned away his countenance in displeasure. Great is the material blessing which he has bestowed upon us in increasing the supplies of food at this especial juncture, for if to the drain upon the national resources caused by war, and to the individual suffering produced by pestilence and death, had been added a time of scarcity, dark indeed would have been the prospects of the coming winter. No one can have witnessed the "Dear Brother: You no doubt have heard gathering in of the present harvest, and have of the very sudden departure of our brother been insensible to the signs of gladness of Jenner, who fell asleep at one o'clock, A.M., which nature seems to be full. So it was on the 12th September. I was requested to that the Psalmist expressed his gratitude, supply for him on the 10th, he having gone to Thou crownest the year with thy goodness, Red Hill to preach the gospel-which I did, and thy paths drop fatness; they drop upon and heard that he left in good health, I was the pastures of the wilderness, and the little to have spent an hour with him on last even-hills rejoice on every side. The pastures are ing, after the service; but I received a note, clothed with flocks; the valleys also are requesting me to supply his people, as he had covered over with corn, they shout for joy, and kindreds and tongues." Here (Rev. vii.) given him from above;" this was such an offence that they never forgave him; and, therefore, crucified him, and so hoping to get rid of him. But, let us give scope to the words in the mere sound thereof; and if the consequences which follow upon so taking the words cannot be sustained, then we may,-yea, we must,infer that we have come the wrong road. they also sing.' To this Jubilee of nature it surely befits a Christian people to add the public ascription of a reasonable and adoring praise. But beyond the material blessing thus vouchsafed, may we not trace in this mercy the comforting assurance of God's un- The Saviour's own explanations of the Old changed good-will towards this land and Testament were despised by the Pharisees of people? He chastens that we may be re- old; and so offended were they at his saying minded of our sins; He blesses that we may his "Sheep should never perish," and that be assured of his willingness to forgive them."No man could come to him except it were If it be undoubtedly true that transgression catches a deeper guilt from the very privileges of the transgressor, as Chorazin and Bethsaida now brought down to hell, and Jerusalem, still widowed and captive, witness to us,-dark indeed is the catalogue of our national sin, and heinous beyond utterance our guilt. Not a few persons regarding the dark spots that stain our Christianity, have been disposed to think that the God of our fathers was about to leave us, and to write Ichabod on all our greatness. But every mercy of the Divine hand has a voice to speak, and a message to give, it is one of comfort and hopeful confidence in God's continued protection that we may gather from every fruitful field and every joyous harvest song that sounds across our land. We trust that a day of especial thanksgiving will soon be appointed. There is much cause of thankfulness in the unanimous feeling which has been expressed upon this subject, and it is now the duty of those who preside over us, to provide for it a proper time of public utterance." Great debility prevented our pursuing this subject. The Lord humble us, as a nation, at his feet; and still make precious amongst us his gospel. Amen. "He is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world; he gave himself a ransom for all." Now, Theophilus, just look at this one rule : viz,-that if what is written concerning those for whom Christ died be not fulfilled in every individual case, then the interpretation which makes the words whole world and all men mean the whole human race falls to the ground. perfectly clear. Now, upon this point there are two things 1st, That what is said concerning the effect of the atonement is fulfilled in some. 2nd, That it is not fulfilled in others. Now, how is this, if the redeemed of the Lord are to return ? And (without if, but or may) it declares not only that the redeemed shall return, but that they shall reach Zion in them; and that sorrow and sighing shall flee safety, and that everlasting joy shall be unto away. If this be true, how is it so many are left behind? And if he laid down his life for the sheep and it is said, and the Scripture cannot be broken, that his sheep shall hear his voice, and that HE must bring them, and give unto them eternal life-if this be true, and I NOW, after shewing in my last, the main God is true, how is it that so many are left to drift of divine teaching as set forth in Isaiah the hardness of their hearts, and do neither liv. and in John vi.-I now proceed to shew-hear the voice of his truth, nor follow him, that, on the one hand, language in relation to the atonement universal in sound is limited in sense, and meaning; and on the other hand, that there are modes of speech limited in sound but universal in sense. EPISTOLARY EPISTLES TO THEOPHILUS. It is remarkable that the very scripture apparently the most powerful on the side of universal redemption is limited not only by its theme but by its connection; I here refer to 1 John ii. verse the 2nd. "He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world." Here we see the words "whole world" do not mean the whole human race, for the Jews are not included here in the words " whole world," he is the propitiation not for our sins only, so then here are our sins and the sins of the whole world beside: thus, clearly shewing, the words "whole world" mean all the Gentile nations. But does it, at the same time, mean all the individual persons of those nations? I trow not. It was promised to Abraham, "That in him and in his seed should all the nations of the earth be blessed." And John, in vision, "Saw a people out of all nations, but perish in their own corruption? What! · |
