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THE

GOSPEL MAGAZINE.

"COMFORT YE, COMFORT YE, MY PEOPLE, SAITH YOUR GOD." "ENDEAVOURING TO KEEP THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT IN THE BOND OF PEACE." "JESUS CHRIST, THE SAME YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, AND FOR EVER.

WHOM TO KNOW

VOL. VII.]

IS LIFE ETERNAL."

JANUARY, 1847.

NEW-YEAR'S VISITS,

[No. 73.

"And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zaccheus, make haste and come down; for to-day I must abide at thy house "—Luke xix. 5.

66

WHAT a Visiter!-Jesus! Reader, has He ever come to thy houseto thy heart? Ask thyself the question. Is Jesus as yet a stranger to thee" as a root out of a dry ground, without form or comeliness," or has He called upon thee-opened the palace of the heart-become thy nest-and, by his gracious communings, rendered Himself the chiefest among ten thousand-the altogether lovely?" How strikingly solemn the thought-thou art either the friend or the enemy of Jesus. There is, in truth, no middle-class character. One or the other thou must be. Which art thou? Come, now, a little sober inquiry may do thee no harm. This is visiting-time; Christmas and new-year's visits are paid in abundance. For whose visits art thou most anxious? Hast thou sent an invitation to Jesus this Christmas? Has the heart poured forth its simple breathings, "Lord, pay me a visit-call upon me-come to see me?" "Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon?" New Series-No. 73. Vor. VII.

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PREFACE.

If we were about to have the numbers of the GOSPEL MAGAZINE rebound, we should be much inclined to have them "lettered" on the back" WILDERNESS MERCIES" for 1840, 41-47;" for what do these volumes contain? For the most part, a simple, unpretending record of the merciful dealings of a covenant God with a small portion of his sons and daughters, whilst travelling onward through a land of briars and thorns towards

"Heaven, their dwelling-place."

And should any happen to take up one of these volumes, ignorant of its contents, we give them this hint, in order to apprize them of what they may be led to expect, should curiosity prompt them to a perusal. This world is a wilderness, lying, so to speak, between two eternities-that past and to come; across this wilderness is travelling a race of pilgrims, standing high in birth and relationship to Him who may be emphatically called LORD OF THE COUNTRY. And this mighty HIM, saw He fit so to do, could save one or all of them the toil and the trouble of the journey; but "wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working," it is His Royal pleasure to put them upon pilgrimage, and that for the twofold object of his glory and their good. He glorifies Himself in their sustenance and security in the midst of an enemy's land, and they derive essential profit and advantage as well from Jehovah's method of dealing as from their numerous wilderness privations and inconveniences; these stand in contrast with, and are made instrumental in producing an ardent longing after and looking for, that glorious peace and plenty which await them in the inheritance of which they are heirs, and towards which they journey.

In a primary sense these pilgrims comprise but one family, although they journey in sections or companies; but with these divisions this Magazine professes to have nought to do. Its recognition is the one body, as such. To this one family, it is

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