A GRACIOUS VISITATION.

I am full of delight at what The Lord is doing among you in saving souls. But will any of you be missed by the gracious visitation? will the sacred rain leave some of you as dry as the mountains of Gilboa? is Jesus passing by and will you not cry out to Him? Is His grace felt by your brother, your sister and your mother, and not by you? Unhappy soul, which shall manage to elude the blessed influences of The Holy Spirit and desparately resolve to perish. What reason can be urged for such a course, what excuse for such suicide. Let those who are saved pray much for others who are hardened.
I am rejoiced that those of you who have found Jesus, are not ashamed to own Him. Why should you be? only make sure you are truly converted, do not be content with a sham conversion, seek the real thing, lay hold, not on a temporary hope, but on eternal life.
True faith always has repentance for it's twin brother, love for it's child, and holiness for it's crown.
If you have looked to Jesus for life be sure that you next look to Him for the pattern of life. So that you may walk as He walked.

MEMBERS OF CHRIST.

For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.eph5v30

Paul here speaks only of true believers, men and women who are quickened by divine grace and made alive unto God. Of them he says, not by way of romance, nor of poetic exaggeration, but as an undisputed matter of fact, "we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones." That there is a true union between Christ and His people is no fiction or dream of a heated imagination. Sin separted us from God, and in undoing what sin has done ,Christ joins us to Himself in a union more real than any other in the whole world.

This union is very near, and very dear, and very complete. We are so near to Christ that we cannot be nearer, for we are one with Him,we are very dear to Him. Consider how close and tender is the tie when it is true that Christ loved us, and gave Himself for us. It is a union more intimate than any other that exists amongst men, for " greater love, hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." We were His enemies when Christ died for us, that He might save us, and make us so one with Himself, that from Him our life should be drawn, and that in Him our life should be hid. It is then a very near and dear union which Christ has established between Himself and His redeemed, and this union could not be more complete than it is.

It is also a most wonderful union. The more you think of it, the more you will be astonished, and stand in sacred awe before such a marvel of grace. Well did Kent say-

"O sacred union, firm and strong,

how great the grace, how sweet the song,

that worms of earth should ever be

one with incarnate Deity!"

But so it is. Even the incarnation of Christ is not more wonderful than His living union with His people. It is a thing to be thought upon often, it is the wonder of the skies, and is chief among those things which "the angels desire to look into." On the surfac of this truth you may not see very much, but the longer you gaze, the more The Holy Spirit assists you in your meditation, the more you will see in this wondrful sea of glass mingled with fire. My soul exults in the doctrine that Christ and His people are everlastingly one.

Once again it is a very cheering doctrine. He that understands it has an ocean of music in his soul. He that can truly grasp and feed upon it will often sit in the heavenly places with his Lord, and anticipate the day when he shall be with Him, and shall be like Him. Even now, since we are one with Him, there is no distance between us, we are nearer to Him than any thing else can ever be. The very word union makes us forget all distance,indeed, distance is altogether annihilated. Love joins us so closely with Christ, that He becomes more to us than our very selves, and though now we see Him not, yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.