THE MEMORY OF THE JUST IS BLESSED. "Justified from all things." MY DEAR FRIEND AND BROTHER IN OUR PRECIOUS LORD JESUS,-I think it right to inform you something respecting the decease of our dear and esteemed minister, Mr. A. Triggs. He died on Wednesday afternoon, August the 10th, his end was peaceful and blessed. He had been confined to his room about a month; the means of taking down his tabernacle arose from a wound in his foot, which, after enduring for a considerable time, ended in mortification. He had the best of medical advice, both by his own providing, and also the highest professional skill, sent by one of the friends; but it availed nothing; the time of his departure was drawing near for his being called to his "house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." glorious truths of the gospel of our salvation were most blessedly believed, felt, and enjoyed. It was indeed upon the high mountains of Israel: Christ alone exalted; sin put away; righteousness imputed; the Church complete in Him; new creatures in Christ Jesus, old things passed away and all things become new; Christ made sin, and believers made the righteousness of God in Him; concluding with that blessed scripture in John's Epistle, "Because as He is, so are we in this world;" which truth had comforted him for many months before. I was fearful my conversation might exhaust him. No, he would not let me go. At last I said, "I must go,” "Peace be with you," he instantly replied; "He, Jesus, is our peace." All the time I was His desire and prayer was, for a con- with him not a word said about the pain siderable time before he kept his bed, of the poor body; all was peace and joy that his dear Lord would take him home, in believing. His dear wife told me this not to be released from bodily pain and state of mind continued for some time affliction, but clothed upon with his after I left; but at times his sufferings house" from heaven, that mortality were so heavy, that he was incapable of might be swallowed up of life. He con- conversing with any one, but no doubt stantly exclaimed, "I am on the Rock, the blessed communion we had was by I am safe for eternity." His dear wife the dear Lord's appointment and precontinually hearing him say he was de- sence. He was in a very peaceful state sirous to depart and be with his precious before his departure; it was scarcely Jesus (at that time there. being no pros-known when the last breath was drawn. pect of so near a dissolution), he blessed- We can say, "The end of that man was ly exclaimed, "his dear Lord would be a peace." Father to the fatherless, and a Husband to the widow." His sufferings were extreme beyond description, so much so, that at times, his mental faculties were affected, but his mind always stayed upon the Lord. About ten days before his dissolution, I had a communication from his dear wife, to say mortification had taken place, and I had better see him. I made no delay, but went immediately. When I arrived he was asleep, and I particularly requested them not to disturb him; but he awoke, and his dear wife told him I had come to see him. "Oh," he said, "let him come up." It was such a meeting as I never expect again to have in the flesh. The dear apostle had but one of the same; whether in the body or out of the body, he could not tell. The His mortal remains were deposited in Norwood Cemetery, on Monday last, followed by his dear relatives and friends, there to await the resurrection morn; and as he has said and believed the Holy Ghost would descend with the bodies of the saints, to preserve their dust until the vital change shall take place, and their vile bodies changed and fashioned like unto His glorious body. My dear friend is well acquainted with his ministry, which the Lord had given him, mighty in word and deed, to exalt the Saviour and debase the sinner, comfort the feeble minded, and strengthen the weak; instrumentally to give them beauty for ashes, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. His manner of preaching was bold, but not presumptuous; every statement was founded and built upon the sure foundation, and stood the test in a dying hour, as he said the truths he had ministered in life were his solace in death. He sometimes made statements that professors would condemn, and possessors too, but they were always proved true according to the Word of God. There was the phrase, "Sin a nonentity," he made use of to set forth one of the most blessed truths of the gospel, which appeared adapted for the purpose to set forth the truth of the doctrine of sin put away; but his enemies taking it in an abstract sense, instead of a relative, which was to convey to his hearers the non-existence of sin in the salvation of Jesus, who was made sin for His people, that they might be made the righteousness of God in Him, as the apostle declares, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away, and behold all things are become new.’ Can there be any sin in this new creation? Can there be any sin in the righteousness of God? Can there be any sin where the Scripture declares, "Because as He is, so are we in this world?" The phrase, "Sin a nonentity," has been a bugbear, taken to frighten poor souls; but those who know and believe the truth connected with it, rejoice in the mercy that sin is put away, and that we are complete in Christ: that He has presented the Church to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. I remember hearing Mr. Spurgeon preaching a sermon on his birthday; I think he said his age was twenty. He took his text from the prophet Micah (ii. 13), "The breaker is come up before them." In his discourse he stated, "such was the wonderful work accomplished, that everything that opposed was removed, and was so blessedly cleared away, that sin was a complete nonentity." I marvelled at hearing a stripling like this take up the very words of our dear friend, and quote Kent's beautiful lines "Now, free from sin, I walk at large; This Breaker's blood's my soul's dis charge: Content at His dear feet I lay, A sinner saved, and homage pay;" but have never heard it from a pulpit since. My dear friend will please to look over the few lines that are written, I hope, in soberness of mind; and he well knows I have great esteem for our dear departed friend, and also to his memory. Yours in our precious Lord Jesus, LINES V. SMITH. SUGGESTED BY THE DEPARTURE OF MR. A. TRIGGS, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10TH, 1859. Greenwich. He has entered his rest, more fully to prove The heights and the depths of God's changeless love; He heightens the triumph of Jesus his Head. He has entered his rest, enlarged are his powers 'Tis light everlasting, without any shade; MARK PHILIP STONEHAM. دو A DIALOGUE. (Continued from page 392.) Mary.-I want to ask you about God's family being as holy now as ever they will be; for you said to me, they are, in a most blessed sense, as holy now as ever they will be. But now I see in the Magazine you have left out" in a most blessed sense. Did you make a mistake? George. Well, Mary, I did leave out those words through mistake. But while I was thinking of putting them in, those words in Solomon's Song came into my mind, "Thou art all fair my love, there is no spot in thee." Then, thought I, why should I make any qualification if the Word of God does not? Mary.-Well but, George, instead of having no spot, it seems to me, I am spotted all over; and that instead of getting better, I get worse and worse every day. Why sometimes it seems as if the evils within were ready to boil over; and that makes me a burden to myself; and I am sure if one quarter of what I feel within were to break out, or boil over, I should be a burden to all about me. I hope I shall be different by-and-by. George.-Yes, yes, by and by you will get rid of all that now vexes your holy soul day by day; and I trust I shall too. Mary. Do you feel such dreadful evils? I don't really think you can feel them half as much as I do. George.--Ah, Mary! you would not say so could you see what within passes me at times. Why, sometimes it seems as if I were possessed of an evil spirit, which causes a tempest to rage within for hours, and I think I may say days, together. And you know there is one thing especially over which I mourn day by day, which has often brought on much heaviness of heart. That passage which I have spoken of in Solomon's Song, was brought home to me with a sweet power, I trust, some few years since, when, being sunk very low in feeling, I went into my chamber, groaning and mourning over myself. But it has just struck me about what Peter says. You know his corruption did break out at one time, therefore he writes from experience, and he speaks as if there was a "needs be" for some, at least, of God's family to be in heaviness through manifold temptations; but, for all that, He calls them "an holy nation." You may therefore depend upon it that it is true; and I hope I shall, in the course of the conversations I intend to have with you, be enabled to make it plain that God's family are perfectly holy in three ways. Mary.-I don't remember reading but of only one righteousness, and you know, we must not add to what is written. George.-Well, Mary, if you will just look at Isa. xlv. 24, you will find these words, "Surely, shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness," and by just looking at the margin, you will see "righteousnesses." It is, therefore, not unscriptural to say, God's people are, at least, righteous in more senses than one. But I will try to explain to you what I mean. 1st. God's people are righteous through Christ, in that He fulfilled the law for them in His life, which, I believe, is called by good and learned men, His active obedience. God is pleased to impute that to them just the same as if they had fulfilled it themselves. 2nd. They are made righteous in Him through His bearing the curse due to the breakers of the law in their stead, which, I believe, is called His passive obedience. He pays the whole demand of the law, and God accepts it in their stead. 3rd. They are righteous with respect to that new nature-that new manwhich, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness. The new manthat which is born of God-is, like its almighty Father, righteous even as He is righteous. Do you understand, Mary, what I mean by God's people being righteous through His active, and also by His passive obedience? Mary.-I think I do. By His passive obedience our debt of suffering is paid, and we are made the righteousness of God in Him; and through His active obedience we get a righteousness which entitles us to every blessing. George. Yes, that is what I mean; and oh! who can tell how great, how manifold, those blessings are which we get through His righteousness? for "the Lord is well pleased for His righteous ness' sake" (Isa. xlii. 21). And remember, Christ and His people are one; He is, therefore, well pleased with them. means or other, from every charge which can be brought against us. Mary.-Oh, that these conversations may be profitable to us; and through seeing what a firm foundation is made for our faith in His excellent word, we may take up "our beloved brother" Paul's triumphant language for our selves, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect ?" "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ ?" I will now tell you, Mary, what made me think more about the first two, or, perhaps, I had better say, the double righteousness, which God's children have through the obedience of their elder Brother, the Lord Jesus Christ; for "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness," in whatever way we may look at it, "to every one that be-"We are persuaded that neither death, lieveth." When engaged in prayer nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come; nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." a few Sundays ago, it seemed all at once as if I could see God's people (and I do not think I should be wrong were I to say myself, as I trust I felt, and do now at times feel, the preciousness of it), clothed with Christ's glorious righteousness, shining in it, and God the Father pouring down blessings on them continually on account of it. It came into my mind afterwards about the woman being clothed with the sun, which we read of in Rev. xii.; also about the fine linen, clean and white, which is said to be the righteousness of saints (Rev. xix.); and when I looked at the margin and saw or bright," that with the other text seemed to make it all plain to me. It was indeed like being clothed with the sun, so bright, so glorious. But, I think, it will be well for us when we have another opportunity to have a little talk about justification. You know before we can be accounted righteous we must be justified, by some George. Yes, my dear friend, may the Lord so bless our conversations, that that may be indeed the case; and that, through seeing that we are justified, as dear Dr. Goodwin says, over and over, and I may add, covered all over with His glorious righteousness, we may, with gratitude and joy, triumphantly join in singing "Now I can read my title clear * * * * ** "Soon shall I bathe my weary soul A SHOT FROM AN OLD SAILOR'S LOCKER. GEORGIUS. bold and clear enunciations are calculated to arouse to a sense of the danger, and to lead to the coming out, that they may not be partakers of its plagues. To the Editor of the Gospel Magazine. DEAR EDITOR,There is always a something so much to the point in Metrios" " papers, that one turns to their perusal with an expectation of pleasurable instruction. That in this month's Magazine, page 372, is quite responsive to that hope. I have often found that there is nothing so well calculated to lay false doctrine on its beam ends as a broadside from its legitimate extreme, after this fashion of Metrios';" and whilst many of the Lord's family, from a misplaced liberalism, tamper with, and connive at, the unholy thing, in defiance of the admonition to beware of its leaven, which oft produces much present damage, such I have fancied this rifled piece of ordnance might be useful to fire away upon, and I have instructed your printer, Mr. W. H. Collingridge, to cast me two or three hundred in the mould of his press, in the shape of a page tract; and I dare say many of your large familythe Gospel Magazine children--that are fond of big guns, will be glad to learn where this Arm-strong can be obtained. JESUS' WILLINGNESS TO RECEIVE A SINNER. "Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more."-John viii. 11. AND Jesus to the Mount of Olives went, In holy converse with His Father, God. Then, in the dawn, He to the Temple came To seek His own, His lost and scattered sheep; For He engag'd, by His most holy name, In all their wandering steps, their feet to keep. Then all around the common people press, To hear the gracious words His lips declare; For this is He who gives the weary rest, Heals the diseased, and all their burdens But who are these, with stiff and stately pace, Now, to the Temple come, they enter in, And in the midst the guilty woman place; With language bold they there proclaim her sin Full well He knows the thoughts that rise within The heart of man-that boundless source of ill, From whence there issue copious streams of sin That overflow, and every action fill. But when they urged Him, with a seeming zeal Of crafty words, this question to decide, And that He would to them His thoughts reveal, The Law-fulfiller rose, and thus replied: "Let him who hath no sin, and him alone, In whom the eye of justice finds no flaw, At the defenceless woman cast a stone, And in obedience strict fulfil the law." With that a flaming arrow wings its way Before His holy frown they could not stay, arose. He stoops again, and writes upon the ground; And there we must for information go. Pierced by conviction sharp, they haste away dwells, With haughty pride they shun the blaze of day, And hate the light which on their con- But there was one who linger'd still behind, Ah! what revolves within her tortur'd mind? Directs her view to Christ her Righteous |