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THE

REMEMBRANCER.

"A Happy New Year to you."

At almost every turn we take, this sentence greets our ears. The man of understanding asks, What mean these words? Whatever be the character of the company we enter, custom has ordained that the salutation should meet us, "A happy new year to you."

The tongue runs smoothly in its expressions of good will, but the heart is sluggish in its pulsations of genuine sympathy. None but those who are spiritually one with the Lord can greet each other truly. Their hope, their happiness, their all, is Christ. Away from Him they languish. That pastor after God's own heart, the late Rev. W. Parks, knew well that this was so, when, at the commencement of the year 1867 (the same in which his dear Lord called him home), he saluted the poor of the flock at Openshaw in the following words: "I will not wish you many happy returns of the season, for I think you are, like me, sick of earth, and want to see Jesus. We have found out long since that this is not our rest, but a scene of toil and suffering, worry and disappointment, from year's end to year's end; but I wish you many sweet visits from our God and Saviour." Sweetly do these words harmonize with the experience of the tried and suffering church down here.

"I wish you a happy new year."

What do these words mean?

From hearts in loving union with Jesus they mean "I wish you the enjoyment of sweet and blessed seasons of refreshing from the presence of our loving and sympathising Lord, whom the world hates and despises. May you be blessed with the company of the best of friends, whose precious blood purges out every sin stain, and whose perfect righteousness adorns every accepted son and daughter of the King of Kings." If this be so, then our happiness exists not in a sinaccursed world like this.

'Happiness! thou lovely name!

Where's thy seat? oh, tell me where?
Learning, pleasure, wealth, and fame,
All cry out, 'It is not here :'

Not the wisdom of the wise

Can inform me where it lies;

Not the grandeur of the great

Can the bliss I seek create."

Some are eagerly seeking this blessed companion in the depths of a

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worldly theology, the heights of a vapoury philosophy, or in the wide range of literature. Here the child of God finds everything to harrass and perplex; the goal he seeks cannot be found in these cold climes. A living witness to the truth of this declares that Cambridge, with its honours, proved a dry and barren waste for his awakened, anxious soul. The joy, the happiness, the peace, which the Holy Ghost brings to the believing soul, he learned from the lips of a heaven-taught washerwoman.

Before me, at this moment, lies a communication from one whose face I have never seen, but who reveals in his epistle the true family likeness. He says:

"I can boast of no academical lore; but I do sometimes feel that God the Holy Ghost has been pleased to teach me what thousands of the great and learned of the world have never yet discovered. And though I am a thousand times cast down, and filled with doubts and fears, yea, am much tormented with a corrupt and deceitful heart; yet I am, blessed be God, at times enabled to look upwards with a precious assurance of hope that Jesus is mine and I am His, and that I shall byand-by go to be with Him in everlasting bliss and glory. Not for anything that I have done. No; a thousand times, No! If I am a child of God, I know and feel that By the grace of GoD I am what I am.' * * * Bless God, He gives me a sip and a drop by the way now and then, which is most refreshing to my weary spirits, and better than all the world can give besides."

But the vast majority of immortal souls are seeking their happiness in the pleasures of sin, which last but a little season. How vain! how foolish! The testimony of the wise man, whose pleasures flowed from every earthly source, is conclusive on this point. Fame, wealth, affluence, lay at his feet, and contributed to his happiness; but of all these he could say, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." Eccles. xii. 8.

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How it will fare with us when the year 1869 shall close, none can tell. "Secret things belong unto the Lord our God." Deut. xxix. 29. It may be, that some who read these lines may sink in wild despair to rise no more; and some arise on wings of sovereign love to that fair home which grace has graciously prepared. Days, weeks, months, and years, here mark the flight of time; but He, in whom all fulness dwells knows nought of past and present. With Him "one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." In Him the Church shines forth in all His beauty. From everlasting to everlasting she appears in Jehovah's unerring eye all glorious and all fair. But on the stage of time, in its individual members the Church must appear. Through a world of sin each pilgrim traveller plods his weary Taken in hand by God the Holy Ghost, the searching process of the fiery law consumes all nature's religion, and causes all fleshly embellishments to fade away. Gourds are blasted-hopes are blightedexpectations are crossed-schemes of earthly joy are broken-every human prop gives way-the cry of the oppressed-the sorrowful sighing of the prisoner ascends to God:-"My life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing; my strength faileth me because of mine ini

way.

quity, and my bones are consumed." Oh, unspeakably precious it is for anxious souls to know that deliverance is nigh. The summons goes forth

"Blow ye the trumpet, blow

The gladly solemn sound!
Let all the nations know,

To earth's remotest bound,
The year of jubilee is come:

Return, ye ransomed sinners, home."

The messenger of the covenant announces the glorious intelligence, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. To preach the acceptable YEAR of the Lord." Luke iv. 18 19. Mark! The day of vengeance of our God has nothing to do with those to whom this proclamation comes with power.

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"On Him almighty vengeance fell,

That must have sunk a world to hell;
He bore it for a chosen race,

And thus became their hiding place."

Oh, child of God, thy soul has entered into a glorious year-"the acceptable year of the Lord"-the year of the Lord's redeemed-the year of eternal rest and never-ending joy. Jehovah's goodness_crowns this glorious year. The manna of the wilderness ceases when the old corn of the land is eaten. How precious are these words to heaventaught minds; they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year." Joshua v. 12. The soul which finds its resting-place in Christ looks not to the mount which burned with fire for peace, neither does it find support in the light bread of the desert. The fruit of Canaan's land-the person and work of Jesus the bread of Life, which alone can "strengthen man's heart," is its daily food. To wish a poor sinner the enjoyment of these glorious realities, is to wish him a happy new year indeed a year which has its commencement in regenerating mercy, and its consummation in glorifying grace.

A happy new year to you!!

To whom?

To the poor. Reader! art thou poor? Has the Holy Ghost revealed to thee thy perfect poverty? Is it a fact, settled in thy experience, that thou canst not manage for thyself, even if grace is set before thee? Hast thou looked within and despaired of finding

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Cheer up, then; take courage; to such poor bankrupt souls as you the unsearchable riches of Christ must become precious; happiness, indeed, will be yours. With filial fear and artless confidence your song will ascend to the gladdened heart of your Friend and Elder Brother, your sympathizing High Priest.

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O Son of God, Thou needest me,
Thou needest sins like mine.

Thy FULNESS needs my want,
Thy WEALTH my poverty;

Thy HEALING SKILL my sickness needs,
Thy JOY my misery.

Thy STRENGTH my weakness needs,
Thy GARCE my worthlessness;

Thy GREATNESS needs a worm like me,

To cherish and to bless.

It was THY NEED OF ME

That brought Thee from above;

It is my need of Thee, O Lord,

That draws me to Thy love.

This being the experience of thy heart, thou wilt have entered upon Jehovah's acceptable year. My heart's desire, and prayer to God for thee is, that it may be so right early.

To broken-hearted ones this wish is sent. To those whom "the law's loud thunder" has aroused from their state of sin, and death, and enmity, whose souls are bowed beneath a sense of those cruel sins which pierced their Lord and Master, this expression of love is addressed. Your sighs and groans but indicate that He is nigh at hand who "healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up all their wounds." Psalm cxlvii. 3.

Poor mourning captive, whose soul hastens for deliverance, and who fears continually the fury of the oppressor as if he were ready to destroy, "A Happy New Year to thee." May the year of Jehovah's redeemed be sweetly enjoyed in thy poor heaving bosom. May the sweet accents of love cheer thee and

"Break thy prison door."

Ye poor blind souls, who daily and hourly need a sure and constant Guide, may you experience the fulfilment of His promise, "I will guide thee with Mine eye," Psalm xxxii. 8.

Bruised one, whose head hangs down with sorrow, and, it may be, the sense of wrath and condemnation racks thy heart, which promises to break, may the healing virtue of Calvary's fountain be thy balm. The new, the never-ending year of grace will then be welcomed by thee. Accepted in thy accepted Surety, thou shalt stand, and long for His appearing. Happiness, grace, glory, Jehovah Himself will then be thine in experimental possession.

Reader, this the writer wishes thee indeed and in truth. While we are in the flesh, toil, trial, and suffering await us.

"Crosses and changes are our lot

Long as we sojourn here."

The boat will and must be lashed with foaming billows as it passes over the sea of time. Wave will succeed wave, fear will follow fear; but the Master sees thee from the mountain top, and will soon descend to steer thee to the quiet haven of everlasting peace and glory, Mark vi. 46-51. Times and seasons change, grow old, and perish; but Jehovah, in His covenant love and care over His people, changes

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