FORMATION OF THE HARROW BAPTIST VILLAGE MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

ON June 12, 1825, a Meeting was held at the Baptist Chapel, Harrow on the Hill, for the formation of a Society, for the express purpose of furnishing destitute Villages around, with the glorious Gospel of Christ. After the Meeting had been opened, by imploring the divine blessing, Mr. Punter was called to the chair; when several rules and regulations were entered into, for the conducting the Society. Subscriptions and donations in furtherance of the proposed pian, will be thankfully received, by Mr. Punter, Treasurer, Harrow; Mr. Higgs and Mr. Longworthy, Secretaries; Rev. J. George, Lisson Place, Lisson Green, Paddington; Rev. John Stevens, late of York Street Chapel; Mr. G. Freshwater, 14, Johnson Street, Somers' Town; and Mr. Stevens, Broad Street, Bloomsbury.

SOHO BAPTIST CHAPEL, OXFORD STREET.

The church and congregation, lately worshipping at Lisle Street Chapel, under the pastoral care of the Rev. G. Comb, removed to the above place, on the 19th June; when three Sermons were preached. In the morning, by the Rev. George Comb, pastor; in the afternoon, by the Rev. H. Fowler, of Gower Street Chapel; and in the evening, by the Rev. James Upton, jun. of Poplar. The services were truly interesting; and the friends evinced the interest they took in it by their liberality, the place having undergone very advantageous alterations and repairs.

FRAGMENTS.

Arminians consider the grace that is inspired into a true believer's heart, as a text of scripture written upon a pane of glass; liable to be demolished by the first hand that flings a stone at it.

'Tis a greater mercy, to have a spiritual appetite for the means of grace, aud to be providentially debarred from enjoying them; than to have opportunities of attending them, without an appetite for them.

POETRY.

THE PERSONALITY, DIVINITY, AND MINISTRY, OF the
HOLY GHOST.

DISTINCT in person, but in essence one,
With God the Father, and with God the Son,

Eternal Spirit, to thy servant's heart,

Thy rich instructions graciously impart;

That, taught of thee, he may with truth rehearse,
Thy rightful honours in his humble verse:
While sinners dare insult Thy holy name,
Thy person, work, and office, be his theme.

Ramsgate.

Thou, Lord of Life, didst from chaotic night,
And dark confusion, bring the cheering light;
Created mass proclaim'd the glorious Three,
And every creature drew its breath from Thee.
Omniscient, Thou pervadedst then the whole,
And man by Thee became a living soul.

Shall now that creature, sunk in sin, deny
Thy person, or insult Thy Deity?

Shall blinded man presume the reins to take,
And guide, where his eternal all's at stake?

Awful delusion! (nor more strange than true)

The feeble wretch attempts what Thon alone can'st do;
He idly dreams fall'n nature's wither'd arm,
Can all Jehovah's righteous will perform;
Presumptuous, says, by nature's light alone,
The sacred scriptures may be fully known!
But, Lord, before Thee while I prostrate fall,
I own Thy sovereign grace, the cause of all
My knowledge, strength, and hope of endless joy,
And find Thy praises still my best employ.
Eternal honours be ascrib'd to Thee,

For Thy concurrence in that high decree,
Which plac'd the church on love's foundation sure,
And keeps her there, eternally secure.
Thou, in pursuance of salvation's plan,
Didst form the body of that wondrous man,
Who has, in union to the eternal Son,
Redemption's glorious work completely done.
On Him Thy richest unctions ever rest,
By which His members are for ever blest;
Thy sevenfold gifts, in Him a fountain prove,
To cheer the church in measur'd streams of love.
Thy power alone can ruin'd souls prepare,
Those precious, sweet, refreshing streams to share.
Do Thou, great glorifier of the Lord,
Unfold his beauties by thy sacred word;
There in Thy light let Jesus rise to view,
His holy life, His blood, His vict'ry shew.
The thirsty soul to Him the fountain lead,
And from His fulness, hungry sinners feed;
Thy sacred influence constantly afford,
Shed in their hearts, the Father's love abroad;
That love, the heav'nly fire, whose only flame
Soothes every sorrow, shields the soul from shame;
And by Thy light, in Jesus let them see,
Their cov'nant God the Father, Son, and Thee.

The dead in sin, Thy quick'ning power shall know;
The wounded find a balm for all their woe;

The blind shall see, the deaf shall hear Thy voice;
The lame shall leap, the dumb in Thee rejoice;
The pris'ner, freed from satan's galling chains,
Shall sing Thy praises, in triumphant strains;
And Zion's trav'llers shall, without dismay,

From strength to strength go on their heav'nly way
Thus the predictions of Thy word fulfill'd,
The dreary waste becomes a fruitful field,
And stately plants their fragrant odours yield.

E. G.

THE

Spiritual Magazine ;

OR,

SAINT'S TREASURY.

John v.

7.

“There are Three that bear record in heaven; the FATHER, the WORD, and the HOLY GHOST; and these Three are ONE." "Contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints." Jude 3.

(For the Spiritual Magazine.)

"HOME, HOME, SWEET HOME!" OR, THE CHRISTIAN'S HABITATION.

THE universal research of man is after happiness; and it is a selfevident axiom, that in this pursuit all classes, from the humblest peasant in the lowly cottage to the monarch of a throne, are engaged with an assiduity commensurate with the means they possess for its accomplishment. It is a truth also too obvious to be doubted, that no bounds can be set to the desires of man for bliss, in which, the monarch who sways the sceptre, can claim no precedence, or more extensive wish, than his meanest subject; and both must, in the issue, fail of realizing substantial blessedness from exterior good; for briars and thorns are his native inheritance, and trouble is his common lot.

Happiness is the grand end all have in view; though the means for its attainment are as varied in their nature, and as multifarious in their kind, as the ideas in what it consists are circumscribed in the imagination. Man anticipates, but never realizes, the object of his pursuit; for that anticipation which is the mere produce of the creature, is an airy phantom. It is the offspring of delusion. It is in fact a constituent part of, and an innate principle intimately interwoven in the natural man, who no sooner arrives to years of knowledge, and though free in the exercise of his rational powers, than his mind, under the resistless bias of evil, is allured by groundless hopes of gaining happiness from created good, arising from his beholding the object of his search, through a false and inverted medium, that deceives his eye, and like the fleeting meteor leads but to betray.

This is the grand end which gives life and being to all the enterprising energies of his mind, and to the most arduous and unremitting measures for the possession of all his most sanguine expectations; but VOL. II.-No. 17.

disappointment and sorrow are the certain fruits of all his deeply projected schemes; and vexation and pain must inevitably be the sad consequences of his apparently fair, but fruitless anticipation. His anxious expectations, which are the natural impulse of his mind, like the full blown bubble, explodes into nothing 'ere he can grasp it, and leaves the mind where it was found, never satisfied, but ever seeking after that, the experience of the godly in all ages can testify, he has ever sought but never found in earthly enjoyments.

Such are the hopes of mortal man! Vanity and disappointment are indelibly stamped on all terrestrial good; and though this is his constant experience, yet, such is his blindness by nature, he cannot read the fact with any practical good effect; nor, can he resign his fondest expectations. No sooner does infantine reason begin to dawn, and mental faculties expand with ripening energy, under the genial influence of the morning sun of life, than he builds his hopes of bliss on a foundation which is sandy, and must prove illusive. Delusion is the fruition of all his toil and care;-yet, still he pursues the wandering star, nor relinquishes pursuit, though ever disappointed, until time's curtain drops; or Almighty grace directs his footsteps in the only path where true happiness may be found; from whence emanates peace, "which surpasseth understanding."

Strange indeed! yet, no more strange than true,-that after being subjected to numberless disappointments from this sad source of expected felicity;-after seeking honey, and finding gall; and after experiencing all earthly cisterns to be so broken as to hold no water, he should still continue so infatuated as to be leaning on such broken reeds, which sink beneath his weight, and pierce him through with many sorrows! "How is the fine gold become dim; and how is the silver tarnished!" Lamentable proof this of the total blindness which pervades our nature by the fall! Sad trophy this of Satan's dominion o'er the mind of man; and of that more than Egyptian night, which like a veil o'ershadows him!

View the debauchee, who spends his midnight hours in the various but nameless enchantments, and revelries, of sensuality and mirth ;follow the man of pleasure in all the countless avenues of his mad career of vice and dissipation;-see the man of business, who to accomplish his various purposes (for the possession of anticipated happiness) rises up early and sits up late; eats the bread of carefulness; tortures his imagination by endless projects; and destroys his health by oppressive anxiety, to amass together the riches of this vain world, which perish in their using, and which others shall but gather after him;-behold the votaries for the splendid possessions, honours, and distinctions of this life, either by the attainment of literary science, or the more exalted eminences by which adventitious circumstances, and noble patronage have placed some of their fellow men, who look from their lofty pinnacles of fame, with insignificance and scorn on their less favoured but aspiring inferiors;-then pause and ask these, and ten thousand other advocates for happiness,

separately or unitedly; what happiness found ye in your pursuit of these intoxicating and beguiling allurements? Ask them if vexation of spirit was not the result of all their cares; and if they answer truly, they will say, our expectations 'ere they had reached their zenith have been blasted; all the fair designs we had so assiduously planned even at the expense of the midnight taper, have been crossed by disappointment; and our fondest hopes blighted in the bud, have failed to yield us the desired fruit, and proved abortive; for instead of reaping a rich harvest of felicity and peace, we have gathered the bitterest wormwood, and all we have to compensate our toil, is only sorrow." To this rational conclusion must all ultimately arrive, "who build their sanguine hopes of bliss, below the skies."

The perceptions of even the wisest of men being mortal, and bounded by time, cannot possibly entertain in his natural state, the most remote idea of immortal bliss. All the pleasure he enjoys in his carnal state, (which at best is ever sickly and only carnal,) is derived from the objects of time and sense. Faith alone soars above the world, comprehends, and realizes heavenly bliss! Nature cannot rise above itself; therefore, sensual gratifications must constitute the consummation of all his desires. Allow him endless years of dissipa.. tion; and the full, free, and unrestrained indulgence of his sinful propensities; he would not barter such a state for countless ages of celestial bliss; which if he desires at all, it is only in preference to the fearful hereafter, of which his guilty conscience has rung the alarming knell.

If the tree be thus bad (and bad it is beyond description) its fruit must be corrupt. We might with equal reason expect to gather roses from thorns, and figs from thistles," as to behold longing anticipations after spiritual enjoyments, from those whose only bliss consists in the gratification of their earthly desires. That direful monster sin hath bitten the root of the natural tree of life, and infused its contaminating and deadly poison to all its branches, which has produced in the sons and daughters of our great progenitor, an incurable malady, which proves fatal to all who live and die unrenewed by grace. From this polluted fountain springs all the impurity, wretchedness, and misery, which defile the land. Sin dashes the bowl of expected good, with bitterest gall; and impregnates in the bosoms of its hapless subjects all the obnoxious vapours of evil their actions exemplify from day to day. Sin is the strong man armed, who holds its victims under the sway of absolute dominion, none but its mighty conqueror can allay or counteract.

If the gilded vanities of time and sense have been found insufficient in themselves to effect the desired end; and if man in his unregenerate state can contemplate no happiness but from created enjoyments, in consequence of the total eclipse which has darkened his understanding; from whence, it may be asked, is true happiness derivable; and who are the favoured few that are possessors of the secret? The experience of every man must bear infallible testimony