Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

While Antichrist is revealing, in the form and under the name of Liberalism, there is a fast cleaving to Babylon as its antagonist principle-that is, to things established, merely because they are established. But if a church assume to be any thing in herself, any thing but a hand for enabling her children to set forth Jesus and his Spirit, then is she an abomination that maketh desolate, prepared and fitted only for destruction. The church which will teach us to look to her forms and creeds and confessions and ceremonies, instead of, or before, Christ, in his word and his testimony, is not His spouse, but the harlot of Babylon. The wife that would teach her children to look to any other thing for support, and all needful good, than to her husband, is trampling his honour under foot. It is this apostate condition that the Church of Scotland exhibited in the condemnation of Mr. Scott by the General Assembly: the Assembly laughed at the idea of an appeal to the law and testimony of God, but, setting up the Westminster Confession for her Tridentine Council, refused to go one hair's breadth on the one side or the other of its terms, making its verbal immaculacy equal to that of the inspired Scriptures.

Some persons are indulging in unwarrantable security, from the idea, that, if there be really a work of God now proceeding in the land, it will soon manifest itself in such a form as to be far more intelligible to human apprehension and wisdom than it is at present; and, therefore, that they may safely wait for what they call further evidence. Now, further evidence of the present manifestation being of God is truly to be gained by patient waiting upon it, examination, &c.: but from all that we have been able to learn we feel convinced that no succeeding manifestation—that is, the manifestation of some other gift of the Spirit-will be more comprehensible to the carnal mind than that now present amongst us: on the contrary, we are satisfied that the reverse will be the case; that each successive gift will sift more and more, will cause more and more persons to stumble and fall just as the Lord first sent away from the host of Gideon all the feeble and fearful, and lastly all that from supineness or weariness stooped down to drink. Thus we perceive the tenderness of the love which has proceeded so slowly with the actual weak state of the church's faith and love; and doubt not but an election is preparing, which, having recognised the voice of the good Shepherd as it is now heard, will be ready "to follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth;" the expression implying that the Lamb will lead us by paths of which we at present know nothing, and in a manner which we little expect, and could not yet endure. But they who are stumbled and undecided now, will be more stumbled, and made to fall, and snared, and taken, by those works of the Lord in his people that are yet to be shewn forth.

416

VISIONS MIRACULOUS CURES-CHOLERA.

IT has been remarked more than once, in former Numbers of this Journal, that Visions are in general more for the personal and private guidance, comfort, and support of individuals who are called to particular services, than for the general instruction and edification of the body of Christ; and the propriety of this remark has been shewn by reference to sundry instances of visions in Scripture. The observation, however, was not intended to be universal in its application; nor was it so. Many visions in Scripture, as well as in the recent experience of God's servants, are of universal concern; and we shall from time to time communicate any that we so deem, and are well authenticated to us that which follows will be allowed by all to bear this character in a remarkable degree. We give it in the words of the individual to whom it was vouchsafed.

'Let me

"After an exposition of Deut. xxxii. 1-6, and prayer, I retired to another room with two Christian friends; where, after further prayer, a strange and indescribable feeling came over me, and a scene was unexpectedly and vividly presented to my view. A large and splendid edifice, like a vast gallery or terrace supported by two elegant pillars, appeared filled with people, apparently of superior rank, enjoying some spectacle. feel the pillars,' said a low voice beneath the building that I may lean upon them:' immediately I beheld a young lad leading poor blind Samson by the hand, and, bringing him forward to the bases of the pillars; and as soon as he had laid hold on them he raised himself from a stooping posture, and, bending forward for an instant in an attitude of prayer, he drew them together in his arms, and brought down the whole fabric in one hideous crash, burying himself and the multitude that were upon it in the pile of ruins. The stilness of death followed the awful shriek which accompanied the fall of the building; and I heard a voice (but saw no speaker) saying, 'Long have the ministers of God made sport to the world-long have the witnesses for God been bound in fetters-long has the Spirit of truth been blind and crushed-but the hair of the head has begun again to grow, and the Spirit of faith and power has again been sought and given :' and the scene faded away from my view.

66

Again I looked up, and saw a gloomy, bleak, and barren plain, like a heath, or wild mountain-side. A few grey stones appeared scattered on the surface of it, and neither men nor animals of any kind were there. The sky was dark and dismal, like the coming on of a wintry storm. Some awful clouds hung lowering on the horizon. No sun, nor moon, nor stars, were visible. I had scarcely said, 'What can this mean?' when the plain seemed covered with crowds of men in one tumultuous mass.

[ocr errors]

A feature of anxiety or fear was on almost every countenance. In the foreground stood a man, whose attitude led me instantly to discover that he was addressing the multitude. I remember the figure distinctly he exclaimed, 'The hour of His judgment is come.' A loud and hideous laugh arose among the people, which was immediately followed by a peal of thunder. There was just light enough to shew me the faces of the men turn pale and ghastly with terror. The speaker alone stood undaunted. He looked upward, and smiled. His look was observed by many, and trembled at. A very few, and these apparently of the poorest, seemed disposed to listen, and to withdraw from the mass that surrounded the missionary, and ask each other, Are these things so? they may be true! They are indeed,' cried some; Lord, save us! save us!' Again the missionary raised his voice; and another laugh was succeeded by a bursting thunderbolt, which threw the multitude into an awful convulsion. Cries of terror arose, and an earthquake shook the whole scene. The people fell in crowds. Many joined the speaker, and cried out, with him, 'The hour of judgment-the hour of judgment!' but the increasing tumult drowned their voices, and as they mingled with the mass their attitude alone indicated their character and message. It was grand and solemn, but the dreadful and appalling peals of thunder, and cries of the alarmed and convulsed crowds, utterly prevented their being heard; and in this fearful commotion the scene passed away like the former.

"Soon afterwards a voice said to me, 'You have desired to know the progress and manifestation of infidelity; behold them here.' I looked up again, and saw one vast expanse of waters, restless, heaving, and in some places much agitated; no land, no solid thing in all the scene. Thus universal, thus all pervading, is the spirit of infidelity,' said a voice which seemed behind me as I gazed on the shoreless ocean: "And would you behold its manifestation, see, see the sky.' I looked up, and saw the whole face of the heavens covered with clouds of every shape, and size, and colour, from the deepest purple of a summer evening's sky to the blackest night of a winter's tempest; and some of the purest white; all mingled, all confused; all shapes and forms were there. Thus varied, thus diversified, is the manifestation of the infidel spirit,' said the voice; and immediately added, in a louder tone, And who is the prince of the power of the air? See, some are bright, and some are dark and charged with thunder: the wise alone shall understand.'

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

"Again the scene changed, and presented to my sight a prayermeeting; but all was cold and lifeless. Why is this?' I asked. Because,' it was answered, 'there is mere speaking of God, and of Satan, and of Infidelity. Why not cry out to the world? the fear of being counted fools for Christ and yet it is written, "Wisdom crieth without, she lifteth up her voice in the streets :

How long, ye simple ones, will ye

:

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

The witnesses shall be hindered; but they must go forth and testify publicly and if any man say Why loose ye the colt?' The Lord hath need of him.'He that is not with me, is say against me, and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth abroad.' Oh, there are many among the students of prophecy who seem to be busy gathering, but it is not with me: and therefore many shall fail in the day of trial: Oh, who shall stand! They fall away in ranks at a time!'-The scene on the heath recurred vividly. Amid the confusion I could recognise a face I knew it was An awful peal of thunder rattled from a cloud: I saw him stagger; he cried out; I turned away lest I should see him fall. The voice continued, The children of God are delaying the period of His coming by fearing the reproach of Christ. Let the man who really believes the truth, now speak it out, and plainly too. Will ye also go away? do ye thus requite the Lord?' Much more was brought before me at this time, for my own guidance in reference to the circumstances in which I stood; and many solemn truths regarding redeeming the time, especially from trifling conversation, were urged upon me.

66

[ocr errors]

Again the scene of the fallen building, first presented, came up before me, and it seemed enlarged, and heaps of dead bodies strewed the ground. 'Who slew those?' the voice continued : 'Indifference. See to it, ye that make mention of the Lord's name.' Who is clear from blood guiltiness? Father, forgive them! there is an awful trifling with the name of God amongst us. Angels listen, and wonder at us. Poor blind Samson again appeared before me; a piteous spectacle: yet still the Judge of Israel; the ordained, anointed Judge. My Spirit remaineth with you, saith the Lord.'

"Oh, it is an awful thing to look into futurity; to hear the voice of God, however still and sweet the message given and yet the Lord says, Where is now thy faith? where thy strength? have ye not asked this? Glorify thy name in us, O Lord! Hold up our goings in thy paths!

"The light began to break around: the morning dawned; but still the heaps of slain lay all unburied on the ground. I was constrained to cry out, O God, forward the mission!' Part of the cxvith Psalm, that refers to this, was immediately brought to my memory with such power that I was constrained to sing it aloud, my two friends joining.

"The above is the substance of what I heard, and saw, and felt, during an hour of the most indescribable emotion of spirit. My body was calm and composed; I was in a kneeling posture all the time; but my mind was so intensely held by the vision that I was utterly unconscious where I was, or by whom attended."

Many other very remarkable visions have been seen by different persons of our acquaintance, one series of which we will endeavour to describe, from drawings which the subject of them has made, and from conversations we have had with him. This person had been preaching the Gospel, with much appearance of fruit, in the south of Ireland, about five-and-twenty years ago, and on his return to Dublin was visited by a large party of friends, who met one evening to hear particulars. Before his friends departed, he read and expounded a chapter in the Bible, and knelt down to pray. While thus engaged, a vision of Christ on the cross, but beaming indescribable glory, appeared before him, and he was given to understand that his preaching had been hitherto not sufficiently simple, but too much in the forms of reason and intellect; and thenceforth he determined to know nothing save Jesus Christ and him crucified: and the change was manifest to all present in his prayer, which the vision had interrupted, but which immediately afterwards became spiritual in the highest degree.

Several years elapsed without his seeing another vision; but in 1817 he was seized with a dangerous illness, and given over by the physicians; and, when at the worst, saw at midnight the first of a series of visions of the most striking kind, which he himself but imperfectly understood at the time, though subsequent meditation has taught him the deep truths they convey. These visions appeared as pictures. And in the first, the lower part appeared like a black lake, or sea, in which were serpents and slimy monsters of disgusting form; and it was intimated to him, that such a loathsome worm was he, and such were all mankind in the sight of God. From out of this black abyss rose a pedestal, on which stood a bust having two heads; not two faces, like Janus, but two heads united at the neck. One of these heads was seen in profile, and crowned, its features being distinctly visible; of the other, the back only was seen, its face being turned towards the crowned head in profile, and hiding all but its face. In the upper part of the picture was represented a sphere, and a man with a lever turning and moving it at his will.-This vision, though he understood it not fully at the time, filled him with joy, as well as with astonishment: from that time he began to recover, and the emotion turned his hair white before the morning. Subsequent meditation has taught him that the two heads denoted the double nature of Christ; that the head of which he saw but the back denoted the Divine nature; the other, in profile, denoting the human nature, and shewing that as man he is crowned, and as man he governs all things, symbolized by a man turning the sphere of the world.

The next vision was in open daylight, and only two days after

[blocks in formation]
« AnteriorContinuar »