THE SWORD AND THE TROWEL. JANUARY, 1865. W Our Aims and Intentions. HEN Israel sojourned in the wilderness, all the people pitched their tents about the ark of the Lord, and made the holy place their common centre; yet each tribe was distinguished by its own banner, and marched under the conduct of its own chiefs. Even so in the Church of God, our Lord Jesus and the common salvation are the central point about which believers gather, but the standards of peculiar associations of Christians cannot well be dispensed with. We feel that we need to uplift a banner because of the truth, and with hopeful heart we do so this day. Our Magazine is intended to report the efforts of those Churches and Associations, which are more or less intimately connected with the Lord's work at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, and to advocate those views of doctrine and Church order which are most certainly received among us. It will address itself to those faithful friends scattered everywhere, who are our well-wishers and supporters in our work of faith and labour of love. We feel the want of some organ of communication in which our many plans for God's glory may be brought before believers, and commended to their aid. Our friends are so numerous as to be able to maintain a Magazine, and so earnest as to require one. Our monthly message will be a supplement to our weekly sermon and will enable us to say many things which would be out of place in a discourse. It will inform the general Christian public of our VOL. I. B movements, and show our sympathy with all that is good throughout the entire Church of God. It will give us an opportunity of urging the claims of Christ's cause, of advocating the revival of godliness, of denouncing error, of bearing witness for truth, and of encouraging the labourers in the Lord's vineyard. We do not pretend to be unsectarian, if by this be meant the absence of all distinctive principles, and a desire to please parties of all shades of opinion. We believe and therefore speak. We speak in love, but not in soft words and trimming sentences. We shall not court controversy, but we shall not shun it when the cause of God demands it. The many ministers who were students in our College will be our helpers in maintaining a variety and freshness of matter, and their flocks, we trust, will receive a blessing through their stirring words. It is our first and last object to do practical service, and to excite others to active exertion. We shall supply interesting reading upon general topics, but our chief aim will be to arouse believers to action, and to suggest to them plans by which the kingdom of Jesus may be extended. To widen the bounds of Zion and gather together the outcasts of Israel is our heart's desire. We would sound the trumpet, and lead our comrades to the fight. We would ply the Trowel with untiring hand for the building up of Jerusalem's dilapidated walls, and wield the Sword with vigour and valour against the enemies of the truth. We shall issue two one-paged tracts each month, suitable for general distribution, and so cheap as to be readily purchasable in large quantities. We shall supply outlines of sermons and Sabbath-school addresses. We shall give suggestions as to methods of usefulness, and shall labour to assist all the workers in the Master's vineyard by every means in our power. May the Lord of Hosts crown our efforts with success! What shall be done for Jesus? BY C. H. SPURGEON. "What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour.' Esther vi. 6. THE schemes of Haman were overruled to the honour of Mordecai, to the safety of the Jewish people, and to the glory of God; and so will the devices of evil always be turned by the Most High to the promotion of good. God may suffer his enemies to dig pits, but they shall themselves fall therein; they shall cast stones into the air, but their missiles shall descend upon their own heads. Satan hath a great scheme in hand for the dethroning of King Jesus, but as yet, he has only made him to be the more exalted among men. All the stratagems and subterfuges of the enemy have been rendered subservient to the greater glory of the Mighty One, and to the fulfilment of the divine. decrees. So will it be to the end of the chapter, and we shall see, in looking back from the starry heights of heaven, how all the cruel malice and crafty subtilty of the serpent have been frustrated by infinite wisdom, and overruled by divine love. Lucifer shall fall; and in his fall he shall bear witness to the glory of "the Seed of the woman through whom he fell. Forgetting awhile the story of Haman and Mordecai, the words at the head of this paper may, without violence, be applied to our Lord Jesus. He alone of mortal men it is, of whom it may be said, that "the King "Jehovah, "delighteth to honour" him. Mordecai had done some service to the Persian state, but our Jesus has done infinitely more for us; and the Eternal King, who never slumbers nor sleeps, puts to us this question-"What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour ?" Let us, first, SEE WHAT THE KING HIMSELF HAS DONE. He has honoured him in every work of grace. In the decree of election, the Eternal Father chose his people, but he chose them "in Christ." He made "the man Christ Jesus," the head of election. Watts has well sung "Christ be my first elect,' he said, Then chose our souls in Christ our Head." "According," says the apostle, "as he hath chosen us in him from before the foundation of the world." Every after-manifestation of grace has also been through the man Christ Jesus. When did Isaiah speak most evangelically? When did Ezekiel most sweetly comfort the people of God? When did others of the prophets dart bright flashes of light through the thick darkness of their times? Surely it was only when they spake of him who bore our transgressions, and by whose stripes we are healed. In the great work of redemption, God has honoured Christ, by laying our help upon him alone, as upon "one that is mighty." He hath "exalted one chosen out of the people." In Bozrah's battle no champion must fight but Jesus, and, covered with the blood of his foes, no hero must return in stately triumph from Edom but the lonely one who speaks in righteousness," mighty to save." He trod the wine-press alone, and of the people there was none with him. In redemption there is but one price, found in one hand, paid by one Redeemer, that price the precious blood, found in the veins of the Saviour, and paid down by him upon the accursed tree. In every other act of grace the design of the King is to honour the Lord Jesus. You cannot taste the sweetness of any doctrine till you have remembered Christ's connection with it. You are washed from every sin, but how? Ye have "washed your robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." You are sumptuously arrayed from head to foot; ye are apparelled as the King's sons and daughters, but who is this that hath clothed you? Are you not robed in the righteousness of your Lord Jesus Christ? Up to this moment you have been preserved, but how? "Preserved in Christ Jesus." The Holy Spirit is the author of your sanctification, but what has been the instrument by which he has purified you? He has cleansed you by the water which flowed with the blood from the wounds of the expiring Saviour. Our eternal life is sure; because he lives, we shall live also. We shall behold the face of God with transport and delight, because he has gone up to prepare a place for us, that where he is, we may be also. The Father has studiously linked every gospel privilege and every boon of the new covenant with the person of Jesus Christ, that in blessing you he might at the same time honour his own dear Son? "Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honour;" he shall be the king's almoner to the poor and needy; he shall be the golden pipe through which streams of mercy shall flow to all his saints; his head shall be anointed with the holy oil which shall afterwards bedew the very skirts of his garments with the richest drops of perfume. The king, Jehovah, has honoured the Redeemer by the many offices which he has conferred upon him. Time would fail us to mention all these, but the three chief will suffice. He is the prophet of his people. The Lord has given him "the tongue of the learned;" grace is poured into his lips; upon him the Spirit resteth without measure, so that "never man spake like this man." He is "a prophet mighty in word and in deed." Isaiah and Jeremy, and Hosea, were ye ever honoured as this man? Stand up, ye seers of old, and can ye claim such dignity as his? No, with bowed heads the goodly fellowship of the prophets declare that he is peerless among them. He is also a priest. God has been pleased to gird him with the Urim and Thummim, aud to put the ephod of his pure mortality upon him. At the altar he stands to offer up his spotless and acceptable sacrifice. At this moment he intercedes for us, being "a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek." Why is he a priest, but that he may be honoured in his sacrifice and intercession. He is king by right divine: as man he is "King of the Jews;" his kingdom shall stretch from shore to shore, and of his dominion there shall be no end. "Bring forth the royal diadem Angels, prostrate yourselves before him! He was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, but now is he crowned with glory and honour. "Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the_paths of the seas." All things are put under him. "It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell," and he is the head over all things to the Church, which is his body. As the subject is boundless, we may illustrate it for a moment by the honours of Mordecai. Is not Jesus apparelled with the King's raiment? What splendour hath God which Christ hath not? Doth the Lord sit upon his throne? Christ says, "I have overcome, and have sat down with my Father upon his throne." Is heaven the Court of the Great King? Where else doth Jesus dwell? Are angels the King's messengers? Was not Christ seen of angels even in his shame, and is he not adored by angels now? What can ye conceive of splendour blazing around the throne of the Most High, which will not also be seen gleaming with equal refulgence from the seat of him who is "God over all, blessed for ever?" It is with no trembling lip that we sing his praise. "Jesus is worthy to receive, Honour and power divine, And blessings more than we can give, He is the express image of his Father's glory, and in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. The chosen man was honoured to ride upon the king's horse, and this is true of Christ our Lord. Do you not see him as he rides forth in the gospel, conquering and to conquer? It is the power of the Eternal King whereon Jesus rides to victory. "Thou shalt send the rod of thy strength out of Zion; rule thou in the midst of thine enemies." The preaching of the gospel is not mere man's talk; it is Christ riding on his white horse, going forth conquering and to conquer. Think not because we stammer that Christ falters. Dream not because we go to our beds lamenting that few have "believed our report," that Christ is therefore defeated, or shall lose the travail of his soul. Ah! set yourselves together, ye kings and princes, and say as your sires of old, "Let us break his bonds asunder, and cast away his cords from us!" "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have you in derision!" Wiser were ye if ye would "kiss the Son lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little." All the power with which God went forth in creation and in providence is given to Christ; yea, all power is given unto him in heaven and in earth, that he may do as he wills, and may fulfil his own good pleasure. The honoured man was to be crowned with the crown-royal. Jesus Christ is proclaimed "King of kings, and Lord of Lords." "The Head that once was crowned with thorns, Is crowned with glory now; A royal diadem adorns The mighty victor's brow." Before this honoured man, proclamation was commanded to be made-"Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honour." See ye not the Lord Jesus riding through the streets of this world this very day? Albeit that his servants have been persecuted and hunted about like partridges upon the mountains ; albeit, that the catacombs of Rome, the stakes of Smithfield, the dungeons of the Lollard's Tower, and the snows of Switzerland's Alps, all bear witness to the martyr-host; yet, we see Christ riding on, despite his enemies, in brave tranquillity, from the day of his ascension even until now. He has journeyed on in the august pomp of triumph, while chosen heralds have cried before him, "Bow the knee and kiss the Son," and now in this year of grace, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in triumph he is riding among the crowds of men, and we, though unworthy of the post, are holding his horse's bridle, and crying aloud, "Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honour." Bow ye, then, before him, for unto him "every |