LETTER VIII.
Valley of Achor, Oct. 1, 1818.
Mrs. Lawson,
MY DEAR AFFLICTED FRIEND,
Are you still in the furnace of affliction? I am astonished when I behold what heavy pressures, deep heart-felt sorrows, and mighty loads of accumulated grief, some of God’s children are called to bear, and that for years together; but what can we not endure, through all-sufficient grace? I hope you find this grace supporting you, and at all times giving you kind assurances of glory. That you can say, with the same confidence as the Apostle, and all established believers, “We know, that if this earthly house of our tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” Where those heavens are it is of very little importance for you and me to know; our main concern is with the house there, called by our dear Lord, Many mansions. Our dwelling house, mansions, and joy, will not consist in merely being in a place called heaven, but it will lay in the full enjoyment of the love, favor, approbation, and sight of God in Christ; this was Job’s hope and expectation, “In my flesh I shall see God:”—and this is the promise to the Church, “They shall see his face.” David was so transported with this, that he exclaimed, in the sweetest confidence, “As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness.” There will be no beholding the face of the dear Immanuel but in his righteousness. This glorious robe is imputed by God the Father, to poor sinners. We are taught out of his Law our need of this Surety’s righteousness; we are clothed with it, and brought by the Father in it to his dear Son, who graciously accepts us in it, owns us as his own, and gives us the Spirit of Adoption, to say, “My Father.”—The blessed Spirit carries on this work, by enlarging the heart, expanding the mind, and extending our views in the knowledge of Christ; and the longer we live the more we learn the real value of Christ—his goings forth in eternity, in a way of love to us—his mysterious incarnation—his surprising condescension—his holy life of obedience, and his great act of putting sin away, by the sacrifice of himself. These become precious to our souls as we grow in knowledge; nor do we stop here: the glorious victories he has obtained, the value of his work, and the acceptableness of it to God; the life of Mediation he is living for us in heaven, and the prevalency of his intercession; these are our food, our feast of fat things.—But the ever blessed Spirit carries on his work, till he has given us most exalted views of his Person, as one in the divine essence; as the Son of God, in away not known to angels or men; as God-Man Mediator; as the glorious head of the Church, and the Saviour of the body, and as our all in all. This is knowing Christ, and wherever the Lord has bestowed this favour on the soul, whatever trials, temptations, or griefs, may beset or befal them, such shall hold on their way, and wax stronger and stronger—
Tho’ thousand snares beset his feet,
Not one shall hold him fast;
Whatever dangers he may meet,
He shall get safe at last.
The Lord refresh your soul with these blessed things, that you may say with your afflicted brother, “This is my comfort in my affliction, thy word hath quickened me.” Permit me to remind you, that God doth not willingly afflict, nor grieve us; there is a cause. We are sinners, and God will make us know it. God chastens us for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. Every rod was eternally appointed for us; we shall have all that is allotted to us—men and devils can add no more to them; for if God appoints their number ten we never shall have eleven.
I dare say you are anxious at times to know how I am, and how I go on. Look into your own experience, and you will know that, for as in water face answereth to face, so doth the heart of one child of God to another. Remember, he hath, he doth, he will deliver you. Wishing you the smiles of him, who is the health of your countenance, and your delivering God, I remain, Yours, truly,
Ruhamah.
LETTER IX.
Valley of Achor, December 17th, 1817.
Mr. & Mrs. F.
MY DEAR FRIENDS,
I need not apologize, I hope, for troubling you with a few lines, as I trust you are born of God, and love God as he is in Jesus, though perhaps you feel at times much grief of heart, that you enjoy so little of the sweetness of believing in Christ. What a mercy God makes us manifest to each others hearts, that we belong to his family; but the witness of God is greater, this is infinitely preferable to any human testimony, however clear and pleasing it may be to us, in point of brotherly love, and we which believe, have the witness in ourselves, we can prove that God has done something for us; though this work may be under a cloud for a time, yet the Lord the Spirit renews it, clears it up, makes it plain, and encourages us to hope in himself till faith is lost in sight, and hope in full enjoyment. Blessed be God we are getting nearer home, and though we seem to lag and hang back, yet God declares he will save her that halteth, and her that he has afflicted, therefore, on his divine faithfulness let us hope for what he has promised to us, and our expectation shall not be cut off. This is a sweet encouragement to my soul, in my painful pilgrimage, but when I look to the promises, to Christ in the promises, and to his fidelity, I thank God and take courage. The Lord deals well with me in the land of my captivity, and I only want more faith to trust in him, greater submission to his will, a living upon him as he is set forth, a leaving all with him, to manage for me, and to favor me with the presence of the holy spirit, in his saving offices; as a spirit of revelation in my understanding, as a spirit of power on my will, as a spirit of faith in my heart, as a spirit of love in my affections, as a spirit of light in my judgment, and as a spirit of peace in my conscience; with his constant operations as a spirit of supplication, enabling me at all times to draw near unto God—this is that seven-fold operation of the divine spirit which we daily need. You have your trials as well as I have, and it is of very little consequence where we have them, whether in my state or in yours, none of the children of God are exempt from the blessed peace Christ has made, and of course they are not exempt from the tribulation he has promised—they both go together, and perhaps my present place, was the spot appointed from all eternity, where I was to enjoy the solid peace of the gospel; and this I trust I shall be much favored with before I return; it is in this pleasing hope I live, I have much to oppose and much to encourage that hope, our path-way dear brother is through fire and water, and our way to glory is up hill. Our spirits tire, flag, weary, get heavy and faint, but we go on from strength to strength, till we get home.
Your’s, truly,
Ruhamah.
LETTER X.
Valley of Achor, January 1, 1818.
Mr. & Mrs. W. R—T.
Grace be onto you and peace. I have often admired the grace of our Lord Jesus in its freedom, in its sovereignty, and in its power, in our complete and eternal salvation—this you and I shall have to bless God for, to all eternity; and if you was snatched away by death this moment, you would be ready to praise and adore God for it—and surely our fitness for a better world is to be enabled upon earth to give the glory due to his name. No doubt you will most readily unite with me in this particular, that it requires great grace to support and uphold a man in great difficulties, but while the left hand of God is laid upon him, does not the right hand of grace support, and at times console and cheer his heart. Perhaps this is the meaning of that important text, “His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me.” This is the grace I now need. I will not trouble you with a list of my sorrows, but can assure you they are greater than I ever did, or ever can tell any one in the world. Satan is busy in raking up all my faults, from childhood. Carnal reason thinks God deals very hard with me. Sense can see no further than to-day, and suggests I shall die beneath my load. Fancy paints out a thousand troubles I may never see; while unbelief is ready to give the lie to every promise in the Bible, and wants to persuade me to give up praying, and abandon myself to despair. Thus I am tried every day, and much deeper now than when I first entered this Valley. But, hark! the voice of love and mercy sounds from the covenant of grace, “For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies I will gather thee. I will correct thee in measure, but thou shalt never be forgotten of me. I will deliver thee, but the times and seasons the Father hath put in his own power.” And then another voice sounds from Calvary, “I have blotted out, as a cloud, thy sins—return unto me, for I have redeemed thee.” Here faith listens, and asks, What me Lord? Yes, you, by name. Then I reply, Lord there may be others of my name. True; but the Persons for whom I entered into covenant, for whom I became incarnate, for whom I obeyed the Law, for whom I suffered, and for whom the rich blessings of the Gospel is provided, are sinners—this is your nature, your action, and your name, and I have denominated you by the very names you have given yourself, from your own convictions and feelings. Bring in hither the poor, the halt, the blind, the lame, and the needy. Surely I must come under some of these; and according to different states so we are named.
Here I beg my dear sister R’s most particular attention. I know she is a patient in Free-grace Hospital, and I want her assured that her case is not forgotten by the most blessed Physician of Souls, who has said, “I am the Lord that healeth thee.” Convinced of our state as sinners, we feel poor indeed—without spiritual money, or cloaths, or home, or friends!—this is real poverty—the charge brought against the Church at Laodicea, “Thou knowest not that thou art poor, and miserable, and blind, and naked.” This charge belongs to hypocrites, and not to a poor sinner, whose emptiness is daily felt, and perhaps faith is too weak to draw much comfort from the Promises—and God the Spirit has shewn you the darkness of nature. Now God does not say you are blind, but he calls us by the name we give ourselves. Hence, God says, “Hear ye deaf, and look ye blind, that ye may see.” And because every little makes us start, or keeps us back from praying, hoping, and believing, we are called the halt, and the lame; and as our sins too often rise and gain the ascendancy over us, that we cannot exercise strong confidence in Jesus, and his work, so we are called the maimed. Sin and Satan has maimed us, and wicked fellows have thrown stones at us, as Christ’s sheep, and maimed us: and I can assure you there is not any thing that Jesus has said or done, but it is the blessed office of the Holy Ghost to shew us our need of it; and if he sets us longing for it, travailing in soul, agonizing in spirit, and most sincerely desirous of the blessing, he will communicate it, for he has said, “Shall I cause to travail, and not bring forth? Shall I bring to the birth, and shut the womb?” You are longing to bring forth the exercise of precious faith, lively hope, cheerful confidence; and you are at times longing for the salvation of God, and you will not be disappointed. But do not be alarmed—even these longing desires may be in a great measure suspended—this has often alarmed me, till some Promise or a sweet Sermon, or a precious Hymn, have set me longing again; or else some new and heavy cross has come on. This sets me to confessing, to searching, to reading to humility, to waiting, and standing on my watch tower, to hear what God the Lord will say. I hear what Satan, the world, and mistaken possessors say, not what carnal reason, unbelief, and sense has to say—these all want to swear away my eternal life; they are not the judges of the court; they dont understand the nature of the case; and it is a man’s privilege to appeal from a low to a higher court; thus did Paul and lost his head, thus did I and lost my liberty. But though this may be the case in temporals, yet it is not so in spirituals; all judgment is committed to Christ, because he is the Son of Man; he is the judge in the court of mercy, and I will hear what the Lord will say. Moses has condemned me, conscience has said Amen to the sentence, justice demands satisfaction, the law is broken, guilt is great, Satan is busy, hell appears open, heaven shut, and the soul trembles, and with all the heart exclaims, God be merciful to me, to me a sinner! And amidst all, will you believe it, faith is waiting for the sentence from the judge; and when it is cut him down, O justice—take him, O Satan—close upon him, O hell. No, not so, but, poor sinner look up, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee—but how, Lord? and he shewed him his hands and his side. I trust my dear Brother has had many such views, not only when liberty first came, but many times after, when the whole work has been as it were dead, and lost; yet there has been many revivals again, and no doubt will, till death. I hope you are both well. I only want another piece of a broiled fish, and of a honey-comb, (John, 21) both are gifts. A common blessing in a kind providence, is a fish, and grace to enjoy it, is an honey-comb. Though to poor ministers, a soul is compared to a fish, and if they are led to ask for the salvation of a soul, or for success in their ministry when they go a fishing—surely the Lord will not give them a Scorpion, that is, a reprobate. The Lord grant we may be found among the good fish at the end of the world, when the gospel net will be full, and the grand separation take place. Till then may we swim in the ocean of mercy, with the fins of faith and love. The Lord bless thee with every needful grace.
Your’s, truly,
Ruhamah.