LETTER XLIII.
Achor’s Vale, June 1st 1819.
Mr. Sweetland.
MY DEAR KIND FRIEND,
I hope the Lord Jesus is precious to your soul, that your heart is fixed on him, and that you are daily looking to him for life and salvation. I hope every fresh feeling sense of sin, urges you to his blood and righteousness, as the only remedy, as the serpent-bit-Israelites of old were to look to the brazen serpent: all were to look at it; some looked stedfastly, others feebly, some had a full, near, distinct view of it, but others only had a feeble, distant, imperfect, confused sight, and many, perhaps, could hardly raise their dying eyes to catch a glimpse of it; yet, they all looked, at some rate or other, and all who looked, lived, and were healed. This points out the various states of God’s dear people, in the strength and weakness of their faith, as exercised on the dear Saviour; and as it shews the diversity of their cases, so it also points out the various frames of mind an individual soul may experience. There are times when we are strong in faith, persuaded the work is begun, and we can look to the Lord with stedfast eye; but there are other seasons when faith seems to languish, love to be dead, and hope seems to have perished, the world and its cares have carried the mind away, and Satan has confused and perplexed us. Nothing seems left in the soul, but perhaps a little desire, and that hardly awake or felt. Here we stumble, till the work is again revived, and the dew descends again. This made the prophet of old exclaim, Wilt thou not revive us again, and, Oh Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years. And when the Saviour draws near, we are grieved that we should slight him so ungratefully, and as love flows in, godly sorrow flows out. To this repentance we are called by the Spirit, and it is a change of the mind; this change is God’s work on us: we cannot produce it, and yet it so important, that we cannot be saved without it, it must be wrought in us by the power of God. Christ is exalted to give it in his most blessed characters, as a Prince and a Saviour: this is a dissolving the heart, or rather the new heart in exercise, under the gracious operations of the Holy Spirit; the mind is overcome with a sense of the long suffering of God towards us, and a feeling discovery of his love to us, in Christ Jesus, with a view of our own depravity, and base backslidings; we mourn that we ever offended such a Saviour, or sinned against such love; we are ashamed of ourselves, especially when we see our God sweetly pacified, and his heart full of love towards us. This was the holy generous feeling of Mary Magdalen, and this work must be felt in some humble degree, if ever we are saved, for except we repent, we must perish in our sins, because this repentance is the effect—not the cause of pardon, nor is it produced from any fear or dread of hell, but from a sense of love, because we have had the baseness and ingratitude, the cruelty and the bitterness to sin against a good, a gracious, a kind, and a bountiful God: we loath ourselves in our own sight for our abominations, and as this is the fruit of the Spirit, so it is pleasant and acceptable to God. I hope my dear friend will be favored with this blessing, it is an evidence of pardon, pardon is an evidence of redemption, and that is the gift of God; and this gift is an evidence of eternal love.
I trust you are in health, no doubt you feel your mortality, by many attacks of pain of body. We are poor dying mortals, the creatures of a day; we do all fade as a leaf, not as a tree, but as a weak, helpless, trembling leaf, but precious faith in our Lord, and his love, his sacred name, and his complete work—this assures us we have a building of God, eternal in the heavens, and that building is Christ
Yet a season, and you know
Happy entrance shall be given,
All our sorrows left below,
And earth exchang’d for heaven.
The Lord be with you, and reward you for your affectionate kindness to the most unworthy
Ruhamah.
LETTER XLIV.
Achor’s Vale, June 1st. 1819.
Mr. Farq.
MY DEAR BROTHER,
I trust the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ will reign triumphant in your soul, till it is consummated in endless bliss. Various are the fears, doubts, and misgivings of heart, to which you have been liable; many have been the Workings of inbred corruption, and the power of sin, as stirred up by the law, and which lay hid, till they were seen and felt by you; this being attended with gloominess, dejection, and legal striving, shews that it was the work of the law; and the Lord taking the opportunity to lead you to Jesus, as the atoning sacrifice, and the end of the law for righteousness, shews the greatness of his rich grace, and the boundless love of his heart. But God and your own soul best knows, what distress of mind is experienced before the Saviour speaks peace to the heart, and assures it of its acceptance and justification before God, in his own work: yet, amidst all the distress, a truly awakened grace-taught soul experiences, there is a clearing to, and a humble trusting in Christ, so that if you had died in that distress of mind, you would most certainly have been saved, seeing our interest in Christ does not save the soul, it was saved in the Lord long before we had an existence; but no humbled believer can rest short of the knowledge and personal enjoyment of that salvation, by the leadings and teachings of the Holy Spirit, as the glorifier of Christ. I remember this was my case, and I find it has been yours’: this is the secret path which no fowl knoweth, and the vulture’s eye hath not yet seen: all spiritual teaching is the evidence of our interest in the electing love of God, all others are passed by. I do not wonder at your esteem for that sweet chapter, the 50th of Isaiah, it would fill an immense volume to do it justice, in describing its full glories; the Holy Spirit led the mind of the prophet very divinely into the knowledge of Christ, as the atonement and justification of his people; and this subject is most sweetly set forth in this chapter, with an affectionate address to poor souls walking in darkness, about their interest in Christ, and a direction given them how to act in such a state. The chapter opens with the reason why the Lord had rejected the Jews, and why he put them away, viz. for their awful and obstinate rejection of the person, the ministry, the miracles, and work of the Son of God. The adorable Redeemer then asserts the dignity of his own God-head, as manifested in the awful and grand display of his works of power, justice, and vengeance; these great themes are set forth in the three first verses. The Saviour then describes his commission from the Father, to accomplish the calling and redemption of the elect, agreeable to an ancient stipulation, or covenant, subsisting between the father and the Son; he next points out his ability for the work as God-Man, and his qualifications, by the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit without measure upon him, in the 4th and 5th verse’s. Next follows his voluntary abasement of himself into the hands of his enemies, with the firmness of his mind, and the constancy of his love to his church, as manifested in his unparalleled sorrows, his confidence in his being carried through the great and arduous work of the redemption of his church, and his full triumph over all his enemies; the help that was promised him by his Father, in the covenant, and the challenge that he would give to the enemies of his dear people, for whom he should work out a complete righteousness; read the 6, 7, 8, and 9th verses. Christ Jesus did in the love of his heart engage, agreeable to the call of the Father, to become the surety of his Church: all their sins being imputed to him, he stood guilty in the eye of the law, and justice of God; and having given ample satisfaction to justice, fulfilled the law, made reconciliation, glorified all the perfections of God, and put away sin: he was justified in the Spirit at his resurrection, having paid the debt, he received the receipt in full, and upon his triumphant entrance into glory, bearing the marks and scars in his sacred body, with the virtue of his work fresh in the mind of God, and sweetly accepted by him, he gives the challenge to law, to justice, to all. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect, unpardoned, unatoned for? Who will contend with me? let us stand together: Who is mine adversary? let him come near to me! This is Christ’s universal challenge to all accusers of his children: he has done the work, nothing can be added to it, or taken from it, and the adorable Father imputes this work to his Church; faith is given them to receive this atonement and righteousness, and power is given them to enjoy it as their own; and this believing and receiving the work the Lord Jesus has accomplished, is called, obeying Christ’s voice; while the work of God on the heart is stiled, fearing the Lord. This fear, and this obedience are evidences of interest in the great work of the Triumphant Conquerer of sin, death, and hell. And, whoever among the Lord’s called ones, are walking without a sense of God’s love, find a sense of interest in the Redeemer; without the light of comfort, the light of joy, and the light of love; though darkness is felt by them, and nothing but darkness without them, yet they are not totally in the dark, but they are the children of the light, and of the day. Let such trust in Jesus, and stay their minds upon the Spirit’s testimony of Christ; but this trusting and staying is the gift of God. The chapter then concludes with an address to all pharisees, who reject the perfect work of Christ, and who trust in a form of godliness, without the power. Such compass themselves about with their own sparks, walk in their own light, and die, at last, in sorrow. The parable of the foolish virgins will illustrate this last verse.
Excuse the brevity of these remarks. Affectionate respects to your better half.
Your’s,
Ruhamah.