LETTER XLVIII.
Valley of Achor, June 16th, 18195.
My dear Mrs. Bailey.
Grace and mercy be with you.—I hope you are well in health and spirits, and, above all, that the Lord is with you. I wish you felt grateful for what he has done for you: it is well to look back to the days of our ignorance; for although we know but little yet, still the Lord might have left us to know nothing; but is written, All thy children are taught of God; and if we belong to the election of graces we are taught by the Father. There are two things we are sure to learn of the Father; we learn our own depravity and condemnation by the law, that we deserve nothing at the hands of God, but his wrath, because we have sinned against him; and we learn of him the value of Christ, as he is revealed in the word. We learn the record that God has given us of his Son, that he is just such a Saviour as we need; for being condemned we need a surety to pay our debts, a better righteousness to appear in, before God, and we need an atonement to take away all our sins—Christ has done it, and he is now in heaven pleading our cause, representing us before God, and answering all the charges that can be brought against us by Law, by Satan, or by conscience. His blood and obedience, his holy nature, holy life, and agonizing death, is our everlasting cure. This is so precious to the Father, that he accepts all that come to him in his dear Son’s name, and pleading his work; he will never send them away, cast them out, or give them up to Satan; this is our mercy; none that trust in him shall be desolate, forsaken, lost, condemned, or damned—Selah.
You have many trials, but they are most divinely appointed to produce the fruits of righteousness, to exercise faith and patience, to empty us of the love of sin and the world, to shew us our weakness, and the daily need we have of Christ, as our strength, our wisdom, and our deliverer. Christ is our support, our strength, and our help, till he works a deliverance for us. I am learning this, that I may explain it to others; I talked about these things, and felt them in a degree, but now I know them deeper than I once did; the Lord has instructed me with a strong hand, and I long to speak these things to others, yet a sense of my unworthiness keeps me back from thinking even about it. I want the Lord’s children to trace up these mercies and trials to an everlasting covenant, where they were provided; and it is very blessed to remember, that all flows in love to us, and were divinely appointed for us in infinite wisdom—the Lord is author of all our mercies, he is not the author of our sins; he permits them, and he over-rules them, according to his own plans, which he laid out in eternity, but he did not begin them, he does not force us to them, and it would be wicked to suppose it: the Lord foresaw them, and he could have prevented them, but he had some grand ends to answer by them. He decreed to glorify his justice, his mercy, and his grace by them. So it is the case with all our trials now, they are all laid out in number, weight, and measure, and they will terminate well; they will bring glory to God, and magnify the riches of his free grace.
I wish my dear Friend felt much of a spirit of grace and supplication. Our conflicts are designed for this very end, to stir us up to prayer, and reading the word: just like a person of property, who feels he is in want of money, and searches his Father’s will to see where his property lies. This is our case—
Sometimes my Lord his face doth hide,
To make me pray, or kill my pride.
This is the design we are ready to suppose, when all things run against us, that God is against us; but it is quite the contrary, God is not at war with us, but against some of his and our enemies, within us: this is the reason why he contends with us, to empty us of self, to bring us to live upon Christ, as our all in all, that we may die daily to self and the world; and thus in due time, live a life of faith upon Christ. We all want to live a life of sense, but the Lord will be trusted in the dark, as well as followed in the light, and we must be brought to this point, if we wish to honour God—but we want to live on frames and feelings, to walk in sunshine and good roads; but this cannot be called trusting in him. There are many very precious promises made to those who trust in him, and these we should lose, if we were not led into this path.
I trust dear Mr. B. is well—my christian respects to him: tell him I hope the Lord will lead his mind to Christ as his Saviour, and hope God will bless you both, and all who are dear to you.—Many thanks for your concern for
Ruhamah.