I Thought your father had sent for you from Bethesda; but I hope your heavenly Father has kept you there to bring you home to himself. Your deadness has often grieved me. O that I may have reason to sing, at my return, “Billy B—— was dead, but is alive again; he was lost, but is found.” You do well to pray to God, to search your heart, and to try your reins; for otherwise your treacherous heart will deceive you. I would not have you forget what the Lord is doing for you, for ten thousand worlds. O defer not repentance to a death-bed. It will be hard to strive with principalities and powers, when you can scarce turn in your bed. A man, at that time, can hardly bear up under his bodily infirmities; but a wounded spirit who can bear? Reject, therefore, such a horrid temptation, with the utmost abhorrence. Be a worker together with God; and now God is working in you to will and to do, see that you work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Do not stab your Saviour any more. Dear Billy, think on his bitter agony and bloody sweat, and fly to him, as a Redeemer ready and willing to receive you. That you may be happy in him here, and with him hereafter, is the hearty prayer of
Your sincere friend,
G. W.
LETTER CCCXXXI.
To R—— W——, an Orphan.
On board the Mary and Ann, July 27, 1741.
Dear Richard,
THE contents of your letter pleased me. I have sometimes thought, if God did not convert Richard W——, he would be one of the most unhappy boys in the world. You have head-knowledge; and unless you are made to see the sinfulness of your heart, it will much increase your condemnation. Blessed be God, who yet hath patience with you, and seems to be striving with your soul. I do not wonder that the devil tells you, “it is time to repent when you are a man.” You may well say, it is the devil that tells you so: Such a suggestion cannot come from God. Behold, now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation! Jesus will even now accept you, vile as you are, and ungrateful as you have been: if you feel your misery, and fly to him for succour, he will accept you. Every conviction cries, “Come, Richard, come to me, that thou mayest have rest.” Let me advise you, as old Eli advised young Samuel: say, “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.”
I am your sincere friend,