Dear Mr. ——,
I Should think myself unworthy of your friendship, did I not send you a line now God has brought me in safety hither. I know you will give thanks, and therefore, God forbid I should sin against the Lord in not informing you of it.—Your prayers have already been heard; for God (ever adored be his free grace in Christ Jesus) hath been with us of a truth. He hath led us through the sea, as through a wilderness, and brought us to a haven, where I am honoured with many honours.—Any one that knows Gibraltar would be apt to say, Can any good come out from thence? Yes, I assure you, there may; for there are some that are not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. About six o’clock this morning I went to the church, where was assembled a number of decent soldiers praying and singing psalms to Christ as God. They meet constantly three times a day, and I intend, God willing, henceforward to meet them. For my delight is in the saints who are in the earth, and those that excel in virtue. I have talked with some of them, and, blessed be God, can find the marks of the new birth in them. They pray without ceasing, have overcome the world, hate sin, as sin, love their enemies and one another. They glory in the cross of Christ, and rejoice that they are accounted worthy to suffer shame for the sake of Christ. O, who would but travel to see how the spirit of God is moving on the faces of poor sinners souls up and down the world! God, I find, has a people every where; Christ has a flock, though but a little flock, in all places.—God be praised, that we are of this flock, and that it will be our Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom!—Gibraltar is blessed with a governor, who hath not absented himself from public worship, unless when he was sick, for these seven years, and yet is very moderate towards the dissenters. Both conformists and nonconformists perform public worship, though at different times of the day, in the same place: They also have a religious society. The good Lord prosper this work of their hands upon them. Whenever we go away, may we leave a blessing behind us. He is a prayer-hearing God.—Yesterday a major of one of the regiments, unknown to me, took two handsome rooms, and sent for me from on board, desiring me to lodge in them; and I find the people of the house fear God.—“When I sent you without scrip or shoe, lacked you any thing?” said our Lord. They said nothing.—O, dear Mr. ——, I beseech you abound in thanksgiving, and pray that all these blessings may humble my proud heart, and make me willing to follow the Lamb whithersoever he shall lead me. Assure yourself, that you and all your christian friends are constantly prayed for by, dear Sir,
Your’s most affectionately in the Lord Jesus,
G. W.
LETTER XXXVI.
Gibraltar, Feb. 27, 1738.
Dear Sir,
EVER since I left Gravesend, I remember the fulness of your heart. I have been a constant petitioner at the throne of grace for you, and intended writing to you before, but was [♦]let hitherto. However, God has now brought me safe to Gibraltar, and as I have time, I should think myself inexcusable, did I not send a line to dear Mr. ——, to assure him, I forgot not his tears, and wish him to be not only an almost, but an altogether christian. Dear Sir, you are young and in the bloom of youth, and it would rejoice my heart to see you triumph over the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, and to become a poor despised servant of Jesus Christ. Others, indeed, may wish you wealth, may wish you pomp and grandeur; but believe me, my dear friend, these will not, these cannot, make you happy: No, nothing but God can satisfy the heart of man; nothing but an assurance, that we are born again, that we are members of Christ, that we are united to him by one and the same spirit with which he himself was actuated. Without this, if we were to have our appetites regaled with the richest dainties, be cloathed with purple and fine linen, and fare sumptuously every day, yet the hand-writing upon the wall, the consideration, that all these things are quickly to be taken away, would make our visage to change, and our knees, like Belshazzar’s, to smite one against another. Strive then, my dear friend, to get the spirit of Christ, who will keep close to you, when all other comforts fail; will make you happy here, and unspeakably happy hereafter.—Never fear the contempt you will meet with; yet a little while, and they that call you fool, will call themselves so, and curse that worldly wisdom, which tempted them to evade the cross of Christ. Strange! that any one should let a little reproach deprive them of an eternal crown! Lord, what is man! How blind as to the knowledge of his true interest! How backward in the pursuit of his eternal good! O, dear Mr. ——, let us not be of the number of those, who desire the honour that cometh of man; but be content with that which cometh from God. In a short time, we shall have praise enough. Heaven will echo with the applause that shall be given to the true followers of the Lamb, and then you will see how sincerely I was, dear Sir,
Your affectionate friend and servant,