I Had the honour of your Lordship’s letter. Gratitude constrains me to send my heartiest acknowledgments. Though absent from, yet I am often present with you. That benign, that sweet disposition of which your Lordship is possessed, must make you appear amiable to all who know you. Add but the christian to it, and then, O then, how happy will your Lordship be! Thanks be to God, that your Lordship begins to feel there is no being happy without real christianity. O that this conviction may be abiding, and that your Lordship may have no rest, till you find it in Him who is the Alpha and Omega, the author and finisher of our faith. He longs to make you happy, he is ready to receive you with open arms. He cries, “My Son, give me thy heart.” To engage you to love him more, he has let you have a worthy lady, who I am persuaded will be glad to go hand in hand to heaven. O that you may both walk in all the ordinances and commandments of the Lord blameless. No greater thing can be desired for you at the throne of grace by, my Lord,
Your Lordship’s most obedient, obliged humble servant,
G. W.
LETTER DCCXXIII.
To Lady B——.
London, Dec. 30, 1748.
Honoured Madam,
HAVE you not wondered at my not answering your Ladyship’s kind letter before now? But I am persuaded you are well assured, that a variety of avocations, and multiplicity of business for the best of masters, not want of respect, hath been the cause. My Lady, your family are always upon my heart. My constant desire and prayer to God is, that you all may be filled with all the fulness of God. As my Lord mentions nothing to the contrary, I hope your indisposition is removed, and that the language of your heart is, “what shall I render unto the Lord?” I know that the love of Jesus which you have felt, must necessarily constrain your Ladyship to live to Him, who lived and died upon the accursed tree for you. O how is the power of the Redeemer’s resurrection displayed in Lady H——n. She is a mother in Israel indeed. It would please you to see the assemblies at her Ladyship’s house. They are brilliant ones indeed. The prospect of catching some of the rich in the gospel net is very promising. I know you will wish prosperity in the name of the Lord. But how does good Lady D——, dear Mrs. C——, and Mrs. I——? All, I hope, putting off the old man, and putting on the new with greater earnestness than ever. O that I may begin to be in earnest! I am now thirty-four years of age. Is it not time for me to begin to spend, and be spent, for him who has loved me and given himself for me? I beg your Ladyship’s prayers, and the prayers of all your dear and honoured relations. I send them all my humble and hearty respects, and beg you will accept the same from, my Lady,
Your Ladyship’s most obliged humble servant,