"I have received my dear J——'s three letters from Dingwall: fresh matter of praise to our covenant God. You have had your season of affliction; and now you have a season of refreshing, a resting-time. The cup of the Christian is always more or less mixed. Your afflictions have ever been mixed with much mercy, and now your season of rest is also mixed. I well know that no temporal comfort can compensate the absence of your justly beloved D——. He, however, who is the God of both, who goes with
him, and stays with you, can not only support, but comfort. The omniscient, the omnipresent, the omnipotent God is our God, and the God of our house; all that he is is ours, to bless us. Behold, God is become our salvation. Every endearing name known among men he takes to himself, to inspire us with pleasing, confiding love — every name that connects the idea of protection, to keep our minds in quiet peace, in the assurance of safety: Father, Husband, Brother, Friend, Prophet, Priest, King, Physician, Help, Health, Light, Life, Counsellor, Guide, Sanctuary, Anchor — but I should fill my sheet. I said it all at first: God is ours, and ours with the knowledge of all our backslidings, which he heals; our wanderings, from which he restores us; and our sins, which he forgives: one of his names is the God of pardons. He delights in mercy. Are we not his witnesses? What has our whole life been, but sin, backslidings, and wanderings? What have his dealings with us been, but pardons, healings, restorations? Therefore we remain, as at this day, with our desires towards him, and our faces Zion-wards. What he hath begun he will perfect, and in a little while our eyes shall behold him, our hearts shall enjoy him, we shall be like him, and see him as he is."
To the same.
"DECEMBER 26, 1801.
"I rejoice over my dear children, and bless our gracious God that he has led them a sweet and most delightful sojourning among his churches, animating their spirits by their mutual communion; blessing them, and, I hope, making them blessings. I pray the Lord may make our dear D—— an instrument
among others of spreading his gospel, building up his church, and pulling down the strong-holds of Satan; and that you may be in your place a help-meet for him, in this as in every thing else. May the Lord choose his path and direct his steps, and yours with him. Women were helpers of the apostles and others in Paul's days: at the same time care must ever be taken not to obtrude in any respect. I pray that you may be kept spiritual and humble: eminence in God's service is truly desirable, if the heart be kept humble. If the Lord open the eyes to behold more of the extent and spirituality of his law, the holiness and purity of his nature, the evil of sin, and its contrariety to all that is in God; and if he turn the eyes inward to the hidden corruptions of the heart, when it is evident to the soul that all is of grace, then may eminent services be safe.
"'I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes,' was the exercise of Job; and justly so. Job, who was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame, a father to the poor, and the cause which he knew not he searched it out: when the ear heard him, it blessed him; when the eye saw him, it gave witness to him; who withheld not the poor from his desire, nor caused the eye of the widow to fail; the stranger did not lodge in the street, but he opened his door unto the traveller: all this was true as far as the external act, and as he then thought, with a proper temper of heart, Job could justify himself before his fellow-sinners, Blind like himself; but when God comes to deal with him, how different his views. Then it was, 'Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand on my mouth:' even with the very best there
is cause for this exercise, could we see in the same light.
"How deceitful is the human heart; how unfaithful the conscience; how little do we know of the sins of our daily walk. We are called to watch and pray, that we enter not into temptation; to walk with God in close, intimate communion: whether we eat or drink, to do all to his glory: to consult him in all the affairs of life, narrowly observing his providence in connection with our circumstances; weighing all in his presence, requesting him to determine our wills and direct our steps. We ought not to say, 'We will go into such a city,' and do this or that; but, 'If the Lord will.' How inconsistent our conduct with these rules. How often do rashness, precipitation, and self-will accompany our determinations and movements. And how often do His goodness and wisdom over rule our folly, save us from our own pits, and prevent the evil that might be expected. At no time does he deal with us as we sin, though sometimes he stands by and allows us a taste of our folly: then we are in trouble, we dig our pits and fall into them, but we cannot deliver ourselves. O what a God! who, even at such a time, says to us, 'Call on me in the time of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify my name; thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is Blessed help; mercy to pardon, goodness to wisdom to guide, faithfulness to carry through and perfect what concerns us, overruling our very follies, and causing them to teach us to profit. This is God's way, according to many declarations of himself in his word, and the experience of all his redeemed.
"Blessed then is the man that trusteth in the