I trust you are well in health, with your family; it is just a year ago since I last wrote to you, which letter being wrote under very peculiar circumstances, and under the powerful influence of grace which I felt at that time, which letter I have in reserve to be published at a future period, when the Lord turns my captivity. Many, and great have been your changes and trials since that time; we live in a world of changes and vicissitudes, it may justly be compared to the sea, ever restless and uneasy, exposed to many storms and dangers, but the Lord has engaged to conduct us safe home, and will surely bring us to that haven of eternal rest and peace; and as this is the case, we need not murmur, although our Ferry Boat is a little tossed about, and some of the passengers prove very troublesome, we shall soon get home, eternal love has sworn to bring us safely there; and though the mountains depart, and the hills be removed, yet his kindness shall never depart from us, nor the covenant of his peace ever be removed. The Lord foresaw what poor sinners we should be, and he could have prevented it, had it been agreeable to his eternal purposes; but if it had been prevented, what should we have known of the boundless mercy of his heart, and how could we have known any thing of the lovely precious Saviour and Redeemer. God had decreed that the vessels of his glory should be vessels of his mercy first, and all he has purposed, promised, and done, is for the riches of his grace, in kindness towards us, by Christ Jesus; and this free unmerited favor of a covenant God, has brought salvation of every kind to us: we have experienced some of them, and there are thousands of salvations which we are not sensible of, that attend us daily. I trust the Lord is leading you on to a better acquaintance with the person and work of Jesus, and though you lament that you do not feel so much love to him, as you did in your earlier experience, yet you are learning wisdom—“Whom shall he teach wisdom, and whom shall he make to understand doctrine, but those who are weaned from the breast, and drawn from the milk.” Isaiah xxviii, 9. After this weaning time is over, we feel our need of spiritual armour, and we are called out to fight; but never let us forget him who hath said, My grace is sufficient for thee.

I beg you to accept my best wishes, in the language of a favorite, now in glory.

I wish you much increase of every grace,
I wish you strength to run your christian race,
I wish you patience under every rod,
I wish you much sweet fellowship with God,
I wish your evidences bright may shine,
I wish you joy and comfort all divine,
I wish you very strong in precious faith,
I wish you well through life, and well in death,
I wish you safe on the celestial shore,
And there I wish you well for evermore.

Kind respects to Mr. H. and family.

Your’s, truly,
Ruhamah.

LETTER XLIII.

Achor’s Vale, June 1st 1819.

Mr. Sweetland.

MY DEAR KIND FRIEND,

I hope the Lord Jesus is precious to your soul, that your heart is fixed on him, and that you are daily looking to him for life and salvation. I hope every fresh feeling sense of sin, urges you to his blood and righteousness, as the only remedy, as the serpent-bit-Israelites of old were to look to the brazen serpent: all were to look at it; some looked stedfastly, others feebly, some had a full, near, distinct view of it, but others only had a feeble, distant, imperfect, confused sight, and many, perhaps, could hardly raise their dying eyes to catch a glimpse of it; yet, they all looked, at some rate or other, and all who looked, lived, and were healed. This points out the various states of God’s dear people, in the strength and weakness of their faith, as exercised on the dear Saviour; and as it shews the diversity of their cases, so it also points out the various frames of mind an individual soul may experience. There are times when we are strong in faith, persuaded the work is begun, and we can look to the Lord with stedfast eye; but there are other seasons when faith seems to languish, love to be dead, and hope seems to have perished, the world and its cares have carried the mind away, and Satan has confused and perplexed us. Nothing seems left in the soul, but perhaps a little desire, and that hardly awake or felt. Here we stumble, till the work is again revived, and the dew descends again. This made the prophet of old exclaim, Wilt thou not revive us again, and, Oh Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years. And when the Saviour draws near, we are grieved that we should slight him so ungratefully, and as love flows in, godly sorrow flows out. To this repentance we are called by the Spirit, and it is a change of the mind; this change is God’s work on us: we cannot produce it, and yet it so important, that we cannot be saved without it, it must be wrought in us by the power of God. Christ is exalted to give it in his most blessed characters, as a Prince and a Saviour: this is a dissolving the heart, or rather the new heart in exercise, under the gracious operations of the Holy Spirit; the mind is overcome with a sense of the long suffering of God towards us, and a feeling discovery of his love to us, in Christ Jesus, with a view of our own depravity, and base backslidings; we mourn that we ever offended such a Saviour, or sinned against such love; we are ashamed of ourselves, especially when we see our God sweetly pacified, and his heart full of love towards us. This was the holy generous feeling of Mary Magdalen, and this work must be felt in some humble degree, if ever we are saved, for except we repent, we must perish in our sins, because this repentance is the effect—not the cause of pardon, nor is it produced from any fear or dread of hell, but from a sense of love, because we have had the baseness and ingratitude, the cruelty and the bitterness to sin against a good, a gracious, a kind, and a bountiful God: we loath ourselves in our own sight for our abominations, and as this is the fruit of the Spirit, so it is pleasant and acceptable to God. I hope my dear friend will be favored with this blessing, it is an evidence of pardon, pardon is an evidence of redemption, and that is the gift of God; and this gift is an evidence of eternal love.