MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,
I was deeply afflicted when I heard of your sudden indisposition, I hope this note will find you recovering. I need not remind my most invaluable Friend, we are poor dying worms, the creatures of a day, we fade as a leaf; it will be only in that happy state of the Church, the latter day glory, in which that fine promise will be fulfilled, Isaiah 65, “For as the days of a tree, so are the days of my people;” happy for us our salvation is in Christ.
Nor death, nor hell shall e’er divide
His favorites from his breast,
In the dear bosom of his love
They must for ever rest.Hallelujah.
But you want a blessed manifestation of this, and that you shall have; my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord; and till this sensible manifestation comes, may you enjoy what the word of God has said respecting his own people, and compare it with what he has done for you. The peculiar characters by which they are known—and here you cannot err—they shall all know me saith the Lord. The blessed Spirit has given you many a precious view of Christ—Selah. Blessed is he that believeth. And you can say your heart is opened to receive Jesus, your mind bends to him, and you come to him for all you need—Selah. The Lord will give a crown of life to those who love his appearing. And you can say, you love all his gracious smiles, his promises that are brought home to you, his appearing in every ordinance, and every providence, as an answer to prayer for yourself, or for any of the family of God—Selah. Blessed are they whose hope the Lord is; and you know the Lord has driven you out from every other, and begotten you to a good hope, through grace, so that Christ is now your only hope—Selah. Blessed are all they that trust in him. Here you lean, on this you depend, even on his blood, his righteousness, his intercession, his word and faithfulness—Selah. Your heart shall live that seek God; and you know at times, that the enjoyment of the love and grace of God, in his threefold character of person, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is the one thing needful your soul is seeking for—Selah. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, this is another evidence you are sure of, all the year round. And, I am come that they might have life; this secret also, you find out by hungering and thirsting after Jesus and his salvation—Selah. We know we are passed from death to life, because we love the brethren; and you can say, to the glory of God, you do, in the most sacred sense—Selah. The Lord delighteth in them that fear him; this grace he has implanted in your soul, or else you would have turned an apostate before now—thanks to his name. Blessed is he that considereth the poor and needy; you can feel for the afflictions of Joseph, the trials of God’s family—Selah. I could send you near an hundred more, let these stay your mind just now, these are ten Bible evidences. May you rest on Christ alone. I have sent you a precious little pocket piece, entitled, “Visits to and from Jesus,” written by our favorite, Dr. Hawker, read it through once a week for the present, ’tis a precious talent, and will get more talents. I have found it sweet.
Grace be with you,
Ruhamah.
LETTER VI.
Valley of Achor, Sept. 1, 1818.
M. A. Hill.
MY DEAR FRIEND,
I have many friends of your name, and thousands know I have also many enemies of the same name, though they never saw me; there are little hills of Zion, loved of the Lord, and hilly difficulties to encounter. I am sure you will smile, when I observe I have often noticed, that if God raises me up a friend, the Devil often raises me up an enemy of the same name; but this is the experience I have long had, of mercies and miseries, dark nights and cheerful days, heavy losses and great spiritual gains, sore temptations and seasonable helps; tears and smiles, castings down and liftings up, fits of despair and lively hopes, the powers of unbelief and the triumphs of faith, the heart at times fretting against the Lord, then all at once sweet submission to his will; a glorious time in the pulpit, and the very next time, shut up, barren and dead: a sweet testimony from some poor soul of the Lord’s giving efficacy to the word of his grace, by my message, another comes in directly after, to tell me some one has turned an enemy. Hearing the Lord has blessed some of my poor writings, and presently the Devil has sent the baser sort to blow their horns about the streets, proclaiming my supposed infamy. Perhaps a precious soul-animating letter is sent me, and while reading it, the post-man brings another, filled with the most abominable obscenity, written, no doubt, by an hypocritical professor—one part of the day enjoying the very life and power of religion, the other part lean, barren, and trifling. I could enlarge on this, and fill a volume, but I must inform you I am reading the Pilgrims Progress, and find it very blessed; it is a glass, wherein I see much of the face of my own experience; I intend in many future letters to my friends, to quote and explain a part of it, especially those parts which are the most intricate, and perhaps the least noticed. It is an invaluable book; others have attempted to write similar books, but they are all very inferior to the Tinker’s Master-piece of Piety and Genius. Here I see the chequered scene the Lord generally leads his people through, from conversion to glorification. Here we see the christian burdened and delivered, sighing and singing, on the mount of communion and in the shadow of death, loaded with corruption and pardoned by blood, condemned and justified, happy and miserable, meeting a few real pilgrims and plenty of hypocrites, fighting and fainting, rising and falling, yet kept, sanctified, and assured of glory. Sometimes groaning under a body of death, then soaring with the wings of a dove; brought out of self and living by faith, on the person and love, the work and grace of Christ. I trust you will be led to seek Jesus the Pearl of great Price—never rest till you have found him, for it is life eternal to be favored with an experimental knowledge of him. May your heart be led from every thing else, and fixed there alone; that you may know and enjoy all that is implied in this greatest of texts, “For thy Maker is thy husband, the Lord of Hosts is his name.”