Monday, August 5, 1754.
My dear ****,
YOU are indeed a great stranger; sure you might contrive to call, though it were but for half an hour.—I am glad you heard Mr. ****; for to hear him and to profit, to a sincere soul is the same thing. I thank God too, that you are in so happy a state of mind, and your soul so charmingly alive to God; that you seem so much in love with holiness, and so eagerly pressing after it in all its branches: depend upon it, for every degree of holiness you gain here, you will also gain a new degree of happiness both here and hereafter. The nearer the soul is to the image of Christ, the more it will love him, and the more it will be loved by him, and by the Father through him: and this love is the highest felicity both of saints and angels. Imperfect (in degree) as it is here below, the soul that tastes it, would not change it for all that earth or heaven could give. And what then must it be above in the kingdom of eternal glory! Where the soul, delivered from this earthly clog, will have no hindrances or obstructions to the pure love of God, but will be wholly swallowed up in it.
Your **** gave me an account of your yesterday’s conversation: I congratulate you that you can so boldly and judiciously too, speak for the truth. I pray God to increase you in every good word and work, and am,
Your ever-affectionate Friend,
****
My dear ****,
I RETURN you many thanks for your letter. Just before I received it I was thinking of you, and to tell you the truth, with some fear, (occasioned by your long absence) either that you were grown cold to me, or, what was infinitely worse, were grown cold to the ways of God. But your letter dispelled all my fears, and I rejoice and give thanks to our heavenly Father for his great and manifold mercies to your soul!—I wish I could have seen you often in your last illness, but that you know was impossible: however, the small time I was with you gave me the utmost satisfaction, and I cannot be enough sensible of the goodness of my God, that I (weak and unworthy as I am) should be made an instrument of such increase of comfort to you. Had you then died, you would doubtless now be singing praises to God and the Lamb; but as you are suffered to continue longer upon earth, it is to this end, that you should approve yourself a faithful servant to God, in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation, that you should shine as a light in the world, and by spending yourself in the service of God here, increase your capacity of happiness hereafter. God is merciful to you in a peculiar manner. To be kept as you are, when so much engaged in business, and with so few opportunities of attending the means of grace, calls for the utmost gratitude; therefore let no occasion pass of shewing your love to that Redeemer, who has thus saved you from sin and the love of the world. All you can do, is by far too small a return for such unbounded goodness. Your present state of mind is a glorious and happy one indeed; but suffer not yourself to be off your watch for one moment, for Satan is always watching to hurt a soul that is thus happily escaped from his snare. But your certain help lies in Christ; keep therefore the eye of the mind fixed upon him, and you will still go on conquering, and to conquer.