XXVI.--_For_ MARION M'NAUGHT, _after her dangerous illness_.
(_USE OF SICKNESS--REPROACHES--CHRIST OUR ETERNAL FEAST--FASTING._)
DEARLY-BELOVED MISTRESS,--My love in Christ remembered. You are not
ignorant what our Lord in His love-visitation hath been doing with
your soul, even letting you see a little sight of that dark trance you
must go through ere you come to glory. Your life hath been near the
grave, and you were at the door, and you found the door shut and fast:
your dear Christ thinking it not time to open these gates to you till
you have fought some longer in His camp. And therefore He willeth you
to put on your armour again, and to take no truce with the devil or
this present world. You are little obliged to any of the two; but I
rejoice in this, that when any of the two comes to suit your soul in
marriage, you have an answer in readiness to tell them,--"You are too
long a-coming; I have many a year since promised my soul to another,
even to my dearest Lord Jesus, to whom I must be true." And therefore
you are come back to us again to help us to pray for Christ's fair
bride, a marrow dear to Him.
Be not cast down in heart to hear that the world barketh at Christ's
strangers, both in Ireland and in this land; they do it because their
Lord hath chosen them out of this world. And this is one of our Lord's
reproaches, to be hated and ill-entreated by men. The silly stranger,
in an uncouth country, must take with a smoky inn and coarse cheer, a
hard bed, and a barking, ill-tongued host. It is not long to the day,
and he will to his journey upon the morrow, and leave them all.
Indeed, our fair morning is at hand, the day-star is near the rising,
and we are not many miles from home. What matters ill entertainment in
the smoky inns of this miserable life? We are not to stay here, and we
will be dearly welcome to Him whom we go to. And I hope, when I shall
see you clothed in white raiment, washed in the blood of the Lamb, and
shall see you even at the elbow of your dearest Lord and Redeemer, and
a crown upon your head, and following our Lamb and lovely Lord
whithersoever He goeth,--you will think nothing of all these days; and
you shall then rejoice, and no man shall take your joy from you. It is
certain there is not much sand to run in your Lord's sand-glass, and
that day is at hand; and till then your Lord in this life is giving
you some little feasts.
It is true, you see Him not now as you shall see Him then. Your
well-beloved standeth now behind the wall looking out at the window
(Cant. ii. 9), and you see but a little of His face. Then, you shall
see all His face and all the Saviour,--a long, and high, and broad
Lord Jesus, the loveliest person among the children of men. O joy of
joys, that our souls know there is such a great supper preparing for
us even! Howbeit we be but half-hungered of Christ here, and many a
time dine behind noon,[121] yet the supper of the Lamb will come in
time, and will be set before us before we famish and lose our
stomachs. You have cause to hold up your heart in remembrance and hope
of that fair, long summer day; for in this night of your life, wherein
you are in the body absent from the Lord, Christ's fair moonlight in
His word and sacraments, in prayer, feeling, and holy conference, hath
shined upon you, to let you see the way to the city. I confess our
diet here is but sparing; we get but tastings of our Lord's comforts;
but the cause of that is not because our Steward, Jesus, is a niggard,
and narrow-hearted, but because our stomachs are weak, and we are
narrow-hearted. But the great feast is coming, and the chambers of
them made fair and wide to take in the great Lord Jesus. Come in,
then, Lord Jesus, to hungry souls gaping for thee! In this journey
take the Bridegroom as you may have Him, and be greedy of His smallest
crumbs; but, dear Mistress, buy none of Christ's delicates-spiritual
with sin, or fasting against your weak body. Remember you are in the
body, and it is the lodging-house; and you may not, without offending
the Lord, suffer the old walls of that house to fall down through want
of necessary food. Your body is the dwelling-house of the Spirit; and
therefore, for the love you carry to the sweet Guest, give a due
regard to His house of clay. When He looseth the wall, why not?
Welcome Lord Jesus! But it is a fearful sin in us, by hurting the body
by fasting, to loose one stone or the least piece of timber in it, for
the house is not our own. The Bridegroom is with you yet; so fast as
that also you may feast and rejoice in Him. I think upon your
magistrates; but He that is clothed in linen, and hath the writer's
inkhorn by His side, hath written up their names in heaven already.
Pray and be content with His will; God hath a council-house in heaven,
and the end will be mercy unto you. For the planting of your town with
a godly minister, have your eye upon the Lord of the harvest. I dare
promise you, God in this life shall fill your soul with the fatness of
His house, for your care to see Christ's bairns fed. And your
posterity shall know it, to whom[122] I pray for mercy, and that they
may get a name amongst the living in Jerusalem; and if God portion
them with His bairns, their rent is fair, and I hope it shall be so.
The Lord Jesus be with your spirit.
Yours ever in Christ,