_P.S._--MISTRESS,--I had not time to give my advice to your daughter
Grizel; you shall carry my words therefore to her. Show her now, that
in respect of her tender age, she is in a manner as clean paper, ready
to receive either good or ill; and that it were a sweet and glorious
thing for her to give herself up to Christ, that He may write upon her
His Father's name, and His own new name. And desire her to acquaint
herself with the Book of God; the promises that our Lord writes upon
His own, and performeth in them and for them, are contained there. I
persuade you, when I think that she is in the company of such parents,
and hath occasion to learn Christ, I think Christ is wooing her soul;
and I pray God she may not refuse such a husband. And therefore I
charge her, and beseech her by the mercies of God, by the wounds and
blood of Him who died for her, by the word of truth, which she
heareth, and can read, by the coming of the Son of God to judge the
world, that she would fulfil your joy, and learn Christ, and walk in
Christ. She shall think this the truth of God many years after this;
and I will promise to myself, in respect of the beginnings that I have
seen, that she shall give herself to Him that gave Himself for her.
Let her begin at prayer; for if she remember her Creator in the days
of her youth, He will claim kindness to her in her old age. It shall
be a part of my prayers, that this may be effectual in her, by Him who
is able to do exceeding abundantly, to whose grace again I recommend
you, and her, and all yours.
XLII.--_To my_ LADY KENMURE.
(_THE WORLD PASSETH AWAY--SPECIAL PORTIONS OF THE WORD FOR THE
AFFLICTED--CALL TO KIRKCUDBRIGHT._)
MADAM,--The cause of my not writing to your Ladyship was not my
forgetfulness of you, but the want of the opportunity of a convenient
bearer; for I am under more than a simple obligation to be kind (on
paper, at least) to your Ladyship. I bless our Lord, through Christ,
who hath brought you home again to your own country from that
place,[132] where ye have seen with your eyes that which our Lord's
truth taught you before, to wit, that worldly glory is nothing but a
vapour, a shadow, the foam of the water, or something less and
lighter, even nothing; and that our Lord hath not without cause said
in His Word, "The countenance," or fashion, "of this world passeth
away" (1 Cor. vii. 31)--in which place our Lord compareth it to an
image in a looking-glass, for it is the looking-glass of Adam's sons.
Some come to the glass, and see in it the picture of _honour_,--and
but a picture indeed, for true honour is to be great in the sight of
God; and others see in it the shadow of _riches_,--and but a shadow
indeed, for durable riches stand as one of the maids of Wisdom upon
her left hand (Prov. iii. 16); and a third sort see in it the face of
painted _pleasures_, and the beholders will not believe but the image
they see in this glass is a living man, till the Lord come and break
the glass in pieces and remove the face, and then, like Pharaoh
awakened, they say, "And behold it was a dream." I know your Ladyship
thinketh yourself little in the common of this world, for the
favourable aspect of any of these three painted faces; and blessed be
our Lord that it is so. The better for you, Madam; they are not worthy
to be wooers, to suit in marriage your soul, that look to no higher
match than to be married upon painted clay. Know, therefore, Madam,
the place whither our Lord Jesus cometh to woo a bride, it is even in
the furnace: for if ye be one of Zion's daughters (which I ever put
beyond all question, since I first had occasion to see in your
Ladyship such pregnant evidences of the grace of God), the Lord, who
hath His fire in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem (Isa. xxxi. 9), is
purifying you in the furnace. And therefore be content to live in it,
and every day to be adding and sewing-to a pasment to your wedding
garment, that ye may be at last decored and trimmed as a bride for
Christ, a bride of His own busking, beautified in the hidden man of
the heart. "Forgetting your father's house, so shall the King greatly
desire your beauty" (Psalm xlv. 11). If your Ladyship be not changed
(as I hope ye are not), I believe ye esteem yourself to be of those
whom God hath tried these many years, and refined as silver. But,
Madam, I will show your Ladyship a privilege that others want, and ye
have, in this case. Such as are in prosperity, and are fatted with
earthly joys, and increased with children and friends, though the Word
of God is indeed written to such for their instruction, yet to you,
who are in trouble (spare me, Madam, to say this), from whom the Lord
hath taken many children, and whom He hath exercised otherwise, there
are some chapters, some particular promises in the Word of God, made
in a most special manner, which should never have been yours, so as
they now are, if you had your portion in this life, as others. And,
therefore, all the comforts, promises, and mercies God offereth to the
afflicted, they are as so many love-letters written to you. Take them
to you, Madam, and claim your right, and be not robbed. It is no small
comfort, that God hath written some scriptures to you, which He hath
not written to others. Ye seem rather in this to be envied than
pitied; and ye are indeed in this, like people of another world, and
those that are above the ordinary rank of mankind, whom our King and
Lord, our Bridegroom Jesus, in His love-letter to His well-beloved
spouse, hath named beside all the rest. He hath written comforts and
His hearty commendations in the 54th of Isaiah, 4, 5; Psalm cxlvii. 2,
3, to you. Read these and the like, and think your God is like a
friend that sendeth a letter to a whole house and family, but speaketh
in His letter to some by name, that are dearest to Him in the house.
Ye are, then, Madam, of the dearest friends of the Bridegroom. If it
were lawful, I would envy you, that God honoured you so above many of
His dear children. Therefore, Madam, your part is, in this case
(seeing God taketh nothing from you but that which He is to supply
with His own presence), to desire your Lord to know His own room, and
take it even upon Him to come in, in the room of dead children.
"Jehovah, know Thy own place, and take it to Thee," is all ye have to
say.
[132] Edinburgh.
Madam, I persuade myself that this world is to you an unco inn; and
that ye are like a traveller, who hath his bundle upon his back, and
his staff in his hand, and his feet upon the door-threshold. Go
forward, honourable and elect lady, in the strength of your Lord (let
the world bide at home and keep the house), with your face toward Him,
who longeth more for a sight of you than ye can do for Him. Ere it be
long, He will see us. I hope to see you laugh as cheerfully after
noon, as ye have mourned before noon. The hand of the Lord, the hand
of the Lord be with you in your journey. What have ye to do here? This
is not your mountain of rest. Arise, then, and set your foot up the
mountain; go up out of the wilderness, leaning upon the shoulder of
your Beloved (Song viii. 5). If ye knew the welcome that abideth you
when ye come home, ye would hasten your pace; for ye shall see your
Lord put up His own holy hand to your face, and wipe all tears from
your eyes; and I trow, then ye shall have some joy of heart.
Madam, paper willeth me to end before affection. Remember the estate
of Zion; pray that Jerusalem may be as Zechariah prophesied, "a
burdensome stone for all" (Zech. xii. 3), that whosoever boweth down
to roll the stone out of the way, may hurt and break the joints of
their back, and strain their arms, and disjoint their shoulder-blades.
And pray Jehovah that the stone may lie still in its own place, and
keep band with the cornerstone. I hope it shall be so; He is a skilled
Master-builder who laid it.
I would, Madam, under great heaviness be refreshed with two lines from
your Ladyship, which I refer to your own wisdom. Madam, I would seem
undutiful not to show you, that great solicitation is made by the town
of Kirkcudbright for to have the use of my poor labours amongst them.
If the Lord shall call, and His people cry, who am I to resist? But
without His seen calling, and till the flock whom I now oversee be
planted with one to whom I dare intrust Christ's spouse, gold nor
silver nor favour of men, I hope, shall not loose me. I leave your
Ladyship, praying more earnestly for grace and mercy to be with you,
and multiplied upon you, here and hereafter, than my pen can express.
The Lord Jesus be with your spirit.
Your Ladyship's at all obedience in the Lord.