ABERDEEN, _March 14, 1637_.
CXLVIII.--_To the_ LADY HALLIHILL.
[LADY HALLIHILL, whose maiden name was Learmonth, was the wife of Sir
James Melville of Hallhill, in Fife, the son of Sir James Melville of
Hallhill, a privy councillor to King James VI., and an accomplished
statesman and courtier in his day, who died in 1617. (Douglas'
"Peerage," vol. ii.) Consequently, this lady was sister-in-law to Lady
Culross, formerly noticed. Livingstone, who was personally acquainted
with her, describes her as "eminent for grace and gifts;" and whose
"memory was very precious and refreshing" to him.]
(_CHRIST'S CROSSES BETTER THAN EGYPT'S TREASURES_.)
DEAR AND CHRISTIAN LADY,--Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.--I longed
much to write to your Ladyship; but now, the Lord offering a fit
occasion, I would not omit to do it.
I cannot but acquaint your Ladyship with the kind dealing of Christ
to my soul, in this house of my pilgrimage, that your Ladyship may
know that He is as good as He is called. For at my first entry into
this trial (being casten down and troubled with challenges and
jealousies of His love, whose name and testimony I now bear in my
bonds), I feared nothing more than that I was casten over the dyke of
the vineyard, as a dry tree. But, blessed be His great name, the dry
tree was in the fire, and was not burnt; His dew came down and
quickened the root of a withered plant. And now He is come again with
joy, and hath been pleased to feast His exiled and afflicted prisoner
with the joy of His consolations. Now I weep, but am not sad; I am
chastened, but I die not; I have loss, but I want nothing; this water
cannot drown me, this fire cannot burn me, because of the good-will of
Him that dwelt in The Bush. The worst things of Christ, His
reproaches, His cross, are better than Egypt's treasures. He hath
opened His door, and taken into His house-of-wine a poor sinner, and
hath left me so sick of love for my Lord Jesus, that if heaven were at
my disposing, I would give it for Christ, and would not be content to
go to heaven, except I were persuaded that Christ were there. I would
not give, nor exchange, my bonds for the prelates' velvets; nor my
prison for their coaches; nor my sighs for all the world's laughter.
This clay-idol, the world, hath no great court in my soul. Christ hath
come and run away to heaven with my heart and my love, so that neither
heart nor love is mine: I pray God, that Christ may keep both without
reversion. In my estimation, as I am now disposed, if my part of this
world's clay were rouped and sold, I would think it dear of a drink of
water. I see Christ's love is so kingly, that it will not abide a
marrow; it must have a throne all alone in the soul. And I see that
apples beguile bairns, howbeit they be worm-eaten. The moth-eaten
pleasures of this present world make bairns believe ten is a hundred,
and yet all that are here are but shadows. If they would draw by the
curtain that is hung betwixt them and Christ, they should see
themselves fools who have so long miskenned the Son of God. I seek no
more, next to heaven, than that He may be glorified in a prisoner of
Christ; and that in my behalf many would praise His high and glorious
name who heareth the sighing of the prisoner.
Remember my service to the laird, your husband; and to your son, my
acquaintance. I wish that Christ had his young love, and that in the
morning he would start to the gate, to seek that which the world
knoweth not, and, therefore, doth not seek it.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Yours, in his sweet Lord Jesus,