CLXXXVI.--_To_ ROBERT STUART.
[This ROBERT STUART was probably the son of Provost Stuart of
Ayr, to whom several letters are addressed. Allusion is made to
his early conversion.]
(_CHRIST CHOOSES HIS OWN IN THE FURNACE--NEED OF A DEEP WORK--THE
GOD-MAN, A WORLD'S WONDER._)
MY VERY DEAR BROTHER,--Grace, mercy, and peace be to you. Ye are
heartily welcome to my world of suffering, and heartily welcome to my
Master's house. God give you much joy of your new Master. If I have
been in the house before you, I were not faithful to give the house an
ill name, or to speak evil of the Lord of the family; I rather wish
God's Holy Spirit (O Lord, breathe upon me with that Spirit!), to tell
you the fashions of the house (Ezek. xliii. 11). One thing I can say,
by on-waiting ye will grow a great man with the Lord of the house.
Hang on till ye get some good from Christ. Lay all your loads and your
weights by faith upon Christ; take ease to yourself, and let Him bear
all. He can, He dow,[299] He will bear you, howbeit hell were upon
your back. I rejoice that He is come, and hath chosen you in the
furnace; it was even there where ye and He set tryst. That is an old
gate of Christ's: He keepeth the good old fashion with you, that was
in Hosea's days: "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her
into the wilderness, and speak to her heart" (Hos. ii. 14, margin).
There was no talking to her heart, while He and she were in the fair
and flourishing city, and at ease; but out in the cold, hungry, waste
wilderness, He allured her, He whispered news into her ear there, and
said, "Thou art Mine." What would ye think of such a bode? Ye may soon
do worse than say, "Lord, hold all; Lord Jesus, a bargain be it, it
shall not go back on my side."
[299] Should we not read "_doth_?"
Ye have gotten a great advantage in the way of heaven, that ye have
started to the gate in the morning. Like a fool, as I was, I suffered
my sun to be high in the heaven, and near afternoon, before ever I
took the gate by the end. I pray you now keep the advantage ye have.
My heart, be not lazy; set quickly up the brae on hands and feet, as
if the last pickle of sand were running out of your glass, and death
were coming to turn the glass. And be very careful to take heed to
your feet, in that slippery and dangerous way of youth that ye are
walking in. The devil and temptations now have the advantage of the
brae of you, and are upon your wand-hand, and your working-hand. Dry
timber will soon take fire. Be covetous and greedy of the grace of
God, and beware that it be not a holiness which cometh only from the
cross; for too many are that way disposed. "When He slew them, then
they sought Him, and they returned and inquired early after God."
"Nevertheless, they did flatter Him with their mouth, and they lied
unto Him with their tongues" (Ps. lxxviii. 34, 36). It is part of our
hypocrisy, to give God fair, white words,[300] when He hath us in His
grips (if I may speak so), and to flatter Him till He win to the fair
fields again. Try well green godliness, and examine what it is that ye
love in Christ. If ye love but Christ's sunny side, and would have
only summer weather and a land-gate, not a sea-way to heaven, your
profession will play you a slip, and the winter-well will go dry again
in summer.
[300] Plausible speeches.
Make no sport nor bairn's play of Christ; but labour for a sound and
lively sight of sin, that ye may judge yourself an undone man, a
damned slave of hell and of sin, one dying in your own blood, except
Christ come and rue upon you, and take you up. And therefore, make
sure and fast work of conversion. Cast the earth deep; and down, down
with the old work, the building of confusion, that was there before;
and let Christ lay new work, and make a new creation within you. Look
if Christ's rain goeth down to the root of your withered plants, and
if His love wound your heart whill it bleed with sorrow for sin, and
if ye can pant and fall aswoon, and be like to die for that lovely
one, Jesus. I know that Christ will not be hid where He is; grace will
ever speak for itself, and be fruitful in well-doing. The sanctified
cross is a fruitful tree; it bringeth forth many apples.
If I should tell you by some weak experience, what I have found in
Christ, ye or others could hardly believe me. I thought not the
hundredth part of Christ long since, that I do now, though, alas! my
thoughts are still infinitely below His worth. I have a dwining,
sickly, and pained life, for a real possession of Him; and am troubled
with love-brashes and love-fevers; but it is a sweet pain. I would
refuse no conditions, not hell excepted (reserving always God's
hatred), to buy possession of Jesus. But, alas! I am not a merchant,
who have any money to give for Him: I must either come to a good-cheap
market, where wares are had for nothing, else I go home empty. But I
have casten this work upon Christ to get me Himself. I have His faith,
and truth, and promise, as a pawn of His, all engaged that I shall
obtain that which my hungry desires would be at; and I esteem that the
choice of my happiness. And for Christ's cross, especially the garland
and flower of all crosses, to suffer for His name, I esteem it more
than I can write or speak to you. And I write it under mine own hand
to you, that it is one of the steps of the ladder up to our country;
and Christ (whoever be one) is still at the heavy end of this black
tree, and so it is but as a feather to me. I need not run at
leisure,[301] because of a burden on my back; my back never bare the
like of it; the more heavily crossed for Christ, the soul is still the
lighter for the journey.
[301] I am not obliged to run slowly.
Now, would to God that all cold-blooded, faint-hearted soldiers of
Christ would look again to Jesus, and to His love; and when they look,
I would have them to look again and again, and fill themselves with
beholding of Christ's beauty; and I dare say then that Christ would
come into great court and request with many. The virgins would flock
fast about the Bridegroom; they would embrace and take hold of Him,
and not let Him go. But when I have spoken of Him, till my head rive,
I have said just nothing. I may begin again. A Godhead, a Godhead is a
world's wonder. Set ten thousand thousand new-made worlds of angels
and elect men, and double them in number, ten thousand, thousand,
thousand times; let their heart and tongues be ten thousand thousand
times more agile and large, than the heart and tongues of the seraphim
that stand with six wings before Him (Isa. vi. 2), when they have said
all for the glorifying and praising of the Lord Jesus, they have but
spoken little or nothing; His love will abide all possible creatures
praise. Oh, if I could wear this tongue to the stump, in extolling His
highness! But it is my daily-growing sorrow, that I am confounded with
His incomparable love, and that He doeth so great things for my soul,
and hath got never yet anything of me worth the speaking of. Sir, I
charge you, help me to praise Him; it is a shame to speak of what He
hath done for me, and what I do to Him again. I am sure that Christ
hath many drowned dyvours[302] in heaven beside Him; and when we are
convened, man and angel, at the great day, in that fair last meeting,
we are all but His drowned dyvours: it is hard to say who oweth Him
most. If men could do no more, I would have them to wonder: if ye
cannot be filled with Christ's love, we may be filled with wondering.
[302] Drowned over head and ears in His debt.
Sir, I would that I could persuade you to grow sick for Christ, and to
long after Him, and be pained with love for Himself. But His tongue is
in heaven who can do it. To Him and His rich grace I recommend you.