CCII.--_To the_ LAIRD OF CALLY.
(_YOUTH A PRECIOUS SEASON--CHRIST'S BEAUTY._)
WORTHY SIR,--Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.--I have been too long,
I confess, in writing to you. My suit now to you, in paper, since I
have no access to speak to you as formerly, is, that ye would lay the
foundation sure in your youth. When ye begin to seek Christ, try, I
pray you, upon what terms ye covenant to follow Him, and lay your
account what it may cost you; that neither summer nor winter, nor well
nor woe, may cause you change your Master, Christ. Keep fair to Him,
and be honest and faithful, that He find not a crack in you. Surely ye
are now in the throng of temptations. When youth is come to its
fairest bloom, then the devil, and the lusts of a deceiving world, and
sin, are upon horseback, and follow with upsails. If this were not so,
Paul needeth not to have written to a sanctified and holy youth,
Timothy (a faithful preacher of the Gospel), to flee the lusts of
youth. Give Christ your virgin love; you cannot put your love and
heart into a better hand. Oh! if ye knew Him, and saw His beauty, your
love, your liking, your heart, your desires, would close with Him, and
cleave to Him. Love, by nature, when it seeth, cannot but cast out its
spirit and strength upon amiable objects, and good things, and things
love-worthy; and what fairer thing than Christ? O fair sun, and fair
moon, and fair stars, and fair flowers, and fair roses, and fair
lilies, and fair creatures; but O ten thousand thousand times fairer
Lord Jesus! Alas, I wronged Him in making the comparison this way! O
black sun and moon, but O fair Lord Jesus! O black flowers, and black
lilies and roses, but O fair, fair, ever fair Lord Jesus! O all fair
things black and deformed, without beauty, when ye are beside that
fairest Lord Jesus! O black heaven, but O fair Christ! O black angels,
but surpassingly fair Lord Jesus! I would seek no more to make me
happy for evermore, but a thorough and clear sight of the beauty of
Jesus, my Lord. Let my eyes enjoy His fairness, and stare Him for ever
in the face, and I have all that can be wished. Get Christ rather than
gold or silver; seek Christ, howbeit ye should lose all things for
Him.
They take their marks by the moon,[315] and look asquint, in looking
to fair Christ, who resolve for the world and their ease, and for
their honour, and court, and credit, or for fear of losses and a sore
skin, to turn their backs upon Christ and His truth. Alas, how many
blind eyes and squint lookers look this day in Scotland upon Christ's
beauty, and they see a spot in Christ's fair face! Alas, they are not
worthy of Christ who look this way upon Him, and see no beauty in Him
why they should desire Him! God send me my fill of His beauty, if it
be possible that my soul can be full of His beauty here. But much of
Christ's beauty needeth not abate the eager appetite of a soul (sick
of love for Himself) to see Him in the other world, where He is seen
as He is.
[315] A proverb for being changeable, or for judging by imperfect
evidence.
I am glad, with all my heart, that ye have given your greenest
morning-age to this Lord Jesus. Hold on, and weary not; faint not.
Resolve upon suffering for Christ; but fear not ten days' tribulation,
for Christ's sour cross is sugared with comforts, and hath a taste of
Christ Himself. I esteem it to be my glory, my joy, and my crown, and
I bless Him for this honour, to be yoked with Christ, and married to
Him in suffering, who therefore was born, and therefore came into the
world, that He might bear witness to the truth. Take pains, above all
things, for salvation; for without running, fighting, sweating,
wrestling, heaven is not taken. Oh, happy soul, that crosseth nature's
stomach, and delighteth to gain that fair garland and crown of glory!
What a feckless loss is it for you to go through this wilderness, and
never taste sin's sugared pleasures! What poorer is a soul to want
pride, lust, love of the world, and the vanities of this vain and
worthless world? Nature hath no cause to weep at the want of such toys
as these. Esteem it your gain to be an heir of glory. Oh, but this is
an eye-look to a fair rent! The very hope of heaven, under troubles,
is like wind and sails to the soul, and like wings, when the feet come
out of the snare. Oh, for what stay we here? Up, up, after our Lord
Jesus! This is not our rest, nor our dwelling. What have we to do in
this prison, except only to take meat and house-room in it for a time?
Grace, grace be with you.
Your soul's well-wisher, and Christ's prisoner,