CCLI.--_To the_ LADY DUNGUEICH.
[LADY DUNGEUCH, or DUNGUEICH, was sister to _Marion M'Naught_,
for her own name was _Sarah M'Naught_, and she is mentioned in
the Registers as "second heir to her father, _John M'Naught of
Kilquhannady_" [or Kilquhanatie (Letter V.)], "on 31st March
1646, in the three merk lands of Dumgeuich, in Lanarkshire." She
married Samuel Lockhart, merchant burgess in Edinburgh.
Near the Bridge of Deach, two miles from Carsphairn, not far from
Earlston, there is the poor ruin of an old _Dundeuch_ castle on
the roadside, mentioned in the life of John Semple. But that is
not the same place, though resembling it in sound. The _Gordons_
of Dengeuch (a branch of the Lochinvar family) were no doubt
connected.]
(_JESUS OR THE WORLD--SCOTLAND'S TRIALS AND HOPES._)
MISTRESS,--I long to hear from you, and how you go on with Christ. I
am sure that Christ and you once met. I pray you to fasten your grips.
There is holding and drawing, and much sea-way to heaven, and we are
often sea-sick; but the voyage is so needful, that we must on any
terms take shipping with Christ. I believe it is a good country which
we are going to, and there is ill lodging in this smoky house of the
world, in which we are yet living. Oh, that we should love smoke so
well, and clay that holdeth our feet fast! It were our happiness to
follow after Christ, and to anchor ourselves upon the Rock in the
upper side of the vail. Christ and Satan are now drawing to parties.
And they are blind who see not Scotland divided into two camps, and
Christ coming out with His white banner of love; and He hangeth that
over the heads of His soldiers. And the other captain, the Dragon, is
coming out with a great black flag, and crieth, "The world, the world!
ease, honour, and a whole skin, and a soft couch." And there lie they,
and leave Christ to fend for Himself!
My counsel is, that ye come out and leave the multitude, and let
Christ have your company. Let them take clay and this present world
who love it. Christ is a more worthy and noble portion: blessed are
those who get Him. It is good, ere the storm rise, to make ready all,
and to be prepared to go to the camp with Christ, seeing He will not
keep the house, nor sit at the fireside with couchers. A shower for
Christ is little enough. Oh, I find all too little for Him! Wo, wo, wo
is me, that I have no propine for my Lord Jesus. My love is so
feckless, that it is a shame to offer it to Him! Oh, if it were as
broad as heaven, as deep as the sea, I would gladly bestow it upon
Him! I persuade you, that God is wringing grapes of red wine for
Scotland; and that this land shall drink, and spue and fall. His
enemies shall drink the thick of it, and the grounds[365] of it. But
Scotland's withered tree shall blossom again; and Christ shall make a
second marriage with her, and take home His wife out of the furnace.
But, if our eyes shall see it, He knoweth who hath created time. Grace
be with you.
Yours, in his sweet Lord Jesus,