(_GODLY COUNSELS--FOLLOWING CHRIST._)
DEAR FRIEND,--I forget you not. It will be my joy that ye follow after
Christ till ye find Him. My conscience is a feast of joy to me, that I
fought in singleness of heart, for Christ's love, to put you upon the
King's highway to our Bridegroom, and our Father's house. Thrice
blessed are ye, my dear brother, if ye hold the way.
I believe that ye and Christ once met; I hope ye will not sunder with
Him. Follow the counsel of the man of God, Mr. William Dalgleish. If
ye depart from what I taught you in a hair-breadth, for fear or favour
of men, or desire of ease in this world, I take heaven and earth to
witness that ill shall come upon you in the end. Build not your nest
here. This world is a hard, ill-made bed; no rest is in it for your
soul. Awake, awake, and make haste to seek that Pearl, Christ, that
this world seeth not. Your night and your Master Christ will be upon
you within a clap; your hand-breadth of time will not bide you. Take
Christ, howbeit a storm follow Him. Howbeit this day be not yours and
Christ's, the morrow will be yours and His. I would not exchange the
joy of my bonds and imprisonment for Christ, with all the joy of this
dirty and foul-skinned world. I have a love-bed with Christ, and am
filled with His love.
I desire your wife to do what I write to you. Let her remember how
dear Christ will be to her, when her breath turneth cold, and the
eye-strings shall break. Oh, how joyful should my soul be, to know
that I had brought on a marriage betwixt Christ and that people, few
or many! If it be not so, I shall be wo to be a witness against them.
Use prayer: love not the world: be humble, and esteem little of
yourself. Love your enemies, and pray for them. Make conscience of
speaking truth, when none knoweth but God. I never eat, but I pray for
you all. Pray for me. Ye and I shall see one another up in our
Father's house. I rejoice to hear that your eye is upon Christ. Follow
on, hing on, and quit Him not. The Lord Jesus be with your spirit.
Your affectionate brother, in our Lord Jesus,