CCCLXV.--_To MR. JOHN MURRAY, Minister at Methven._[528] [See Letter
CCCLVI.]
[528] From the original among the Wodrow MSS. vol. xxvii. fol. No. 18.
(_PROPOSAL OF A SEASON OF PRAYER_.)
REVEREND AND DEAR BROTHER,--If I rightly apprehend our condition, we
are in a way of declining. We were, within these few years, more in
the conscionable use of means, and the Lord did shine upon us in some
measure; and now we are fallen from that which we were. It is judged
fit by some (and many of our solidest professors) that if we cannot
have them in congregations, yet families and private persons may have
days of humiliation, at least the last Wednesday of every month or
thereabout, according to the best conveniency of Providence. And if
this were gone about in your country, and in Stirlingshire, Fife, in
Merse, Teviotdale, the West, in Nithsdale and Galloway, and other
places, it would prove our strength and help; for we are few and very
low. Our adversaries are not idle; and there is a faintness and
heartless discouragement on the spirits of many. These are to entreat
that you would combine with Mr. Robert Campbell,[529] Mr. John
Cruickshanks,[530] and other of our brethren in your bounds, to stir
up one another that we may wrestle with the Lord for the remnant. I am
confident the Lord will yet be inquired of us for this. Though the
same particular day be not observed, yet, where many are on work, some
salvation from the Lord's arm is to be expected. I am decaying most
sensibly, and I should look on it as a mercy if the Lord would send a
wakening among His own. And blessed shall he be who shall blow the
trumpet to cause other sleeping ones awake, and shall help to build
the wastes, and the fallen tabernacle of David. I shall earnestly
desire you do bestir yourself herein.[531] I shall write to J----, and
to others here, and do the best I can to give you a convenient
account; for nothing is left to us but that.
[529] The minister to whom Letter CCCLXIII. is addressed.
[530] Mr. John Crookshanks (as Wodrow spells the name), minister of
Redgorton, in the Presbytery of Perth. He afterwards followed those
who fought at Pentland Hills, in 1665, and was killed in the battle.
[531] Is not this the very spirit of 2 Pet. i. 13, 14, "Yea, I think
it meet to stir you up, by putting you in remembrance; knowing that
shortly I must put off this my tabernacle"?
So remembering me to your wife, and expecting your help, I rest,
Your own brother,